Craft Fair
Assistance League is a volunteer organization that helps children in need in our community by providing food, tutoring services, books and new clothing.
Assistance League of Northern Virginia was delighted to join local artists, craftsmen, and businesses on a bright sunny Saturday at the Market Place and Community Fair in Franklin Farm, Herndon. Our members were on hand to sell White House ornaments and to introduce our charity to all who visited our display, which showcased our philanthropic programs that feed, clothe, and educate area elementary school students. We still have a good supply of ornaments available, so if you weren’t able to attend the Community Fair, please check out our Website www.alnv.org or contact ornaments@alnv.org to place your order. Our price is $22 per ornament.
In addition, our members assisted with the Silent Auction, to which many of the Community Fair artisans generously donated examples of their handiwork. Our chapter was honored to be chosen as the recipient of the funds raised by the auction. The Franklin Farm social committee also received donations of toiletries and hygiene products and an Assistance League member delivered those items to a nearby homeless shelter immediately after the event. We are gratified by our partnership with Franklin Farm and look forward to our next collaboration, another Shred Event that will occur on October 9.
Grocery Gift Cards
Assistance League of Northern Virginia again delivered another 400 grocery gift cards in September to the six elementary schools that had received our Weekend Food for Kids food bags before the pandemic. In April 2020, we pivoted to delivering the grocery gift cards because covid-19 restrictions precluded providing the food bags. Since then, we have provided 7,430 cards, with a value of nearly $126,000.
Assistance League members are proud that our chapter has been able not only to provide relief to struggling families at a time when needs have grown substantially while income has declined, but that we have found new recipients for our services and also pursued new fund-raising opportunities.
National Literacy month
In honor of September being National Literacy month, Assistance League of Northern Virginia delivered 166 new books to an elementary school in Alexandria. We are delighted to be able to deliver these books because we recognize that good reading skills are important and we believe that children should learn to enjoy reading. To that end, we donated more than 2,900 books to 11 elementary schools in Fairfax County, Prince William County and Alexandria during the past school year, and plan to provide more books to another school in the coming weeks. Assistance League of Northern Virginia supports not only good reading habits but also reading enjoyment.
Odds ad Ends
September was another busy month for Assistance League of Northern Virginia. In addition to pursuing several fund-raising efforts, such as selling spring bulbs, White House ornaments, and Holiday Wreaths; and announcing plans to participate in a paper-shredding event in October and sponsoring a Topgolf outing in November, our members also delivered a total of 500 child-sized face masks to the eleven elementary schools we serve. The counselors were grateful to have these masks to augment their own supplies now that in-person learning has resumed. The schools began using the masks immediately.
