|
|
The Giving Circle of Alexandria
|
Community Service Opportunities
November/December 2008
|
|
|
It will be a tough holiday season for many families in our community.
Let's do what we can to make it better.
|
|
Help the Homeless and Help ALIVE! House
Walkathon this Saturday!
Take part in the 2008 Fannie Mae Help the Homeless Walkathon on Saturday, November 22nd at 9 am on the National Mall.
Youth $15, Adults (26 & older) $25 ($30 on day of Walk). Sign up online (click "register as an individual" and several screens later, select "ALIVE! House" under Beneficiary Organizations).
Can't walk? Consider sponsoring a resident or former resident or student - $15 or $25. Write a check to Help the Homeless and deliver/mail to ALIVE! House, 125 S. Payne Street, Alexandria, VA 22314. For registration forms and information about the Walk and/or the shelter, call Susanne Arnold at (703) 683-5138.
|
Holiday Sharing Program
Fulfill a "Wish List" with the Alexandria Department of Human Services
Earlier this Fall a number of Giving Circle volunteers helped create holiday "wish lists" for local families in need. Now Alexandria's Department of Human Services needs residents to sponsor a family, a senior citizen, a foster child or a teen by shopping from a wish list. Help also is needed on several days in mid-December when the gifts are distributed. For more information, see the attached flyer or email Peggy Morrison-Curtis.
|
|
Help Provide Thanksgiving Meals
Drop off by this Sunday!
On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, the Lazarus Ministry provides a frozen turkey and a bag of groceries to 80 families in need who have registered in advance. Each grocery bag contains side dishes and dessert for a complete Thanksgiving dinner.
You can shop for boxed mashed potatoes, gravy packets, stuffing mix with few added ingredients, canned vegetables, canned cranberry sauce, canned fruit, soft rolls and cookies. A complete set of side items including two gravy packets and three vegetable sides can be purchased at Safeway for around $20.
Purchased items can be dropped off at the home of Kathy Barsness, 309 Mansion Drive, Alexandria through Sunday, November 23. For more information or to volunteer for sorting and bagging that Monday, contact Kathy Barsness by phone (703) 683-7952 or by email.
|
Giving Circle Kids
Toy Drive with the Center for Alexandria's Children
Come to a Giving Circle Kids event in the first half of December (date to be determined). Giving Circle Kids will collect board games in advance. At the event, kids will decorate holiday cookies and participate in other fun activities. The board games will be given to Alexandria families at a fun community event hosted by the Center for Alexandria's Children. For more information, email Margaret Rizzi. |
|
|
Community Service Weekend - February 2009
Save the dates and consider joining one of two small work groups to help plan for The Giving Circle's upcoming Community Service Weekend.
- For the third year, we are assisting with the Last Saturday of the Month Food Distribution for ALIVE! on the morning of Saturday, February, 28. We will have a family dine-out night in support of this event in January or February. For information about the ALIVE! project, email Christine Brown.
- Also, for the third year we are organizing a Book Drive for children enrolled in Campagna Center programs and Head Start which will finish up with sorting books for 1,200 summer reading packs on Sunday, March 1. In support of this event we will have a meeting of potential book captains in early January, a "Baskets for Books" family basketball event and a Giving Circle Kids event. The Book Drive needs new and gently used books for preschool through 6th Grade. If you sort through your bookshelves before February and want to move books of this kind out of your home, we can store them until the Book Drive begins. To learn more about the Book Drive, email Ellen Wayer
Kids nine and older are welcome to work with their parent at the ALIVE! event on February 28 and the Campagna Center event on March 1. Youth groups can also sign up to help sort books for the Book Drive during the last week in February.
|
|
Help plan future community service projects by joining The Giving Circle's Community Service Committee. We have many additional projects in the works for 2009 and are open to ideas for new projects. For more information, email Margaret Rizzi, Community Service Committee Chair.
Further the work of The Giving Circle this Fall by participating in
one or more of these community service projects.
|
|
|
|
|
