Ken Garfield: Echo
Ken Garfield of Charlotte, N.C., has been part of The Echo Foundation from the start. As a reporter for The Charlotte Observer, he covered its creation. As a board member, he helped guide its growth. Now as a freelance writer, he tells the story of Echo and Stephanie Ansaldo, who brought it to life. As Echo looks to build a bridge to the future, we look back on the journey that continues to touch so many lives.
Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel came to Charlotte, North Carolina, in 1997 and implored a gathering of students to stand guard against hate. On the way to the airport afterward, the memoirist whose “Night” has moved generations to tears enjoined his host, “You can’t stop now. You must do more. And I will help you.”
To Stephanie Ansaldo, those words were an assignment she couldn’t turn down. “How do you say no to Elie Wiesel? And that, dear friends, is how The Echo Foundation with Stephanie as founder and president was born. But this is about more than the creation of a nonprofit 27 years ago. It is about the birth of a movement that asks us to help bring human dignity to the darkest corners. That teaches young people to see beyond themselves. That calls upon all of us to do what we can in the name of humanity, whether it’s making peace, curing cancer, writing poetry that transcends the language or simply smiling at a child who has no one to smile at them.
“You must do more,” Elie said to Stephanie that day long ago. And she did, their shared vision coalescing into a mission.
The Start Of Echo
Jim Mountjoy experienced early on what was about to be unleashed on our community. A marketing guru in Charlotte, he and colleague Steve Lasch helped Stephanie craft the Echo story. They remember those early meetings. Jim thought they were going to need double expressos to keep up.
“I always waited for Stephanie’s spring to pop,” Jim recalls. “This is truly a person who had a calling. She had goodness on her side.”
Combine Stephanie’s boundless energy with her gift for connecting with the people who make things happen in Charlotte and Echo was about to blossom.
Jim Preston, a lawyer with the Grier, Parker, Poe and Thompson law firm and its successors in Charlotte, was instrumental in building Echo’s infrastructure. We lost Jim in 2016 at age 78.
Jim Woodward, retired chancellor of UNC Charlotte, served on the Board of Trustees and currently the Board of Advisors. “Echo really is an extraordinary achievement,” he says. “The impossibility of the task didn’t lessen Stephanie’s determination to do it.”
Dr. Joan Lorden, chair of Echo’s Charlotte Board of Trustees, retired after 19½ years as provost at UNC Charlotte. It is no wonder that she appreciates the power of Echo to change young lives through dialogue with visiting humanitarians, related curriculum, internships and journeys worldwide.
“The goal,” Joan says, “has been to show students, not just tell them, that they can do amazing things.”
Having felt Stephanie’s passion, Board of Advisors member Sally Robinson long ago added Echo to the list of causes she supports.
“She’s a woman of vision,” Sally says, “a woman of courage, determination and resilience.”
No one appreciates those qualities more than Tony Ansaldo, a retired architect and Stephanie’s husband of 50 years. (More on the Ansaldos in a bit.) “Stephanie,” he says, “is not aware of what she can’t do.”
Echo’s Initiatives
What has Echo done in pursuit of its stated mission to “promote justice and inspire hope through education, service, and the development of leadership for a more humane world?”
Echo has welcomed 50-plus humanitarian leaders, including Nobel Laureates, to Charlotte to inspire us to act on our highest ideals. Echo describes them as “Voices Against Indifference.” Among them, Elie Wiesel returned three times after his initial visit, telling his audiences they must take on suffering: “Don’t live your life unless it is linked to someone else’s.” Stephanie and Elie spoke monthly for 19 years about politics, art, music and how to make a difference. The Nobel Peace Prize winner died on July 2, 2017, at age 87. Stephanie attended Shivah in his New York City home, in Jewish tradition the period of mourning following a death.
As Echo shines a light on the best in us, local and global leaders shine a light on the work we can do together. In 2019, Hugh McColl Jr., former head of Bank of America, called for his beloved Charlotte to give the poor and forgotten their shot at prosperity: “We are learning that it is well past time for a new humility…for deep listening…for sustained and intentional actions that will spread opportunity throughout the city, to all our neighbors.” He was the keynote speaker the evening Dr. Ophelia Garmon-Brown and Jesse Cureton were honored for their work to bridge the divide in our city. The theme was “Charlotte: A Tale Of Two Cities.”
There have been others: Public education advocate Jonathan Kozol; Roman Catholic priest and former Congressman Father Robert Drinan of Massachusetts, an early opponent of the Vietnam War; Dr. Denis Mukwege, who earned the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to end sexual violence as a weapon of war. He founded Panzi Hospital in his native Democratic Republic of the Congo to treat victims of these atrocities.
