A Penny For Your Thoughts

One attribute that sets our community, and our nation, apart from others is the willingness of our residents to volunteer some time to make a difference for ourselves and our neighbors. There are many opportunities to volunteer – delivering Meals on Wheels for senior citizens, making house repairs through Christmas in April or Succoth in April, pulling weeds and cleaning trash from along roadsides with the Annandale Clean-Up every spring, reading to children in school, or tutoring adults through the Literacy Council – and here are a few more projects for your consideration.

The second Annual Culmore Clean-Up is scheduled for this Saturday, November 6, from 9 AM to 12 noon. Youth and adult volunteers will meet at the Woodrow Wilson Library, 6001 Knollwood Drive (corner of Knollwood and Glen Carlyn Drive) and get their assignments. Teams will fan out to pick up litter throughout the Culmore area of Bailey’s Crossroads. The Culmore Clean-Up is a joint effort of Alternative House, the Woodrow Wilson Library, the Bailey’s Beautification Alliance, Fairfax County agencies, community-based organizations, and the residents of Culmore.

You can help the Bailey’s Crossroads Community Shelter by participating in the “Help the Homeless Walkathon” on Saturday, November 20. The Walkathon is a pre-Thanksgiving tradition and begins on the Mall near the National Gallery of Art. Walkers can register by mail at Fannie Mae Foundation, P. O. Box 96358, Washington, D. C. 20090-6358; on line at www.helpthehomelessdc.org; or on site the day of the Walkathon. Registration fee is $25 for adults, $15 for youth (age 25 and younger) and includes a T-shirt. Walkers are encouraged to recruit sponsors for their walk, which is added to the total donation. To make sure that your effort is credited to the Bailey’s Crossroads Community Shelter, be sure to designate BCROS when you register. For further details, contact Bud Pope at 703/820-7621 or by email at voagbudpope@netzero.net.

You also can help the Annandale Christian Community for Action (ACCA) by adopting a family for Thanksgiving and/or Christmas. For Thanksgiving, donors would provide the makings for a dinner (you don’t have to cook!) and deliver the basket to the selected family a couple of days before the holiday. For Christmas, donors would include gifts for the children in the family with the food basket. To adopt a family for either holiday, or both, contact Harold Ottoson at ottoinva1@aol.com, or call 703/560-3390. ACCA also will be serving many families through its Food Pantry, and donations to help purchase food should be sent to ACCA, Inc. at 7200 Columbia Pike, Annandale, VA 22003, and mark the donation for “Holiday Baskets.”

Whether you pick up litter, weed public flower beds, walk to raise money for the homeless, or write a check, you are making a difference in our community. Thank you

Supervisor Penny Gross may be emailed at mason@fairfaxcounty.gov