Obituary of Meredyth D. Breed

Breed, Meredyth Donkin-(Sterling, VA) Meredyth (Donkin) Breed passed away on July 15, 2016 at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, DC. She had been suffering in recent months from a rare blood disease. Merry, as she was known to her friends and family, was born in Boston, MA on October 22, 1951 to Alan and Edythe (Bright) Donkin and spent her childhood in Scituate, MA, where she enjoyed Frostbiting (winter sailboat racing) with her father. She inherited her love of nature, plants, and scouting from her mother. She met her husband Darrell in college and they married in 1972. They enjoyed 44 years of happy marriage and raised a daughter Rebecca (Becca) and a son Frederick (Rick). Together they lived in Massachusetts, New York, Georgia, New Jersey, and Virginia. They enjoyed traveling to Maine and Massachusetts to visit family, and also to the Shenandoah Mountains. Merry earned her B.A. in Early Childhood Education, focusing on Special Education, from the University of Maine in Orono. For many years she taught at Sterling Annex Preschool. Then, when Claude Moore Park was first purchased by Loudoun County, began teaching nature classes there, eventually becoming Assistant Manager and then Park Manager, working to develop and enrich the natural and historical education programs in the park. Over the years she shared her passion for nature with thousands of children, recently focusing on initiatives concerning Native Plants and Monarch Butterflies. Merry was a devoted parishioner of St. Matthews Episcopal Church in Sterling, VA for 31 years where she held several leadership positions over the years, including Superintendent of Sunday School, Vestry Member, Junior Warden, Building Committee Member, Outreach Committee Member, as well as serving the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia on it’s Committee on Stewardship of Creation. She was one of the founding members of the Knit 2 Pray 2 knitting ministry, and enjoyed teaching others to knit and crochet. She was also active in the Boy Scouts, Piedmont Environmental Council, Appalachian Trail Conference, The Wildlife Society-Virginia Chapter, Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy, Virginia Tech Plant Monitoring, the Plant NoVa Natives Campaign, the National Association for Interpretation, and the Friends of Claude Moore Park. Merry was proud of her service as a wildlife mapper for the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. She served as president of the Broad Run High School PTA and volunteered at all of her children’s schools. For several years Merry was “Band Mom” and “The Uniform Lady” for the Broad Run Marching Spartans. A talented seamstress, she made numerous costumes for theatrical productions her children and grandchildren were in. She recently volunteered at her granddaughters’ school, Sterling Elementary. Having been a Girl Scout herself in a troop led by her mother, Merry led her own daughter’s Girl Scout Troop for 12 years, and co-led Troop 1891 in Sterling with her daughter, so she led her granddaughters’ troop as well. She is survived by her husband, Darrell, of Sterling, daughter Rebecca Pepper and husband Matthew, of Sterling, son Rick Breed and wife Sara, of Fulton, MD, three grandchildren, Elizabeth, Abigail, and Henry Pepper, all of Sterling, her sisters Andrea Gartland and husband Arthur of Savannah, GA, Carol Lareau and husband Marc of Mattapoisett, MA, and brother Alan Donkin, Jr and his wife Christine of Stowe, MA as well as several cousins, nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her parents Alan and Edythe Donkin. Visiting hours will be held from 5:00 to 8:00 pm on Friday, July 22 at the Adams-Green Funeral Home, 721 Elden Street, Herndon, VA. A memorial service will take place at 1:00 pm on Saturday, July 23 at St. Matthews Episcopal Church, 201 East Frederick Drive, Sterling, VA with reception to follow. The family requests that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church Building Fund or to the Friends of Claude Moore Park for use to provide scholarships to youth nature camps.