nonprofit

Arlington Young Dems Prep for Charity Date Auction

By ARLnow.com



The Arlington Young Democrats are preparing for their biggest night of the year, not counting election night.

The Young Dems will be holding their 10th annual charity date auction Wednesday from 7:00 to 10:00 p.m. at Clarendon Grill (1101 N. Highland Street). More than 100 people have RSVPed for the event, which will feature “over twenty of Arlington’s sexiest bachelors and bachelorettes,” as well as celebrity auctionees Rep. Jim Moran, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, former Rep. Tom Perriello and former DNC Chair Terry McAuliffe.

AYD has released YouTube videos featuring two of its non-celebrity auctionees. Kat, above, is a personal trainer who says she can squat 175 pounds, enough to (probably) lift her date. Be forewarned, gents: you don’t want to pay for her meal with a Groupon. Chris, seen here, will take a lucky lady on a Potomac River sailboat ride with wine and cheese. He expects to fetch at least $10 to $15 at auction.

The auction will benefit the Arlington Street People’s Assistance Network. Attendees are encouraged to bring a new pair of men’s boxer shorts — in large, XL or XXL sizes — to donate at the door for a raffle ticket.

“National Pancake Day” at IHOP

By ARLnow.com

IHOP restaurants nationwide are celebrating “National Pancake Day” by giving away free short stacks of pancakes in exchange for charitable donations.

Like last year, when the chain raised $76,000, IHOP is collecting money on behalf of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

Local IHOPs participating in the promotion include the Ballston location at 935 North Stafford Street and the Potomac Yard location at 3425 Jefferson Davis Highway.

Flickr pool photo by Tim Kelley

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Artisphere Gets Latin Flavor — Arlington’s Guajillo restaurant and the District’s Casa Oaxaca restaurant have been chosen to jointly run a full-service restaurant and bar in Artisphere, the county’s new cultural center. The county board is expected to formally approve a lease at its Jan. 22 meeting. More from TBD.

Le Village Marche Merging with Verbena — Two Shirlington Village stores are becoming one. Le Village Marche, a French housewares store, is moving into the larger retail space of Verbena, a stationary store under the same ownership. The mew store, which will inherit the Le Village Marche name, will continue to offer many of the same products and services as Verbena. More from Shirlington Village Blog.

Bowen McCauley Dance Gets Creative With Funding — Bowen McCauley Dance, an Arlington non-profit, was profiled on the PBS Nightly Business Report last night. Faced with a major financial shortfall after Virginia pulled a third of its funding, the dance company doubled down, increasing the scope of its programs by drawing on cash reserves. More from PBS. (Scroll down to the final few paragraphs.)

Readers Help Raise Money for Charity — Thank you to everybody who bought raffle tickets to support Doorways for Women and Families over the past 36 hours. The raffle is now over, and thanks to ticket purchases from the readers of this and three other local web sites, our friends at What’s the Deal raised a total of $2,615 for four very worthy causes. (Update at 11:35 a.m. — The total raised for Doorways is $487.50. We’ll pitch in the additional bucks needed to bring it to a nice, even $500.00.)

Flickr pool photo by Christaki

Support a Great Local Charity, (Possibly) Win Cool Stuff

By ARLnow.com

ARLnow.com has teamed up with our friends at What’s the Deal to support Doorways for Women and Families, which is trying to reach an important $100,000 fundraising goal by the end of the month.

With family homelessness at historic levels and incidents of domestic violence on the rise, Doorways has seen demand for its services rise in Northern Virginia.

For the next 36 hours, you’ll have the chance to make a small donation to Doorways while being entered into a raffle featuring more than 15 prizes from restaurants and other businesses around D.C.

Your raffle ticket purchase of $5 or $10 will help pay for Doorways’ domestic violence safehouse and court advocacy services, as well as its homelessness prevention efforts and emergency family shelter.

Click here to buy raffle tickets to support Doorways.

You can also check out the charities being supported by three other local sites — We Love DC, EatMore DrinkMore and K Street Kate — here. The charity that raises the most money (100 percent of the purchase price will go directly to the charities) will have their donations matched by What’s the Deal.

A-SPAN Holding Christmas Eve Dinner for Local Homeless

By ARLnow.com

The Arlington Street People’s Assistance Network is holding a Christmas Eve dinner for homeless individuals at the county’s Emergency Winter Shelter in Courthouse.

The non-profit issued the following press release about the event.

A-SPAN staff, local volunteers and community religious and business organizations have joined forces to serve a festive dinner at Arlington’s Emergency Winter Shelter (EWS), on Christmas Eve. A stuffed turkey has been donated by Temple Rodef Shalom and an assortment of pies and cookie plates for dessert has been donated by Harris Teeter. Dinner set up will begin at 5:30 pm and served to clients from 6:00 to 7:30 pm. The EWS is located at 2049 N. 15th Street, across from the Arlington Courthouse.

Early frigid temperatures have filled the EWS to an average capacity of 60 clients with over 3,000 bed nights so far this season, which began on November 1st and runs through March 31st, 2011. When temperatures reach 32 degrees, the shelter remains open for clients 24 hours. Regular EWS hours are 4:00 pm to 9:00 am, with dinner, showers, social services and breakfast provided.

A-SPAN provides life-sustaining services for Arlington’s homeless, which include daily street outreach, drop-in services such as showers, laundry, and food, and a bagged meal program serving up to 80 individuals 365 days a year. In addition, from November 1- March 31, A-SPAN operates the Arlington County Emergency Winter Shelter. The current economic and unemployment crisis has driven client numbers from 940 to 1740 this year. A-SPAN offers a wide variety of case management services through the Permanent Supportive Housing Program and the Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program, which is funded by the Federal Stimulus.

