Community Service

Heavy rain did not dampen spirits at our spin art booth this year.

We sponsored and staffed the booth at Del Ray's Art on the Avenue festival in Alexandria, Va. for the 12th year in a row. Below is a photo slideshow of the scene at the booth, which was set up in front of our Alexandria headquarters.

This weekend I joined almost 200 other fundraisers and rappelled down the side of the 41-story Rainier Tower in Seattle, Washington. The event raised over $233,000 for Special Olympics Washington. 

At Forum One, we help organizations achieve global impact. Yet this time of year, we turn our focus to our local communities. Although the recession is officially over, food banks and social service agencies in our area are swamped by demand like too many others across our nation.
So as part of our year-end giving, Forum One is supporting three community-based charities within the three cities in which we have offices:

Forum One sponsored a spin art booth Oct. 2 at Del Ray's Art on the Avenue festival in Alexandria, Va., for the 11th year in a row. Below is a photo slideshow of the scene at the booth, which was set up in front of our main office.

Any individuals pictured in the photos are welcome to download a high-resolution photo for personal use; here is the full photo set on Flickr. Click the magnifying glass icon and then the "view all sizes" link.

People are living more comfortably in Community Lodgings, Inc.'s transitional housing thanks to Rebuilding Together of Alexandria and Forum One volunteers. Rebuilding Together organized a project to rehabilitate the Elbert Avenue apartment building as part of National Rebuilding Day on April 24.

In the days following the disaster in Haiti, we have seen a remarkable number of people, organizations, and projects spring to action to support relief efforts. Here are some links and information on the various initiatives helping to deliver aid to Haiti:

Forum One staff ventured into the field October 3 — well, we went right outside our front door anyhow — for Alexandria's 2009 Art on the Avenue.

For the tenth year in a row, we sponsored a spin art booth at this annual multicultural crafts festival in our own neighborhood of Del Ray.

Close to a 1,000 children stopped by to create beautiful, original works of art. As you can see by their smiles in the video and slideshow below, they had a blast!

For the second year in a row, Forum One participated in Rebuilding Together Alexandria's National Rebuilding Day.

National Rebuilding Day is the annual signature event of Rebuilding Together, the leading national nonprofit working to preserve affordable home ownership by bringing volunteers and communities together to rehabilitate the homes of low-income homeowners.

While several of us were in San Francisco for the 2009 Nonprofit Technology Conference, we helped install a wireless network in a local community center. I have posted photos and more about our contribution to the conference's Day of Service on our "Field Notes" blog.