Join disaster preparedness event

Good morning Prince William and happy St. Patrick’s Day. Please treat yourself to a healthy beverage today such as a big glass of green tea. I bet you thought a good Irishman such as me was going to toast to your health and good fortune with some other green beverage but we have lots to do so I’m staying with the tea for today. But I am wishing you good health and good fortune in 2008.

What are you doing Wednesday? Please come join us for a Disaster Response drill at the McCoart Government building from 9:30 a.m. to noon. This is going to be lots of fun. We are testing our capabilities to process lots of volunteers so when something dreadful happens we will be able to point volunteers to where they are needed to help out a neighbor. In the exercise we’ll ask you to pretend you are a disaster volunteer wanting to be placed somewhere in the community. You actually won’t leave the building. You will just walk through our Volunteer Reception Center steps of registering, getting oriented to the work to be done, being given a pretend job and receive an ID bracelet. We are conducting this drill in partnership with all the other volunteer centers from the National Capital Area. Please come and help us fine-tune our system. We will be in the Occoquan room which has it’s own outside door to the left of the main entrance to the McCoart Center. Please call Bonnie at 703-369-5292, Ext. 202, for more information and I promise you, we’ll have fun.

If you love working with little people, the Manassas Early Head Start program has lots of opportunities for you to help with kids activities. As a teachers assistant you will help in the class room during the traditional school day with kids age up to 3 years of age. The minimum age for this volunteer job is 16 years old, and a TB test and background check will be required. Please call Ann at 703-219-2193 for more information about this great program in the City of Manassas.

The Chantilly Academy has some very neat kids trying to help out a gentleman in remission with Medullablastoma but with huge medical bills. Mrs. Rightnour and class are planning a Carnival-Fun Night for the benefit of this gentleman. Volunteers are needed to be artists, face painters but mostly to garner game supplies and prizes for the games or raffle items. They would love to have a moon bounce if you know of a firm to donate it for the event. Please call Madison at 571-643-6147 if you can help with this lovely event for our neighbor.

Last but certainly not least, those fun folks at the Juvenile Detention Center wish to thank all that helped with the Bluebird House project. The Bull Run Mountain Conservancy even donated a webcam so the kids can watch the birds build their nest, feed and hatch their fledglings and learn to fly. A huge cheers to the Conservancy, Boy Scout Troop 1367, the Girl Scouts, Lowe’s of Manassas and Long fence for this wonderful project and also another huge cheers to Benfield Electric for providing power to the greenhouse. The kids are planting flowers to make the centerpieces for our countywide Volunteer Recognition event and will also have a vegetable garden this summer. Needless to say there is always something special going on at the Juvenile Detention Center.

If you are looking for other opportunities, please don’t forget to call my wonderful team at the Voluntary Action Center. Diane can help senior volunteers with Retired and Senior Volunteer (RSVP) opportunities at 703-369-5292, Ext. 207; Shelley can help with 1-800 volunteer opportunities at 703-369-5292, Ext. 201; Sue can help you with the Medical Reserve opportunities available in Disaster Preparedness at 703-369-5292, Ext. 204; and Bonnie can help you with all the other many opportunities available in Disaster Preparedness at 703-369-5292, Ext. 202. Or please don’t forget our Web site at volunteerprincewilliam.org. Thanks so much for all you do in our community. Until next week, please stay safe.

Mary Foley is the executive director for the Volunteer Action Center in Manassas.