Tomorrow: Teen’s Charity to Collect Bikes for Africa

By ARLnow.com

If you have an old bike that you don’t use any more, there’s a more satisfying way to get rid of it than selling it for $5 at a garage sale.

Wheels to Africa, a group founded by Arlington teen Winston Duncan five years ago, will be collecting bikes Saturday to send to people in need in Africa.

Duncan, now 16, held his first collection drive in 2005 when he was just 11.  It was a success far beyond his expectations, and soon local and national media outlets were profiling him and simple yet powerful idea of improving the mobility of needy Africans by sending them old bikes.

Now in its sixth year, Wheels to Africa will be collecting bikes at nine different drop-off locations in Northern Virginia tomorrow from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. There will be three Arlington locations: Swanson Middle School, Washington-Lee High School and Yorktown High School. See a list of all drop-off locations here.

The group is also seeking a $10 donation with each bike, to cover the cost of shipping.

Screenshot via WUSA9

Arlington Church to be Featured on Dateline NBC

By ARLnow.com

A crew from Dateline NBC will be filming the evening mass at Our Lady Queen of Peace Catholic Church in South Arlington on Saturday. The church is being featured for its upcoming humanitarian mission to Haiti.

A delegation of parishioners and Remote Area Medical volunteers will be leaving for a two-week trip to Medor, Haiti on Sunday. Together, the group will conduct a medical clinic for the cholera-ravaged town of 40,000. They will also repair roads and build an airstrip to allow air ambulances to deliver critical supplies.

“Medor has no running water, no sewage or trash disposal, impassable roads and inadequate agriculture,” the church said in a press release. “Like the rest of Haiti, the village has been devastated by a succession of hurricanes, earthquakes and now the deadly cholera epidemic this year.”

The earthquake and aftershocks that reduced Port au Prince to rubble earlier this year also damaged schools, medical clinics and churches in Medor. It also resulted in an influx of refugees to the area.

Our Lady Queen of Peace, located in Arlington’s Green Valley neighborhood, has supported missions in Medor since 1997.

The Dateline special is set to air on or around Jan. 12, the one-year anniversary of the earthquake.

Tonight: Charity Happy Hour and Mad Men Cocktail Party

By ARLnow.com

A happy hour and a cocktail party are on tap in Clarendon and Bluemont tonight.

The Reading Connection, a group that helps improve literacy for at-risk youth, is holding a happy hour at Mister Days (3100 Clarendon Blvd) from 5:00 to 9:00 tonight. A $5 donation gets you great happy hour specials and a raffle ticket for prizes like an Amazon Kindle 3G or gift cards to local stores.

Then from 7:00 to 10:30 p.m., Covet boutique (5140 Wilson Blvd )is holding a “Mad Men Cocktail Party” that will let you “get in touch with your inner Peggy Olson or Don Draper.”

“Join Covet for a night of vintage cocktails and party fare to celebrate life when people smoked through doctors appointments, air travel was sophisticated and men wore fedoras,” the store’s Facebook page beckons.

Homeless Children Arrive at School Well-Supplied

By ARLnow.com

Thanks to generous donations, the 62 homeless youth served by Doorways for Women and Families were able to go back to school today with supply-filled backpacks.

The backpacks contained lunch bags, water bottles, pencils, crayons and even a gift card redeemable for donated clothing.

“The security of starting the school year well prepared will help these children to overcome some of the other uncertainties in their life right now,” Doorways services coordinator Kristen Barnes wrote on the organization’s blog.

Photo courtesy of Doorways.

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Pizza Autentica Adds Ballston Location — Crystal City isn’t the only Arlington neighborhood on the radar for fast-growing local chain Pizza Autentica. WBJ’s Missy Frederick reports that Pizza Autentica has signed a lease at 850 North Randolph Street in Ballston.

Arlington Food Blogger Profiled — The Fairfax Times takes a look at Arlington mom Colleen Levine and her natural food and cooking blog, Foodie Tots. A government affairs consultant by trade, Levine has amassed 2,500 Twitter followers by focusing her blog on kid-friendly, healthy cooking. The recipe for spaghetti caprese — part of Levine’s effort to promote “meatless Mondays” — looks especially appetizing.

Oil Spill Dogs Need an Adoptive Family — Arlington’s Lost Dog and Cat Rescue Foundation is trying to find a home for the last three of 12 dogs brought up from Louisiana after the Gulf oil spill. The shihtzu family — Gizmo, Trixie and Rocky — were given away by their former owner after he lost his job as a fisherman as a result of the spill. The story and photos from Fox 5.

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Hit-and-Run Bus Driver Facing Discipline — The Metrobus driver accused of rear-ending a car in Ballston and then driving off “will be disciplined,” a WMATA spokesperson tells TBD. Metro says the accident was “preventable” but is refusing to release the results of drug and alcohol tests performed on the driver after the accident.

Local Technology Firm Sold — Arlington-based ICx Technologies has agreed to be purchased by Oregon-based Flir Systems for $274 million. ICx manufactures high-tech sensors that can detect radiation, chemicals, explosives, and biological agents. Some of ICx’s largest clients include the U.S. military and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. More from the Oregonian.

Habitat for Humanity Fundraiser Tonight — A happy hour fundraiser for Habitat for Humanity of Northern Virginia will be held tonight at Busboys and Poets in Shirlington (4251 South Campbell Avenue), the Shirlington Village Blog reports. From 3:00 to 7:00 p.m., five percent of the restaurant’s revenue will be donated to the organization’s Northern Virginia office.

Flickr pool photo by Amberture

View More Stories