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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Ten years ago I was a lieutenant colonel with the Air Force Reserve and had just completed ten months of military graduate school at the Air Force’s Air War College (AWC). Our class of 265 senior officers from all branches of service and 45 NATO countries had spent much of the previous year preparing for leadership at the joint-service level and understanding our military’s contributions to national security. That spring we studied current and future threats to America’s interests.
Specifically, we learned about a whack job named Osama bin Laden.
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Sydney Brooks, Oakley Brooks, Grace Gregory and Eric Gregory, member of the Jubilee Jobs Corporate Advisory Board, at a benefit dinner in April, 2011.
If you’ve ever searched for a job, you know how important it is to own computer. Imagine how difficult it would be to find work if you didn’t have one. Now imagine trying to find a job if you didn’t have access to a computer, didn’t have a permanent address, and had a felony conviction. These are the clients of Jubilee Jobs.
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Sandye Blalock with her rescue Springer Spaniel Princess Grace
Animal adoption used to be a handmade sign reading “Free to Good Home” next to a box overflowing with puppies and a desperate looking dad offering to off-load a pup to anyone who walked by. Today adoption is safer and more sophisticated, thanks to organizations like Lucky Dog Animal Rescue (LDAR).
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Bonnie Baxley, Community Lodgings' executive director, Mary Tiemann and Mary Hellem at the "Communitea" fundraising event this past spring at Old Town Alexandria's Union Street Public House. Photo courtesy of Jeanne Theismann
Not long ago I wrote a story about kids who read to puppies. When Community Lodgings asked me to help with Read Aloud, their reading program created for toddlers whose parents attended evening life skills classes, I was ready for some good, old-fashioned story time.
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Katie, Ali and Ross, high school students from Jamestown, New York, enjoyed gleaning at Parker Farms as part of their week of service.
On a road trip with Bread for the City to the corn fields of Parker Farms last week, 25 of us volunteers discovered some surprising facts about corn and how much is really available to feed the hungry.
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