From Holt International,
Portland, Oregon—First given in 1979, the Bertha Holt Award honors those who have selflessly, and with loving care and concern, given themselves in personal service to help homeless children of the world. The 2008 Award was presented in honor of Myrtle Croy, the second employee ever hired by Harry and Bertha Holt. She worked for Holt International from the late 1950s until 1976, helping to develop Holt’s adoption work. Korean adoptee Stephen Nelson recalled Mrs. Croy as the “angel” who helped him find a family in 1959, cooked for him when he visited, and joined him in intercessory prayer for his son when she was 99. “I could not imagine not having her to call and talk to, or living without her prayers for me and my family,” he wrote for her memorial. Mrs. Croy passed away October 2006 at age 100.
Holt President and CEO Gary Gamer presented the award June 28 at Holt International’s Portland, Oregon, picnic to Myrtle Croy’s granddaughter, Maria Copelan. Maria drove her grandmother’s old baby blue VW bug to the picnic, the same car Mrs. Croy brought to the picnics, where she was once a familiar face. Mrs. Croy used to travel the nation checking on adopted children and their families in that same VW bug, Maria said. And she remembers that her grandmother prayed regularly for the children for whom she helped find families.
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