By RSVP-Northern Virginia, a program of Volunteer Fairfax, Volunteer Alexandria and Volunteer Arlington, is mobilizing its staff, volunteers and engagement leaders to support three Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service events, Jan. 21.
In Fairfax County, RSVP members will help coordinate volunteers taking part in the 10th annual Give Together, a family-friendly event run by Volunteer Fairfax that involves hundreds of participants working on multiple community projects.
RSVP volunteer and engagement leader Shelley Brosnan of Fairfax, helped manage a station at Give Together last year and will reprise her role this year at the event taking place at the Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia in Annandale.
“I find Give Together meaningful in that the projects that we are doing support many in the community,” Shelley says. “Volunteering is fulfilling to me in as much as what I am giving back I am also receiving; the sense of community being created is very moving to me.”
Shelley was honored with a President’s Volunteer Service Award in 2018 for donating more than 500 hours of her time and talents as an RSVP volunteer.
In Alexandria City, RSVP is supporting an MLK day event run by Volunteer Alexandria and the Northern Virginia Community College. This year will be the second time Denise Mackie-Smith of Alexandria takes part in MLK day as an RSVP volunteer.
“I love volunteering on MLK day in and around Alexandria with RSVP and with Volunteer Alexandria,” Dee says. “It’s an honor to connect with the community on this very special ‘day on, not day off.”
Dee not only was named 2017 RSVP volunteer of the year in Alexandria, but she also was honored as a Daily Point of Light in December 2017 by the Points of Light Foundation.
“Martin Luther King left a legacy for all generations to follow as it relates to community service. As an advocate for the advancement of equal rights for all individuals – seniors certainly fall into this category,” Dee says. “RSVP shares a unique vision in respect to embracing and encouraging the 55 plus community to live a healthy and productive lifestyle through the benefits of volunteering to serve others.”
Last year Dee and fellow volunteers prepared and distributed emergency kits, which included hand-written notes in Spanish and English to residents at a local apartment community.
Dee says she looks forward to another project this MLK day in partnership with RSVP, FEMA & the American Heart Association.
RSVP is also recruiting volunteers for Volunteer Arlington’s MLK Day event, which is taking a unique approach to this national day of service.
In addition to offering volunteers several projects to choose from, Volunteer Arlington has asked RSVP-Northern Virginia’s Volunteer Specialist Carly Hubicki along with other RSVP partner volunteer coordinators to hold several mini-orientation sessions for prospective volunteers at the MLK day event at Washington and Lee High School.
“We are very excited to not only have our great volunteers doing good work on MLK day but to also have the opportunity to share the RSVP story with even more local seniors on such a big day of community service,” says Janet Davison, RSVP-Northern Virginia’s Program Manager.
For more information on RSVP-Northern Virginia, please visit www.rsvpnova.org. For more information on the Martin Luther King, Jr., National Day of Service, please visit https://www.nationalservice.gov/serve-your-community/mlk-day-service.
