I have decided that this coming year I am going to do 365 intentional acts of kindness. Please join me in making our world a little brighter for others. #rocktownresilient #365actsofkindness
This year has been filled with a lot of negativity and challenges. On a personal level, I know I am blessed to have enough, maybe even more than enough. I did not go hungry. I have a home. I have stayed healthy. While work slowed tremendously for a few months our small business is surviving. While 2020 was filled with negative things, there were lots of silver linings and blessings.
The opportunity to work from home, spending more time with my girls this year, is incredible. I am still able to serve my clients and be with my family more than I ever imagined possible. The interactions I have had with friends this year have been special, whether through zoom or distanced in-person. Not having the ability to see anyone anytime makes the few meetings much sweeter. There have been so many positives in this year.
Finding ways to support others this year also has brought me incredible joy. Rotary Club of Rockingham County has not had in-person meetings since March and many of our service projects were cancelled. However, that did not stop our #serviceaboveself. I was fortunate to be able to deliver meals once a week to First Step on behalf of our club for a couple of months. I participated in a food drive for Our Community Place, cleaned up a highway, picked up trash along blacks run near Purcell Park, helped hand out food to Harrisonburg school families, and planted tulips at First Step and NENA Community Center. I supported local business by eating at locally owned area restaurants once a week at least and showing love to the servers and delivery drivers.
I also wrote positive online reviews for local companies, donated to local fundraisers and food pantries, purchased music and swag from local bands, and sent notes of appreciation to essential workers. I have tried to remember every day to wish a Happy Birthday to friends on Facebook and have sent out more thank you notes and gift cards this year than any other year before. I helped install solar panels at Eastern Mennonite School in a solar barn raising project. I found places to help others by creating online resources for home schooling, researched and published tips to make buildings safer, and created stress relief coloring pages. I also created amonthly young professionals networking group and hosted monthly education sessions for other architects. In order to support the local arts community I designed an outdoor stage that was used by both EMS and Harrisonburg High School.
I had not thought about all the good that these actions were doing for me until I watched this Ted talk that Nadia posted to Facebook.
So now after seeing this video, I am going to be intentional this coming year about putting #serviceaboveself. I will pledge to do #365actsofkindness over the coming year. Please join me and help spread kindness through the world and bring yourself happiness through action.
Design for connection allows human beings to have a sense of belonging through the spaces they inhabit.
As human beings, we need a sense of belonging, connection, we need to gather. Social connection can lower anxiety and depression, help us regulate our emotions, lead to higher self-esteem and empathy, and improve our immune systems. As I think about the projects I have worked on over the last few years, many of them have a common theme of providing a place for connection. In this time of distance I am realizing how important design for connection is for me, my clients, and our community.
Designing a performance stage that is centered around Red Wing Roots Music Festival is clearly a design for connection. The stage is the base for bands to bring in their fans around the common interest of their performance. The connections that happen in this space are between the musicians and the audience, but also the lighting and sound engineer and band, the photographers, the promoters, and of course nature. How this venue works for all those connecting through the space sets up a basis for success. This space at Natural Chimney park is designed for connection.
We can see how movement, light, and sound amplify the experience in a live production like Eastern Mennonite School’s musical Les Misérables on the stage we designed – with huge help and inspiration from Ms. Anderson that had a vision. However, the most important aspect of this stage was that it provided connection for students in a safe way in a time where distance is required. It allowed them to connect with the community through sharing their talents. It gave connection opportunity through a space of performance.
It is not just large outdoor spaces that have these positive outcomes of providing connection for community, it is also private spaces that allow for gathering safely. A rooftop deck provides privacy, views, and needed ventilation for groups to connect while distanced in a more intimate connection setting.
Thinking about connection, while designing this Charlottesville Habitat for Humanity house a few years ago, found a long front porch as the right solution. While designing and learning more about the Habitat mission of providing home ownership I realized that one key element with these homes is building a sense of connection through community. Connection comes through spaces designed to facilitate coming together. Instead of two independent porches, I took the design a step further and connected them across the front of the unit with a built-in bench between, a place for connection for neighbors.
In less public spaces I also design for connection. A cozy living room / dining / living area with built-in seating options allows for connection within the home. The colors, textures, and light offer a calming space that allows for focus on those around you sharing life.
