Neveah, Jonnae and Andrennae earned culture tickets for going easy on their substitute mentor.
Chana Rabiner needed a substitute mentor for the three fifth grade girls she tutors with Higher Achievement. When she emailed me the lesson plan, all preconceived notions of substitute teachers as babysitters dissolved. The lesson plan was detailed, structured and would take a lot of work from both the girls and from me. I liked it.
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Girls from Tanzania's Sega Girls' School. Photo courtesy of Warren Zelman.
According to MasterCard, last year I spent nearly $2500 on dining out. That’s just over $200 each month. What if I took one week’s cost of dining out and instead had my girlfriends over for dinner and we each donated our dinner cost to charity?
Welcome to Dining for Women.
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Ares Romay and Elizabeth Petty
I was on my third handful of peanut M&Ms, just enough to qualify as lunch, when Smith Center emailed me with the ideal volunteer project. Would I assist their guest chef, Elizabeth Petty during a cooking demonstration of raw, vegan, organic food?
I swallowed the rest of the M&Ms and chased it with a Diet Coke. Absolutely!
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The gala and the runway. Photo courtesy of Brian Rayford
The thought of asking anyone for money–aside from my parents when I was 11 years old–has always terrified me. What better way to address that fear head-on than to help with the Luke’s Wings Second Annual Homecoming Gala on, of course, Veterans’ Day?
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Marlon, a 9-year-old student at Burrville Elementary School in Washington created his composition “Meditation” through the nonprofit Life Pieces to Masterpieces.
Hors d’oeuvre, wine and black-and-white clad waiters circulating among elegant guests are standard for most VIP receptions. Leave it to the Catalogue for Philanthropy to include inner city underserved boys, standing proudly and nervously next to their Life Pieces to Masterpieces artistic creations.
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Give to the Max bloggers - maybe something every community could use?
It’s starting already. My Facebook page, Twitter feeds and email in-boxes are filling up with facts, countdowns and requests for Wednesday’s Give to the Max Day-and I can’t wait!
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Nathan plays in A Wider Circle's play room while his parents choose furniture in their transition from homelessness.
Deputy director Dr. Anne Thompson’s favorite part about working for A Wider Circle is when she can’t distinguish the clients from the volunteers from the staff. That pretty much sums up the inclusive, family atmosphere of A Wider Circle.
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Most college students go home during their short fall break, but not the Alpha Kappa Psi (AKPsi) business fraternity members from the University of Toledo. Thirty-nine of them, nearly two thirds of the entire fraternity, had signed up for a “weekend of service” in the Washington, DC area. The logistics of travel, hotels, meals, service sites and the dozens of other details were overwhelming. Could they find an affordable hotel for 39? Were there enough seats on Amtrak? What nonprofits need nearly 40 students over a weekend?
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MAESSR rescues five or six English Springer Spaniels each week.
Sandye Blalock’s ten-year-old Toyota Forerunner doubles as a dog limo. Tricked out with treats, toys, waste bags and a blanket, collar and leash, it was the perfect car to help transport a four year old English Springer Spaniel named Sarah, who was leaving her foster family in Pennsylvania to begin a “furever” new life with an adoptive family in Virginia Beach.
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Natascia Diaz plays the desperate Denise Savage in MetroStage’s “Savage in Limbo”
You’d never guess from the outside that this gigantic, corrugated box of a building housed MetroStage, a vibrant community theater and the oldest professional theatre in Northern Virginia.
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Myra Witherspoon and Eric Washington flank The Women's Collective red dress, made entirely of condoms
Robin was lovely, with black hair, ebony skin and fingernails that alternated between purple and leopard print. She broke away from her two friends when she saw our white The Women’s Collective van parked on the corner of H and 8th Street and asked for an AIDS test right there on the spot. A friend had told her the day before that he had been HIV positive for at least three months. She signed a consent form. Her big, gold earrings jangled as she shook nervously. She was hiding something, Myra told me.
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Brooke Keplinger, Maura Williams, Logan Alley at the FACETS’ Opening Doors Benefit Breakfast in May, 2011
Monique loves her job as a sales clerk at a shoe store in one of the area’s most upscale outdoor malls. She rarely smiles when she’s on the job though, because she is missing several front teeth. As embarrassed as she is about her appearance, she tells kids that she lost them because she didn’t brush well enough. That’s technically not true, but Monique wants to scare them into a lifetime of good dental hygiene.
When I met Monique, though, she was grinning from ear to ear. FACETS, through its Homeless Healthcare Program (HHP), was taking her to the dentist to get her fitted for dentures.
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Linda Franz was at a crossroads. Her daughter had graduated from college and her son was about to start. Her husband, newly retired, had begun a master’s degree at the University of Virginia. Franz, a program manager with the U.S. Census Bureau, was nearing retirement herself but not sure what she wanted to do. Then she found a SCAN (Stop Child Abuse Now of Northern Virginia) recruiting table at an Alexandria volunteer event. Becoming a CASA volunteer with SCAN seemed like the perfect transition for her newly empty nest.
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Tables of backpacks waiting to be filled for almost 400 Lorton area families
Some nonprofit projects are more complicated than others, yet even the simplest among them require the cooperation and teamwork of dozens of people. Take, for example, backpack assembly, a project of the Lorton Community Action Center (LCAC) and several other area nonprofits. It sounds pretty easy:
1. Get backpacks
2. Get school supplies
3. Get people to pack #2 into #1
4. Give to kids
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Dr. Lisa Hayes, incoming President/CEO of the Accokeek Foundation; Alan McCurry, incoming Board chair, Gail McCurry, Wilton C. Corkern, President, Accokeek Foundation (retiring Sept 30)Polly Festa, the livestock manager of the Accokeek Foundation, treats the heritage cows, horses, pigs and other farm animals as if they were her own. “I don’t know how to do it any other way,” she said. A third generation farmer from upstate New York, Polly can argue the nuances between a milking Devon and a Brown Swiss the way Beltway insiders discuss politics.
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