Braving 15 degree temperatures and extreme wind gusts, more than 270 volunteers from our NOVA Campuses, K-12 Schools, and our local community gathered at the Alexandria Campus to make the 10th Annual NOVA Serves Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service a day “on”, not a day “off”. To celebrate his legacy, we formed partnerships with the NOVA Financial Stability Program, NOVA Student Life, Volunteer Alexandria, and Project Linus to render service to our students and community. This years’ service projects included:
- The Linus Project (Kids 7+) – Volunteers created 30 no-sew fleece blankets for children in local hospitals and Title I schools.
- Kindness Rocks (Kids 4-7) – Participants painted 40 kindness rocks to bring back to local neighborhoods.
- Green Bag Food Sort – Volunteers sorted thousands of donated food items to re-distribute to NOVA’s six campuses.
- Toiletry Kits – Participants sorted and created 200 toiletry kits for our homeless winter emergency kits.
- Homeless Winter Emergency Kits– Participants assembled 200 homeless winter emergency kits for campus distribution.
- Emergency Preparedness Kits – Volunteer Alexandria partnered with NOVA to create 600 emergency preparedness kits to distribute within the Alexandria community.
We collected over 900 pairs of new socks. These socks were donated to the Carpenter’s Shelter in Alexandria.
In preparation for the big day, NOVA launched a college-wide campaign and competition focused on item-specific donations for each of its locations. The following campuses collected the items listed below:
- Alexandria Campus – ready-to-eat meals
- Annandale Campus – feminine hygiene products
- Brault/Pender Campus – shampoo and conditioner
- Loudoun Campus – cereal and oatmeal
- Manassas Campus – toothpaste and toothbrushes
- Medical Education Campus (MEC) – toiletries
- Pender Campus – granola bars and fruit cups
- Woodbridge Campus – pasta and sauce
Kudos to Pender Campus, who contributed over 500 boxes of granola bars and fruit cups. They were the recipient of the coveted “Golden Gloves” for doing their part to knock out hunger in the fight against hunger and other insecurities. Special thanks to the amazing committee who worked arduously to bring this event into fruition- Jackie Artis, Maro Bentley, Courtney Boland, Patricia Cooper, Ella Gilliam, Twyla Jones, Kirstin Riddick, Rochelle Thompson, and Sarah Yirenkyi.