The idea that through design we can build a better community, our firm motto, is not just a macro idea about the larger community. It exists in every farmhouse, business, stage, school, church, and deck we design. This year more than any other I am realizing the importance of the work I do to design for connection. While I might be hired to design a living room addition, my responsibility is to design for the connections that space will facilitate in the future.
It is that time of year again, The Rock Rotary annual Car Raffle Party! Get your tickets for the Rock Rotary party supporting local non-profits today! This annual event is hosted at JMU’s Bridgeforth Stadium Club Levelon February 23, 2019 from 7:00 pm – until. The event benefits several local non-profits that do great work in our community including First Step, Generations Crossing, and The Rotary Foundation. Your donation of $150 provides one pass to get into the party and one chance to win a 2018 Ford Fiesta Hatchback while helping your community. This must attend party includes an vast spread of food and drink along with some of the best networking in the valley. Join us this year for a special scale Soap Box car race event. Just send me an email or call for your ticket. I would love to see you there.
First Step: A Response to Domestic Violence believes that all people have the right to live without violence or the fear of violence. This organization is dedicated to empowering survivors of domestic violence through support and education. First Step says abuse is not always physical. Threats of violence, destruction of property and / or pets, name calling, humiliating you in front of family and friends, putting you down – all of these things are abuse. Abuse is not caused by alcohol. It is not caused by stress. Abuse happens when one person seeks to hold power over another. First Step supports people who are living with violence or the threat of violence in their lives.
Generations Crossing‘s mission is to provide high quality, innovative adult and child care for our ethnically and economically diverse community. Unique to this program is an opportunity for adults and children to develop meaningful relationships with all ages within their loving, inter-generational setting.
The Rotary Foundationtransforms gifts into service projects that change lives both close to home and around the world. This foundation enables our club to advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace through the improvement of health, the support of education, and the alleviation of poverty. This fund supports our local club’s grant program that has in recent years supported a grant for On the Road Collaborative, Big Brother Big Sister, and Harrisonburg Parks and Recreation.
So get your ticket as soon as possible before they are sold out. This event allows you to help three non-profits, attend a great party, and gives you a chance to win a new car!
Get your Rotary / On the Road Collaborative t-shirts, they are now available for $20. Let me know how many you want!
“I want to make a difference in the world.”
If you have ever said this but feel like you are limited as to what you can do, maybe you should change your perspective. One person might not be able to change the world, but you can change the world for one person. Hopefully you will decide to change their world for the better. It may be a simple smile but even better if it is an outstretched hand of hope and love.
I believe it is our duty to each day work to serve others. This is my “Why Rotary” story. Why, because we serve others.
Rotary allows me to amplify my efforts and multiply my impacts. I call it the magic of Rotary. This year the Rotary Club of Rockingham County partnered with the Rotary Club of Harrisonburg to write a grant to benefit On the Road Collaborative. We are now selling t-shirts designed by On the Road Collaborative students to help fund the grant. This is where each donation, each community member, each action makes a huge difference. We need you to purchase a t-shirt. We can all come together to help our community by offering students love and support through On the Road Collaborative. Sure the OTRC team offers students exposure to different career opportunities taught by community leaders. They give students strong role models to follow. They show students a path for the future that maybe the students did not think was possible for them. However, what I have seen first hand is On the Road Collaborative staff offers love and support to students in our community that may or may not feel that love and support from anyone else in the community.
So how can you make a difference? Purchase a t-shirt. They are $20 each.
When you purchase one, one will be donated to a student participating in OTRC. That $20 directly supports OTRC efforts. If you get a shirt, it has our logo so you can use it to enter the Gaines Group Architect’s Red Wing Roots Music Festival ticket contest. More than anything, you get a cool t-shirt, designed by students, and you show love and support for a student in our community. Check out the contest HERE.
On the Road Collaborative is a non-profit youth empowerment organization that sets under-served middle and high school youth on the road to college and career by connecting them to dynamic educational experiences and caring adults during the out-of-school hours.
Thanks to Brad Cohen for all his work putting this grant effort together!
A huge thank you to Ted Marrs at Abrahamse and Company Builders in Charlottesville for purchasing the first t-shirt! These guys always go above and beyond for their clients and the community. Thanks Ted!
If you want to make a difference, Rotary is the perfect place to start!
I do a lot of volunteer work. I am not saying that to boast, there is a lot of need, I spend a lot of time serving, and it is barely enough to create a ripple in my community. There is so much need. There is so little time. I do a lot of volunteer work and yet there is so much that remains to be done. We live in an imperfect world and we need more good to happen.
