HOPEx

Investing In Our Community

Lynchburg Beacon of Hope proudly presents HOPEx, our annual live speaker evening of storytelling and inspiration. This year, our narratives explore "The Art of Change. Our storytellers, young and seasoned alike, will share how change redefines our lives, impacts us in profound ways, and creates inspiration throughout our community.

April 4, 2025 | Historic Academy Theatre

Get your tickets now!

About HOPEx

HOPEx is an annual live speaker event held in historic Lynchburg Virginia, designed to highlight the incredible students of Lynchburg and inspire new approaches to topics.

Through HOPEx, we hope to celebrate Beacon's progress in locally advancing equality, expose current barriers to achievement, and foster hope for innovative solutions to equity and access gaps for underserved families.

Guests will leave informed, challenged, and motivated to affect change in our community. Potential speakers include nationally recognized authors, coaches, politicians, as well as local community activists, current students, and Beacon Graduates.

HOPEx Speaker Slate

COMING SOON!
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We are honored to celebrate our 4th annual evening of storytelling event on April 4, 2025 at the Historic Academy Theatre. The evening will include 3 mainstage speakers and 4 Lynchburg City School alumni, as well as emcee Kathleen Davis and the musical stylings of Flat Five Jazz.

Phillip Boykin

PHILLIP BOYKIN (Bass-Baritone) a native of Greenville, SC is a Grammy Award Nominee for the 2019 Tony Award Winning Broadway cast recording of the musical “ONCE ON THIS ISLAND”. He is a TONY Award, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards Nominee for his work as Crown in “THE GERSHWIN’S PORGY AND BESS”. He most recently starred as Hades on Broadway in the award winning "HADESTOWN" production.

Dr. Chris Kukk

Dr. Kukk is the HarperCollins author of The Compassionate Achiever, co-host of The Compassionate Achiever Podcast, Dean of the Cormier Honors College for Citizen Scholars and Professor of Political Science at Longwood University. He is also a Fulbright Scholar, member of Phi Beta Kappa as well as proud husband and father. His research and publications combine neuroscience with the social sciences and focus on understanding how weaving values such as compassion into our learning, civic, and business communities affect levels of financial, intellectual, and social capital.

Daryl Calfee

In his professional life, Daryl Calfee has been an art director, a marketing executive, a community-minded real estate developer, and a damn good mechanic. Then there's his real job: raising two beautiful, creative teenage girls and a room-brightening, monster-truck-loving preschooler. Calfee's life lessons and funny reflections on his early farm life were recently documented in his book Let's Skip the Bullshit: Lessons from Dad after your Mom died.

Emcee, Kathleen Davis

Flat Five Jazz

Thank You To Our Sponsors

Thank you to the incredible sponsors who make the 2025 event possible: Framatome, Centra Health, Innovative Wireless Technologies, Moore and Giles, Jamerson-Lewis Construction, Lynchburg City Schools Education Foundation, and Bank of the James. Thank you to the Lynchburg community for their generous support of Lynchburg Beacon of Hope and HOPEx.

HOPEx Photo Gallery

HOPEx Past Videos

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