Care packages for homeless being made prior to head count

Good morning  – The Annual Nationwide Point in Time Count of the Homeless population is January 27th here in our community.

The wonderful folks at Streetlight Ministries are preparing care packages for the homeless and need your help. They are collecting new gloves, hats, socks, hand/feet warmers, small blankets, head lights and backpacks for the care packages. These donations are needed by January 14th and then volunteers will assemble the packages. So here’s two ways to help a neighbor by gathering or assembling these basic winter products. Please call Gabriele or Rose at (703) 491-2288 to volunteer or simply drop off the donations by January 14th.

· The Retired and Senior Volunteer program is looking for volunteers’ age 55+ to play disaster jeopardy or bingo to the residents of senior living facilities to better prepare them for weather or other disaster event. We need many Vanna and Pat teams for this fun project. Please call Coleen at (571) 292-5307 to learn more.

· The VA Department of Environmental Quality invites you to their next Stream Monitoring event on January 16th at noon at Evergreen Acres Farm in Nokesville. This is a great learning experience and a way to connect to all the good work of the DEQ. Please call Veronica at (571) 379-7514 to learn more.

· Come Celebrate MLK Day sponsored by the PW Chapter Delta Sigma Theta Sorority’s 2015 Martin Luther King Youth Oratorical Program on Monday January 18th at 11am at the Hylton Memorial Chapel. Please bring non-perishable food items, winter coats or children’s books for those less fortunate. This is a fabulous event.

· Keep Prince William Beautiful is looking for volunteers for a clean-up event on Saturday January 23rd from 10am-2pm in Lake Ridge. Please email Claudia at: [email protected] for all the specifics.

· Habitat for Humanity is having their Grand Opening event of the new ReStore on Saturday January 23rd. This is the time to clean out your closets, basements and garage to help support their great work. The new address is 10159 Hastings Drive in Manassas.

· The Novant Health Foundation cordially invites you to their Annual Gala on February 27, 2016. This is a big event that helps tons of people in our community. The evening includes band, cocktail hour, dinner and a fun auction. Please call Abby at (703) 369-8201 to learn more and purchase your tickets.

· Habitat for Humanity needs volunteers to get the brand new ReStore ready to go as well as the current location. Tasks include getting donations on the floor- especially all the holiday decorations. Please visit their website at: habitatpwc.org for all the specifics and to register for any of these fun events or email Tammy at: [email protected]

· If you are looking for other opportunities, please don’t forget to call my wonderful team at Volunteer Prince William. Coleen can help you with the Retired and Senior Volunteer (RSVP) opportunities at (703) 369-5292 ext. 1, Shelley can help with any individual or group project and send you weekly updates if you’d like. Shelley is at (703) 369-5292 ext. 0, and Bonnie can help you with opportunities available in Disaster Preparedness at (703) 369-5292 ext. 3. Please visit our newly re-vamped website at www.volunteerprincewilliam.org. Thanks so much for all you do in our community.

Call to Action is a column written by Volunteer Prince William Director Mary Foley.