A few years ago a lawyer, Travis Vance, in town asked me to lunch to talk about Rotary. He had heard that I was doing volunteer work and wanted to tell me about his organization. I knew of it, but really did not know the full story. As he spoke about Rotary I could see there was something special about this organization. It turns out that Rotary is magical for those that want to transform their community. It allows a small group of passionate people in Rockingham County to help people across the world.His club, Rockingham County Rotary Club helped people in Limpopo Province of South Africa with a ceramic technology that cleans their water. His club also provides SoapBox Derby cars to kids in town through the Boys and Girls Club. It turns out his club also supports First Step, kids at Christmas through DSS, local parks system, On the Road Collaborative, Ronald McDonald House, Valley Business Keynote, Summer Peace Building Institute, and purchases books for elementary schools to build financial literacy just to name a few things. This small clubs makes a big ripple in the community and around the world. Travis welcomed me to the Rotary experience and asked me to give it a try.
What he did not tell me was that Rotary becomes your family. You build friendships each week. You learn about your community. You partner to make your community better for people you may never meet. You do all this with a diverse group of people: men, women, young, old, and you do it as equals, shoulder to shoulder.
Rotary is built on the 4-way test. It is not an exclusive club that only some can belong to in your community. It is a welcoming group of friends that want to help you make our community a better place. Rotary unites people from all continents and cultures. It allows for the exchange of ideas. It builds friendships and professional connections.
I want to invite you to experience the magic of Rotary. I want to invite you to breakfast with a group of my closest friends. We meet each Tuesday morning at 7am at the Golden Pony restaurant in Harrisonburg. Please come as my guest. If that is too early or the wrong day, don’t be discouraged. There are lunch clubs that meet on Monday and Thursday and a dinner club that meets on Tuesday all in our immediate area. If you don’t live close enough to Harrisonburg, there are clubs around the world. Let me know where you are and I will get you an invitation to your local club.
I really do believe if we all read the 4-way test and acted on it daily this would be a better world. I know if we all built friendships based on a common interest of making our community better we would all benefit. I know Rotary is magic and you deserve to experience it. I know that having you as part of Rotary will make Rotary better. Please let me know where you are and I will help you find the right club of friends that will welcome you with open arms.
The Rotary Club of Rockingham County is a group of friends that work together to put service above self. We meet weekly for breakfast and we have bacon!
Rotary International
Rotary International is a volunteer organization of business and professional leaders. Rotarians provide humanitarian service and help build goodwill and peace in the world. There are approximately 1.2 million Rotary Club members in over 33,000 Rotary Clubs. Clubs span more than 200 countries and/or geographical areas.
Rotary exists to improve communities through humanitarian, intercultural, and educational activities. This is done especially through the efforts of polio eradication. Rotary also focuses on peace building; international education; literacy; clean water; and other community-based projects.
We partner with other Clubs on broader initiatives. We’ve worked with the Albemarle County and Massanutten Clubs on a clean water project in Limpopo Province, South Africa through UVA’s Pure Madi program. We are actively partnering with other clubs to organize the Harrisonburg Strawberry Festival . This festival benefits both City and County public parks.
The Rotary Club of Rockingham County is a mid-sized Club with a big heart. We routinely see 100% participation of members at projects large and small (and social events dressy and informal!). We’re a Club that is, by its very nature, easy-going. As a Club past president said, “you have to be laid back if you’re going to meet before work once a week!” However, we are passionately committed to the ideas and goals of Rotary. Perhaps more importantly: we’re a Club where you can make a positive impact in your community while making new friends over coffee, bacon, and a good breakfast.
Come for a visit!
We invite you to join us at one of our meetings or events. (You can find us most Tuesday mornings at 7:00 am at the Golden Pony in Downtown Harrisonburg.) Explore how accepting the Rotary motto of “Service Above Self” will benefit the communities in which you live and work. Also learn more about how it benefits your everyday life.
Get your Rotary / On the Road Collaborative t-shirts, they are now available for $20. Let me know how many you want!
Rotary allows me to amplify my efforts and multiply my impacts. I call it the magic of Rotary. This year the 
When you purchase one, one will be donated to a student participating in OTRC. That $20 directly supports OTRC efforts. If you get a shirt, it has our logo so you can use it to enter the Gaines Group Architect’s 
