My name is Glancy Rosales and I am originally from Guatemala. I was eleven years old when I migrated to the United States, partly because my parents thought we (myself, my brother and my older sister) would have better educational opportunities in this country. I was first enrolled at George Mason Elementary school, and my […]
NEWS
Ambassador Reflections – Why One Home Makes a Difference
When Community Lodgings re-opens six affordable housing apartments after an extensive renovation, they added a bonus: The renovation included adding one additional two-bedroom unit at their 607 Notabene Drive property. In a city where 14,000 households qualify for but are unable to attain affordable housing what difference does one more apartment make? Plenty, said […]
Ambassador Reflections – Six Questions with Councilman Justin Wilson
City Council member Justin Wilson has served on Alexandria’s city council for seven years – first in 2007, then continuously since 2012. He and his family live in Alexandria, where he also works for Amtrak. Justin recently answered six questions about Community Lodgings: What attracted you to Community Lodgings? The longevity of the commitment to […]
Ambassador Reflections – From a Volunteer’s View
By Holly Herman My name is Holly Herman. I’ve been a periodic speaker/trainer for the last four years, sharing my experience as an Executive Coach. I was attracted to Community Lodgings by the work they do. Community Lodgings is doing work that directly meets the needs of the community. The afterschool programs for the children […]
Ambassador Reflections – Getting to Know Donna Cramer
by Joy Loving, Volunteer Donna Cramer is an Alexandria-based realtor with McEnearney Associates, Inc., who has supported Community Lodgings, privately and through McEnearney Associates, for nearly two decades. Donna has sponsored several of Community Lodgings’ “Spring Forward” functions and even found a way to creatively incorporate the Washington Nationals into her giving. We asked Donna some questions about her continuing support […]
Ambassador Reflections – Free Hugs for Volunteers
Marilyn Whitehurst loves her kids. Her kids include her own child, the children she cared for as a pediatric nurse, and now the second graders enrolled in Community Lodgings’ Youth Education after school program and summer programs, where she volunteers once or twice a week. “When I first met the kids, I fell in love […]
Ambassador Reflections – Leading with Passion
Marie Muscella met Community Lodgings completely by chance. Her lawyer and Community Lodgings board member George Tuttle invited her to a board meeting one evening. It was 2009 and Marie was re-evaluating her life. What was important? What mattered? Volunteering was always a part of her family’s life growing up, and somehow she had drifted […]
YB – A Transitional Housing Success Story
When YB first moved to the United States six years ago with no job, no home, and no help, he faced a seemingly impossible task: to achieve self-sufficiency while raising his high school daughter on his own. After six months at a local shelter, he enrolled in our Transitional Housing Program. Just two months after […]
Naydelin – A Youth Programs Success Story
Naydelin, a first grader at George Mason Elementary School, enrolled in Community Lodgings’ after-school programming in the start of the 2016-2017 academic year. At registration, we learned she had been in public school system for less than a year after moving from Honduras, and was an English Language Learner with a Special Education Plan to […]
Ama – A Transitional Housing Success Story
Ama and her husband came to America in hopes of a better life and greater opportunities. But for Ama, it was a frightening time in which she found herself totally dependent on her husband. Ama spoke very little English, had no friends or family in her new country and often found herself on the bad […]