For the first time since the death of former President Jimmy Carter, supporters of the Carter Center are gathering this weekend in West Virginia for their annual fundraising retreat.
They gather not in mourning, but in reflection, gratitude, and renewed commitment to the global health and human rights work he championed for decades at his large namesake nonprofit.
“This won’t be a sad occasion,” said Jay Beck, a longtime Carter associate who managed the weekend event for more than two decades. “President Carter’s decline was gradual, and so was his stepping back. There was time to say goodbye — and time to prepare ourselves to carry on.”
Carter, the 39th President of the United States, died on Dec. 29, 2024, at his home in Plains, at the age of 100. His wife, Rosalynn Carter, who cofounded the Atlanta-based nonprofit with him in the early 1980s, died in 2023.
“This whole event is a tribute to President and Mrs. Carter’s legacy,” said Curtis Kohlhaas, the Carter Center’s chief development officer. “But it’s not a memorial. It’s about the work — the global mission they gave us and the energy they brought to it.”
Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
The couple last attended a Carter Center Weekend in 2019 during the first Donald Trump administration.
Carter made political headlines at that retreat when he said he believed Trump would not have won the 2016 presidential election without Russian help. He also sharply criticized Trump’s border policies, calling them “disgraceful” and accusing Trump of ordering the “torture” and “kidnapping” of children.
Credit: C-SPAN
Credit: C-SPAN
Since the early 1990s, the annual Carter Center Weekend has brought together more than 300 friends, donors, and supporters each summer in a different U.S. city.
With a blend of panels, policy briefings, music, games, and auctions, the weekend is equal parts family reunion, TED Talk, fundraiser, and karaoke bar.
Though the Carters stopped attending because of mounting health issues, their legacy remains embedded in the four-day event, held this year at The Greenbrier, a resort in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia.
On Saturday, the retreat will culminate in the always-spirited live auction featuring more than 150 items — from Carter’s own paintings and personal mementos to autographed musical instruments and luxury vacation packages.
Last year’s auction raised $2.8 million.
Kohlhaas hopes this year’s auction will bring in similar support, helping to fund the Carter Center’s efforts to fight disease, support democracy, and advance peace worldwide.
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Among the most-anticipated auction items this weekend:
• Individual guitars signed by country star Jelly Roll, British pop sensation Duran Duran, the original members of R.E.M., and other music legends.
• A Bob Dylan-signed painting.
• A signed editorial cartoon by Pulitzer Prize-winner Mike Luckovich depicting Rosalynn Carter welcoming her husband at the Pearly Gates.
Credit: Mike Luckovich
Credit: Mike Luckovich
• A fishing rod once owned by Carter with a signed copy of his memoir, “An Outdoor Journal.”
• A photograph signed by 17 former presidents and first ladies — from Bess Truman to Laura and George W. Bush.
• Vacation packages to Hawaii and Mexico.
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
“It’s about connection,” said Kohlhaas, describing the weekend’s evolution as both cultural and civic. “During the day, we have briefings with our field staff and scientists. In the evenings, there’s food, music, and storytelling.”
Kohlhaas said there will also be a quiet moment to honor the Carters’ lives, including a video that was previously shown at several Carter Center condolence gatherings around the world, allowing donors and partners to pay their respects and reflect on the Carters’ lifetime of service.
“We’ve moved from that immediate grief into a state of appreciation,” Kohlhaas said. “Now we feel the charge is on us to pick up the baton.”
For Beck the weekend is also a reunion for a group that helped build the Carter legacy from the ground up — a group that now calls itself COFAD, short for Carter Old Farts Amiable Discussions.
“This group has known each other for almost 50 years,” said Beck, who regularly meets with the former Carter colleagues. “We’ve been in the trenches together — it’s like we went to war together. It’s always good to see them again, and to see that next generation of supporters joining in.”
Credit: Ernie Suggs/AJC
Credit: Ernie Suggs/AJC
Beck, who worked on Carter’s gubernatorial campaign, began working directly on the Carter Center Weekend in the mid-1990s, helping grow the event from a modest fundraiser into the center’s premier annual gathering.
“At first, we might raise a couple hundred thousand,” he said. “Now, it’s millions. But more than that, it’s the spirit of it — the energy, the mission, and the people.”
He and others anticipate that spirit will be alive this weekend as old friends and new donors hop on a chartered Delta jet, swap stories, raise glasses, and bid generously.
“It will be wonderful to see people who I haven’t seen since the funeral, and to have the benefit of a little bit of time passing,” said Kohlhaas, who has been at the Carter Center since 1994. “It enables us all to move past that immediate grief into that state of appreciation — being grateful for all they’ve done, as well as feeling that the charge is on us to pick up the baton and carry on with their mission.”
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