Happy New Year from the staff of RSVP! We look forward to another successful year serving the non-profits and health care facilities of Montgomery County and Radford!
MLK Jr. Day of Service Initiative
Volunteers are needed for our tenth annual ‘Supplies for Seniors’ project in conjunction with the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service initiative.
Since 1994, thousands of Americans will remember Dr. King by providing service to their communities. This project will provide 250 homebound seniors and veterans living in Montgomery County, Giles County, Floyd County, Pulaski County, and City of Radford with one bag of personal care items and one bag of basic household supplies.
If you would like to help bag the items that were collected or purchased from the funds raised by our 2017 Pancake Breakfast and community donations, we will meet at the Christiansburg Recreation Center on Tuesday, January 16 and Wednesday, January 17th at 10 am to prepare the bags. Snow dates are scheduled for January 23 and 24 at 10 am. Please call RSVP to sign up to help, if you have questions about weather delays, or if you need transportation to this activity.
Gary Galbreath wins raffle
The winning raffle ticket for the Gift Cards Galore raffle valued at $1,140 was drawn by Santa at the holiday party on December 1st. Congratulations to Gary Galbreath of Check, VA and many thanks to those who supported this fundraising project which raised a total of $2,004! A special thank you goes out to the RSVP Advisory Council Fundraising Committee for brainstorming and carrying out the most successful raffle to date. The committee included Sally Anna Stapleton, Deena Flinchum, Raymond Lyons, Margie Vitale, and former member Shirley Peterson. For the first time in history, we will be able to provide two $1,000 scholarships with funds collected by a raffle!
Reading Hour
Reading Hour is a program in which adult volunteers spend one hour of their time each week, for a series of eight weeks, reading to and doing literacy activities with pre-school aged children who need extra literacy support. This program helps children who may not be read to at home, or who may need extra exposure to books and reading before being ready to enter kindergarten.
Each volunteer receives support from a program coordinator who provides them with training and any help they may need through-out the program’s duration. This is a fulfilling volunteer opportunity that provides a much needed service to childcare centers, and children throughout our community! To volunteer, please contact Anna Harbom at 540-639-9313 or at AHabom@nrvrc.org, or go to SmartBeginningsNRV.org to download an application!
Treasure Trove Thrift Store
The Treasure Trove Thrift Store, 3055 N. Franklin Street, Christiansburg is actively looking for volunteers on Wednesday (12-6), Thursday, Friday and Saturday (10-4). Volunteers usually work 2, 3, or 4 hours depending on their availability. Volunteers help with ringing up sales, pricing, stocking, accepting donations.
Project Linus
A Blanket Day is set for February 17 from 9 am to 3 pm at Grove United Methodist Church. For more information, call Penny Sweet at 230-6209.
American Red Cross
Help is needed at the American Red Cross Donor Center inside of Kent Square, 250 South Main Street Donor Room, Blacksburg. Volunteers are needed on Mondays – Wednesdays from 10 am to 2 pm and Fridays – Sundays from 9:30 am to 1 pm. Parking passes are provided for volunteers.
Med-Ride
Volunteers are needed to provide non-emergency medical transportation to clients in Montgomery County and Radford. The volunteer must use their personal vehicle and maintain liability insurance at all times. Mileage Reimbursements are provided to each volunteer.
Tax-Aide
The AARP Tax-Aide Program provides free federal and Virginia tax preparation to low- and middle-income taxpayers of all ages. You do not have to be a tax expert, training and certification are provided. Volunteer positions include serving as a tax counselor (preparing tax returns) or as a client facilitator (helping check clients in). Counselors and Facilitators are needed on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays from 1 – 4 p.m. and Saturdays from 9 am to noon during tax season.
Please contact pballard@vt.edu or phone 382-1189 for more information.
Volunteer Opportunities
Crafting with Christiansburg Library
Join Linda Spivey, Outreach Coordinator at the Montgomery-Floyd Regional Library, on January 8, in the RSVP Activity Room at 10:00 am to make a personalized calendar/planner for 2018. You must sign up by Friday, January 5 to participate. Come join the fun!
Box Tops for Education
We are happy to announce that $147.40 was collected by RSVP volunteers in 2017 to benefit Price’s Fork Elementary School.
Holiday Tote Bags
We would like to recognize the following groups and RSVP volunteers for making our Holiday Tote Bag project for the 106 residents of Kroontje Health Care Center a huge success: Calvary United Methodist Church, Com-munity Members, Montgomery County Employees, Montgomery County Retired Teachers’ Association, Sharon Brown, Glenda Caldwell, Sarah Carter, Mary Ford, Phyllis Geoghegan, Rick Geoghegan, Joyce Gezymalla, Ila Groseclose, Regina Howard, Erma Jones, Rosemary Jones, Shirley Mullins, Linda Parah, Jolene Rawlings, Rich Rawlings, Marilyn Rio, Jill Songer, Brenda Spangler, Tommy Susano, and Sally Zimmerman. We would also like to thank Fran Hart for providing a guided session on how to decorate the bags, and Cindy and Dennis Minnick for being our Santa and Mrs. Claus during the delivery of the bags!
New Volunteers in 2017
We would like to welcome the following 14 new volunteers that enrolled with RSVP in 2017: Bob Bratton, Nancy Collins, Cathy DeHart, Dan Fuller, Mollie Killian, Theresa Lovern, Lynn Martin, Dennis Naglic, Sharon Naglilc, Susan Parkhurst, Linda Rife, Nira Schiavo, Russell Schramm, and Lisa Wolf.
