About

About The Hop & Mae Adams Foundation

Prior to her death in October, 2009 at the age of 97, Mae Adams founded the Hop & Mae Adams Foundation (“Mae”) in 2008. The Hop & Mae Adams Foundation was set up to be managed by three trustees who were tasked to use their judgment to best assist Carson City. The Trustees have chosen to do so with Mae’s worldview kept in mind. As a daughter of the Great Depression, Mae had a healthy distrust of entitlements and politicians, but strongly believed in a community’s need to pull together. Mae shared her experiences in a conversation with Foundation Trustees:

“Everyone had to work hard together. We all had to help ourselves survive while helping others help themselves. No one could survive the times without helping each other. There were no free handouts, but rather a helping hand up. Hard work and integrity were valued. Simple handouts were viewed as demeaning; they were not expected, and most certainly not demanded.”

The trustees are thus focused on expanding career and job opportunities for the citizens of Carson City, particularly those who struggle most in the job market like our youth and senior citizens. The trustees believe that struggle is present now and will continue in the future without great effort otherwise. Further, much of “Mae” Foundation’s work has been behind the scenes, as Mae was a very quiet private person. She wanted the focus to be on the people of Carson City working together.

The Mission

“The Hop & Mae Adams Foundation will leverage its resources to help the community of Carson City address root issues for sustainable benefit for its citizens.”

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We like to think of Mae’s passion in terms of wanting to help Carson City by providing tools to let people help themselves. The vision goes back to Mae learning to fish as a small child. The act of learning a skill that enabled her to help put food on the table for her family during the Great Depression empowered her and shaped her conviction that people are better helped by being given a hand-up rather than a hand-out.