After losing a brother who experienced homelessness, Carter G. Woodson High School student Minn Vo became aware on a personal level of how vulnerable people without shelter can be — and how often they’re overlooked by society.
That was a call to action for Vo, who founded the nonprofit Hands in Hope to organize service projects and fundraise to benefit individuals experiencing homelessness in Fairfax County.
A new community collaboration is set to kick off a week of action aiming to remove invasive species from trees in Fairfax County.
Fairfax Tree Rescuers will officially launch the Fairfax Partnership for Regional Invasive Species Management (PRISM) with invasive species removal events throughout the county from Saturday (Nov. 8) to Nov. 16.
Hundreds of volunteers congregated at sites across Northern Virginia on Saturday (Oct. 25) to collect, sort and distribute donations to local school food pantries.
Timed to coincide with National Make a Difference Day, the sorting events were organized by the nonprofit Food for Neighbors to help the many students in the region who struggle with getting consistent access to food — a challenge expected to worsen as the federal government shutdown approaches a month in length.
Fairfax County’s 12 volunteer fire and rescue departments face critical challenges that may impede their long-term viability, the Board of Supervisors heard on Tuesday (Oct. 14).
“We are concerned about the future,” said Shawn Stokes, who chairs the county’s Volunteer Fire Commission and serves as vice president of administration for the Fairfax County Volunteer Fire and Rescue Association.
Reston Community Center (RCC) will celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day for a 40th consecutive year with a full weekend of events and community service projects.
Set for this upcoming Saturday and Sunday (Jan. 18-19), RCC’s celebration will come after the actual anniversary of the civil rights leader’s birthday, which falls on Wednesday (Jan. 15), but precede the observed federal holiday next Monday (Jan. 20).
Thanks to the efforts of a local group of volunteers, nearly 300 unhoused residents in Northern Virginia are starting 2025 on the right foot.
The group, dubbed “Made in Reston,” collected and distributed 290 backpacks with winter goods in December to help people experiencing homelessness in Reston, Herndon and Vienna get “all the supplies they need to be ready to stay out for many hours and to make that time a bit more comfortable,” organizer Rosa Simon told FFXnow.
The family of a Springfield man who was recently killed in a plane crash will also bury the ashes of one of the dogs he was transporting.
The family of Seuk Kim, 49, went to Leesburg on Sunday (Dec. 1) to pick up the ashes of a puppy named Lisa, who died alongside Kim when his 1986 Mooney M20J crashed in the Catskill Mountains about 35 miles southwest of Albany, New York, on Nov. 24.
If it’s possible to sum up a life with two words, then testimony from family, friends and former colleagues suggests “service” and “community” should be top contenders for describing the legacy of longtime Fairfax County volunteer fire chief Homer Johns.
Speakers repeatedly circled back to those concepts at a memorial service on Saturday (Nov. 16), as they paid tribute to the over five decades Johns spent with the McLean and Great Falls volunteer fire departments.
Some equipment and staffing challenges remain, but Fairfax County’s 12 volunteer fire departments are positioning themselves for ongoing improvement after a solid fiscal year that ended June 30.
That was the message delivered by Fairfax Volunteer Fire Commission chair Shawn Stokes to the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday (Oct. 8).
The food pantry run by South Lakes High School’s PTSA has collected 2 million pounds of food and toiletries to help local students and their families.
The parents, staff and other volunteers who operate the pantry achieved the milestone during their most recent distribution event held last Thursday (July 18) at the Reston school (11400 South Lakes Drive).