With many humanitarian guests comes a curriculum for students to study and act upon in preparation for dialogue, and to act upon afterward. In this way, Echo estimates having reached 750,000 students and 3,750-plus teachers. Global warming, social justice and the media, Bosnia, the war in Ukraine – all these issues and more are explored in curriculum that combines history, current events, interviews and academic activities. Together, they form tools for teaching.
Echo honors those in the community who have stood for good. Among them: Sandra and the late Leon Levine, who have given millions to charity; the late Joe Martin, the banker whose “Friday Friends” initiative invites us to take a person of a different color to lunch each week; and Harvey Gantt, Charlotte’s first African-American mayor.
Take a moment to peruse the entire list of speakers, honorees and curriculum at www.echofoundation.org. It is preserved online for you to read and act upon.
More than 100 students from the Charlotte area have had their eyes opened through Footsteps Global Initiative. This blend of study and travel to such places as Rwanda and Bosnia go beyond sightseeing. Young people learn about their destination before they go. They return with stories, and a freshly lit fire to right the wrongs they witnessed. Providence Day School student Owen Moore was part of a two-week trip in 2023 to Europe entitled “Ukraine – Calculus For Democracy.” His group of nine visited the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp and Anne Frank House. The past served as a prelude to what they heard first-hand about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. War and hate 21st-century style: Ukrainian students told Owen’s group that they receive bomb warnings on their cell phones. Owen, a cellist, came home, translated Ukrainian songs from piano to cello and performed them at Echo events. “This,” Owen says of the entire experience, “made me think about how I can become more global and help people.”
Among Echo’s most powerful achievements was a 2010 documentary revisiting the life of Elie Wiesel. “In The Footsteps Of Elie Wiesel,” which Stephanie directed, follows 12 Charlotte area students on their journey to (among other places) Elie’s hometown of Sighet (Romania) and the Birkenau and Auschwitz concentration camps. Elie suffered there, survived, then shared the horror so that we honor the victims. The 53-minute Echo documentary does the same. One student on the journey spoke for them all: Their charge now is to do something in the world.
Stephanie’s Story
Stephanie’s son, Christopher, describes her as a cross between Nancy Pelosi, Sally Field, Julia Child and Joan Baez. While you figure that one out, let us retrace her journey that led to doing right by the world.
Her father, Seymour Louis Goldberg, fought in World War II. He was captured and escaped four times. He was Jewish. Her mother, Vera Henschel, was a German Lutheran. Dachau brought them together in 1946. Stephanie’s father was assigned to help disband the Nazi concentration camp after the war was won. Her mother was part of a pool of secretaries hired to help support that effort.
Seymour and Vera were married and together made sure their three daughters (Stephanie was in the middle) experienced the richness of what the world had to offer. When Stephanie was 10 and living in Munich, her father would take her to the opera. First he made sure she listened to La Boheme on the phonograph if that was the particular opera they were going to attend. This became a blueprint for Echo, students studying and learning before embarking on a journey or sharing dialogue with a humanitarian. Another formative memory. With dyslexia, Stephanie couldn’t read until she was 10. Being made fun of by other kids – “You’re dumb…” – deepened her empathy for others who face life’s indignities.
The Goldberg girls were taught to see the good in all people.
The daughter of a career U.S. Army veteran, Stephanie lived a dozen places here and overseas. She graduated from Virginia Tech. That’s where she met Tony. He recalls his first thought (before learning about her wisdom and heart). “I was intrigued by her beauty,” he says.
They put down roots in Charlotte in 1976, where they passed down the tradition of Stephanie’s family dinners. Serious conversation. No fear of disagreeing. Never giggle when a belly laugh is warranted. Never hold back. “In my family,” son Christopher recalls, “polite agreement was seen as patronizing.” Stephanie was an outstanding cook. Her sons’ friends would smell what she was preparing and inevitably wind up with a seat at the table. There was always room for one more chair.
Before Echo, Stephanie spent eight years as the Upper School Counselor at Charlotte Latin School, helping students navigate the future. She also volunteered with Hospice, helping the dying face the end with as much peace and grace as possible.
Then came Elie Wiesel and the challenge that changed her life.
Vignettes From The Journey
The best way to define a movement is to hear the stories of those who were and are part of it.
Marketing guru Kathy Rowan, a friend to Echo from the start, recalls the greeting that Stephanie arranged for Elie’s first visit to Charlotte in 1997. Kathy explains: “She knew of his love for music and arranged for a group of 100 students from across Charlotte to greet him at the airport, singing his favorite Yiddish songs. The students’ eyes said ‘These songs are for you.’ I told Stephanie this musical greeting would never be possible to arrange at the airport. That’s the last time I discounted her ability to make the seemingly impossible happen.”
