Dumfries Town Council on Sept. 1 laid out a September calendar of volunteer home repairs, a slave cemetery stone dedication, a community-versus-police basketball night, and a late-month economic-mobility kickoff.
Councilman Russell A. Young announced Labor of Love Weekend, a town community-service initiative that helps eligible homeowners complete minor repairs and improvements at no labor cost.
Volunteers should meet at town hall between 7:30 and 7:45 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 6. People who want to help can email [email protected]. Young said the town will run a background check because volunteers go onto private properties, not into homes.
“If you’re looking to volunteer, it will be happening this Saturday,” Young said at the Sept. 1 meeting. “You can meet me here.”
On Saturday, Sept. 12, Friends of Dumfries Slave Cemetery will hold its regular second-Saturday cleanup from 8 to 10 a.m. Dedication of a flat commemorative stone is set for about 9:45 a.m.
Anthony Fields, speaking for the group, said volunteers have worked at the cemetery since 2011, when they found out about it. A Boy Scout troop from Prince George’s County, Maryland, prepared the grounds for the stone as an Eagle Scout project. A town grant paid for rose bushes, mulch, bricks, rose beds, and other grounds work, he said. Mayor Derrick R. Wood is scheduled to offer remarks.
“Thank you for helping us give our ancestors the dignity and depth that they didn’t have, that they did not have in life,” Fields said.
Councilman Shaun R. Peet said the Town of Dumfries versus the police department basketball game is Wednesday, Sept. 16, from 6 to 8 p.m. at Ginn Memorial Park.
Peet said he created the weekday game after hearing “we don’t like 12,” so residents can learn officers’ names and faces.
“This is not just a basketball game,” Peet said. “I put this in place not just so we can have a day, but so our citizens can bridge the gap between the citizens and our police department.”
Wednesday, Sept. 17, Birmingham Green marks its 99th celebration at 8605 Centerville Road in Manassas. Chief Advancement Officer Martina Jackson Green and admissions liaison Angela Asamoah invited tours, volunteers, and support for expansion and workforce housing.
They described a 300-bed campus on 54 acres with two assisted-living buildings and a nursing home, and called it the only affordable senior living community of its type in Northern Virginia.
On Sept. 30, Wood said the Mayor’s Legacy Initiative will kick off with grant support from the African American Mayors Association, aimed at economic mobility. More details are still to come, he said.
Council also proclaimed September 2026 as African Diaspora Month and National Preparedness Month. Prince William County Emergency Management Coordinator Brian Misner pointed residents to pwcva.gov/ready and urged households to be ready to shelter in place for at least three days.
