The 2024 George H.W. Bush
Points of Light Awards Celebration

Shrusti Amula, a high school senior from Clarksburg, Maryland, is the founder of Rise N Shine Foundation, a youth-led nonprofit organization dedicated to reducing food waste through composting and food recovery programs. She works with people of all ages and backgrounds through various service campaigns that support causes ranging from hunger to youth activism, focusing on empowering youth volunteers to become leaders.

Amula started her journey of service at the age of seven after realizing the harmful impact of food waste. By age 12, she planned and implemented a composting program adopted by her home state for use in schools. To date, Amula has diverted more than 200,000 pounds of food waste from incinerators to become compost. Her school food recovery program collects students’ uneaten, unopened food that would otherwise be thrown out and instead gives students, especially food shy and food insecure students, extra opportunities to have sources of food throughout the day. The program collects around 9,000 items each month and has been adopted by her county’s public school system, running in all 211 schools.

Outside of schools, her organization rescues surplus food daily from grocery stores and restaurants through food pantries and sandwich assembly projects. Her food recovery programs have provided over 300,000 meals. Both programs’ success inspired Maryland legislators to introduce state bills to establish grant programs to support school composting statewide.

In 2023, Amula was honored as Daily Point of Light honoree #7,461 and a L’Oréal Women of Worth for her outstanding contributions through the Rise N Shine Foundation. In August, she will be a rising freshman at Georgetown University.

A renowned entrepreneur as co-founder of The Home Depot, Arthur M. Blank is now recognized for his values-based Blank Family of Businesses and as one of America’s leading philanthropists. A native of Queens, N.Y. and a Babson College business school graduate, Blank’s philosophy of creating value for companies, customers and communities has led him to be distinguished by Forbes as one of the World’s 100 Greatest Living Business Minds and as one of America’s Top 50 Givers. He was Sports Business Journal’s Sports Executive of the Year in 2018.

Blank believes that a “good company” produces both profit and purpose towards a better world – an idea he developed with his friend Bernie Marcus when they started The Home Depot in 1978 and opened the first two stores in Atlanta. As game-changing business icons, their vision transformed America into a country of empowered do-it-yourselfers while building The Home Depot into the world’s largest home improvement retailer and one of the nation’s most profitable and socially responsible companies.

After leaving The Home Depot as its co-chairman in 2001, Blank began to build his current family of businesses: AMB Sports + Entertainment includes the National Football League Atlanta Falcons, Major League Soccer 2018 champion Atlanta United, America’s largest golf retailer PGA TOUR Superstore, and the state-of-the-art Mercedes-Benz Stadium, home to the Atlanta United and Falcons and host of the 2019 Super Bowl; and AMB West in Montana includes the recently purchased Paradise Valley Ranch, the philanthropic West Creek Ranch, and Mountain Sky Guest Ranch, Travel + Leisure’s Top 10 Resorts in the American West.

While diverse in nature, all these industry-leading businesses operate on six core values developed by Blank that focus on serving people, treating Associates with respect, and supporting communities.

As an early signer of The Giving Pledge, Blank lives his “give back to others” core value by investing the majority of his wealth and time to help people – particularly children – live healthier, more productive lives. He meets this pledge primarily through The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation. Formed in 1995, the Foundation leverages the power of “connected philanthropy” to partner with difference makers and find lasting solutions to complex problems.

Leading synergistic philanthropy for all the socially responsible Blank Family of Businesses, the Foundation has thus far granted $600 million to help underserved people in the challenging arenas of youth development and education, green space growth and conservation, the arts, health and wellness, social justice and democracy, military and veteran support, and community transformation – to include Atlanta’s historic Westside neighborhood.

Blank resides in Atlanta and is the father of six children and has six grandchildren. Consistent with his passion for family, work and community, his favorite T-shirt reads “There is no finish line.” Never settling for today’s best, his legacy of success eyes the next challenge to continue providing extraordinary experiences for customers, fans, guests and Associates while also serving those in need.

Ashley Brown believes that family is a gift and that every child deserves one. Her adoption as an infant changed the trajectory of her life. Ashley grew up in Fort Pierce, Florida in a family that valued a strong work ethic and pursuing your dreams.

From a young age, Ashley rodeoed all over the United States and participated in community projects and organizations. After obtaining a degree in communications from the University of Central Florida, Ashley began a career as a model and spokesperson, winning awards as a speaker for the Future Business Leaders of America. Ashley later launched a successful career in sales and was recognized for her client relationships and career advancement.

In 2015, Ashley and her husband Ed Brown, former CEO of Tequila Patrón, founded Selfless Love Foundation. The nonprofit is dedicated to improving the child welfare system and creating opportunities for more foster children to find their forever families and thrive in adulthood.

Ashley works tirelessly with her team to impact the lives of current and former foster youth. The Florida Coalition for Children gave Ashley the 2019 “Lighting the Way Award” for Selfless Love Foundation’s work in adoptions. The Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute called Ashley, “one of our brightest angels” naming her a 2020 Angels in Adoption Honoree.

Patrick Dempsey can most recently be seen in Michael Mann’s Ferrari where he portrays Piero Taruffi and is featured alongside Adam Driver. Prior to this, he starred in Eli Roth’s horror film Thanksgiving and the Disney+ film Disenchanted, opposite Amy Adams. Other recent credits include the SKY television series “Devils,” and the EPIX mini-series “The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair.”

Dempsey is best known for his portrayal of Dr. Derek Shepherd on the hit ABC series, Grey’s Anatomy from 2005-2015. His performance earned him a 2007 Screen Actors Guild Award and was nominated in 2006 and 2007 for a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Drama. Patrick recently returned for a recurring arc in the 17th season.

Patrick’s production company, Shifting Gears produces content for both film and television. Titles include the Disney feature The Art of Racing in the Rain and The Orchard documentary Hurley.

Patrick’s film credits include: Bridget Jones’s Baby, Transformers: Dark of The Moon, Valentine’s Day, Made of Honor, Enchanted, Freedom Writers, Sweet Home Alabama, Scream 3, With Honors, Outbreak, Hugo Pool, The Treat, The Palace Thief, Heaven Help Us, Happy Together, Some Girls, Coupe De Ville, Run, Mobsters, and In the Mood. Dempsey became well known from such classic ‘80s nostalgia films such as, Can’t Buy Me Love and Loverboy.

Dempsey first appeared onstage as David in the San Francisco production of Torch Song Trilogy.  Other early-stage work included On Golden Pond for the Maine Acting Company, the international touring production of Brighton Beach Memoirs which was directed by Gene Saks and The Subject Was Roses at the Roundabout Theatre in New York.  He also took the stage in The Pasadena Playhouse run of The Importance of Being Earnest as Algernon Moncrieff.

Dempsey was born and raised in Lewiston, Maine. In 2008, with the intention of giving back to the community where he grew up and where his mother first received cancer treatment in 1997, Patrick founded the Dempsey Center to help make life better for people managing the impact of cancer.  Since 2009, Patrick has returned to Lewiston-Auburn every fall for the annual Dempsey Challenge.  The annual fundraiser raises funds, so all services offered by the Center are free of charge. In 2016, Patrick took on an advisory role and in 2018 he became a Dempsey Center board member so he could continue to help support those impacted by cancer.

Dempsey resides in Los Angeles.