Neighborhood news: Rehab center to hold seminar on holiday loss

Gainesville Health & Rehabilitation Center & Capital Hospice will hold a free educational session titled "Coping with loss during the Holidays." The seminar will be held Thursday from 2 to 3:30 p.m.

Tara Thomas, LCSW and Capital Hospice bereavement counselor, will discuss various losses throughout life and ways to help cope during the holidays.

Light refreshments will be served.

For more information, call Willy Ancho or Brittney Asbury at 571-248-6100.

Gainesville Health & Rehabilitation Center is located at 7501 Heritage Village Plaza, Gainesville.

Walk for orphans this Saturday

Holy Trinity's girls' Challenge Group invites the community to participate in the Soles for Souls Walk-a-thon at 10 a.m. Saturday at Holy Trinity Catholic Church on Linton Hall Rd., Gainesville. Participants will walk laps around the church property.

Donations will raise money to help Vladivostok Mission provide milk and fruit for Russian orphans.

Sponsors may donate by the lap or through a lump sum. Prizes will be awarded for the most sponsors and most laps. "Day of" registrations are welcome.

The rain date is Nov. 21.

For more information on donating or participating, contact Annie Maxson at 571-248-0168.

For more information on Vladivostok Mission, visit http://www.vladmission.org.

Tour old home sites this Saturday

Don't miss the Old Homes Sites tour at Bull Run Mountains Conservancy on Saturday from 8:30 to 11 a.m.

Explore cemeteries, foundations and clearings that mark past residences. Then sit back and enjoy a hot breakfast in the woods as local historian Marcia Markey performs a reenactment based on diaries, letters and other primary sources.

Pre-registration is required. Members pay $25, non-members, $30.

For more information or to register, contact BRMC at 703-753-2631. Visit http://www.brmconservancy.org for general information.

Dominion Women's Club raises funds for BRMC

Thanks goes out to Dominion Woman's Club, which donated $1,000 to the Bull Run Mountains Conservancy (BRMC).

Founded in 1995 to manage public access on the southern 800 acres of Bull Run Mountains State Natural Area Preserve, BRMC provides educational programs on the ecological, historical and cultural features of the Bull Run Mountains.

The Dominion Woman's Club Sisterhood Juniorettes also donated their time by volunteering at the conservancy's popular Annual Halloween Safari.

Gainesville Group volunteers adopt Heathcote Blvd. for state program

The Gainesville Group of Western Prince William County has been accepted by the state into the Adopt-a-Highway program. The group will lead periodic cleanups of Heathcote Blvd. from U.S. 29 to Old Carolina Road.

"Our deputy director, Carol Noggle, came up with the idea, and we all thought it was great. She took care of the forms and paperwork, and at our next meeting, we'll start planning our first cleanup," said Carl Genthner, the group's director.

For more information, e-mail or visit http://www.thegainesvillegroup.org.

Katherine Gotthardt reports your neighborhood news from the Gainesville and Haymarket area every Wednesday in the News & Messenger. If you have news about birthdays, your family, your club or your HOA's activities, please send it to Katherine at ..