Justine Treadwell was a Charlotte Latin student when her bond with Stephanie took hold. At a fragile time in her life – what teenager isn’t fragile? – Justine appeared at Stephanie’s office door. A relationship was kindled. The two talked about Justine’s life, the state of the world, whatever came to mind. No wonder Justine became a career diplomat with the State Department, working for peace in Africa and elsewhere. She and Stephanie meet for dinner every couple of years. “What is your message?” Stephanie asks her. Justine’s answer is important – human rights, universal health care, AIDS in Africa. Equally important was giving her former student the chance to express herself. Says Justine, “She gave us the mic.”
Matt Grady was an Echo summer intern in 2019, working on the Dr. Denis Mukwege project. As shared earlier in this piece,
Dr. Mukwege earned the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to end sexual violence. He founded Panzi Hospital in his native Democratic Republic of the Congo to treat victims of these atrocities. At the close of his experience, Matt wrote a letter of gratitude to Stephanie. It read in part, “This past summer reignited a burning desire for social justice that I think the everyday routine of homework and extracurriculars too often squashes.”
Who isn’t inspired by vivid language? Charlotte Observer Publisher Rolfe Neill had a special place in his heart for those who brought grace to the pursuit of noble causes. Before he died in 2023 at age 90, he shared these last words to Stephanie. “Your sunflower frenzy of flame burns vividly and attracts much comment. The royal shade of ageratum is a favorite …It is important to me that you acknowledge to yourself that your many Echo attainments are fruits of your own will and creation. I was glad to lend the occasional hand.”
The older son, Alex, is a lawyer living in Bethesda, Maryland, with his wife, Anna, and their children, Leonora and Aviv. Growing up in Charlotte, Alex remembers an early lesson in helping others. One summer day his mom ran out of gas on Providence Road during rush hour. She pulled into a driveway. Alex and Christopher, his younger brother, were in the back seat holding their breath, not exactly sure how their mom was going to get out of this pickle. That’s when the man came out of his house, siphoned gas from his lawn mower, poured it into the Ansaldo gas tank and sent them on their way. Thereafter, whenever they drove past the spot, Stephanie told the boys, “There’s the nice people’s house. Remember.”
Christopher Ansaldo, an English and social studies teacher, lives in Asheville, North Carolina with his wife, Casey and their children, Campbell and Kathryn. He says his mom is “mighty hard to define” and proves it by describing her as kind, fierce, driven, nurturing, forward-thinking and traditional. He offers this analogy: “I sometimes imagine her running a French brasserie all by herself. She has the creativity and aesthetic sense to design the space and prepare the food, the warmth and charm to host and wait tables and the shrewd business sense to run the books and handle marketing. She could even do the masonry work to build that place brick by brick.”
Stephanie and her dance partner (and husband), Tony Ansaldo, have been taking ballroom dancing lessons for a decade. Coming together from two different worlds, they find themselves together on the dance floor. The magic isn’t only in the music and choreography. There will be plenty of inhumanity to take on tomorrow. On this romantic night, the Ansaldos glide across the dance floor effortlessly.
A Little Boy In Rwanda
On a trip to the east African nation of Rwanda in 2007, Stephanie visited the children’s ward at Partners In Health Hospital in Rwinkwavu. That’s where she met Tibor. A woman had found the 10-year-old sleeping outside her mud hut. He had no home. She walked Tibor five miles to the hospital clinic. After performing MRIs and other tests, doctors determined that surgery to save his life was impossible. He remained a patient there. Even with morphine, he was whimpering the day Stephanie visited with him, a bandage covering the brain tumor protruding from his eye.
The first time she met Tibor, Stephanie was taken aback by his appearance. “I kept thinking about how inadequate I was,” Stephanie lamented to herself on the two-hour drive to the hotel. The next day, she arranged for another two-hour ride – this time back to Tibor.
He wanted to have his picture taken. Stephanie, wanting to respect his privacy, snapped a photograph of his hand in hers. But that’s not what he wanted. He wanted Stephanie to take a photograph of him. His face. She did. It is the photograph you see here. All this happened in October 2007. Tibor died that Christmas Eve.
Long after the photograph yellows with age, or is accidentally deleted from its file, what Tibor said when he saw it for the first time is still true.
“That’s me,” he exclaimed.
Twenty-seven years after Elie Wiesel implored Stephanie Ansaldo to do more, The Echo Foundation story is captured in the words of a dying child in Rwanda. This is what Stephanie set out to do long ago – to bring justice and hope to the forgotten.
“That’s me,” Tibor said.
Echo’s response?
“We see you.”