THANK YOU'S for a Successful Spring2Action

SOHO girls, watched over by Del Ray Program Director Angela,
work hard on their hand-written thank-you notes to Spring2Action donors.

On Wednesday, April 5th, the whole community (Alexandria and beyond!) mobilized to give a total of $1,592,459 to local non-profits, including many AMP programs.  Casa Chirilagua Mentors won the contest of most donations over Casa Kids Club and Casa Bible Study, while the entire organization received 4th place for most overall donors and 2nd place for most overall dollars!  The Alexandria Seaport Foundation received 7th for most overall dollars, while Space Of Her Own had a record-breaking fundraising year and finished 15th for most overall donors and 17th for most overall dollars. Casa Chirilagua, Community Lodgings, Space of Her Own, and Wright to Read all received matching grants from the Mason Hirst Foundation.  BRYCE Project and CCNA: RARE also participated in the event and received substantial donations.  On behalf of all AMP programs, we thank everyone who contributed!  

Thanks is the most important part, as 10 SOHO boys and girls learned this past week.  For an entire day each on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, 8 girls from Space Of Her Own and 2 boys from Space Of His Own gathered together to create hundreds of hand-written thank-you's to everyone who donated to their program.  Each wrote about what the donations will be used for, how their mentor helps them, and what their favorite part of SOHO is.  While the task was daunting and left the participants with some cramped fingers from so much writing, each expressed at the end of the day how grateful they were to everyone who had donated to make SOHO possible, and how rewarding it was to be able to express those thanks personally.  

Spring2Action is a yearly day of giving sponsored by Act for Alexandria.  Learn more about this year's fundraising results, and continue to follow AMP to see what amazing future events and projects these contributions support.  

Community Lodgings Open House

"Community Lodgings’ mission is to lift families from homelessness and instability to independence and self-sufficiency through Transitional Housing, Affordable Housing and our Youth Education Programs."

When most people think of Community Lodgings, they think of the transitional and affordable housing programs that help the homeless and low-income families of Alexnadria get back on their feet and move towards a brighter future.  What many don't know is that Community Lodgings also provide youth education programs that prepare children for self-sufficiency as adults.  These programs include after school academic support, as well as mentoring.  

On Monday evenings in the neighborhood of Chirilagua, students from grades 7 through 12 meet in the two Community Lodgings offices (girls in one office, boys in another).  Last Monday, AMP stopped by the boys program, in the basement of a neighborhood apartment building, where many of the students live.  As the boys and mentors gathered, two students moved to tables on the edge of the room to finish tests and homework due the following day, before joining everyone else in the activities.  First, the boys and mentors took turns reading from A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier.  Next, everyone joined in to work on a puzzle.  

Every week brings new activities, but the same faces to Community Lodgings.  As we went to meet the mentors, we recognized them and about half the mentors from the 2015 Community Lodgings video.  The boys have grown older, the mentors more experienced, but Community Lodgings remains a safe and fun place to spend a Monday evening!