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  Changing Lives ~ One Toll at a Time   

   By Leesburg Magazine

   A 3 part series that focused on Drive for Charity, which featured 

  Echoworks and Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy.

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Lilly Tella and Terry Hoffman collecting a toll.

 

This year's Drive for Charity raised $226,246.67 for charities serving  the citizens of Loudoun County. Over $1 million has been raised through our event in five years, making it one of the best fund raiser in Loudoun County.

Photo provided courtesy of David Madison Photography www.DavidMadisonPhotography.com

From left to right, Joe Coleman(Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy), Jean O'Meara (ECHO), Paula Grace Halewski (LAWS), Sara Donahue (March of Dimes), Chuck Harris (Fresh Air Full Care)

 

 

         

Drive for Charity Day, Thursday May 20th, 2010

The Drive for Charity is an initiative where the toll proceeds from a single day on the Greenway …are distributed to charitable organizations that benefit Loudoun County!

Since the toll road opened in 1996, Toll Road Investors Partnership II, L.P. (TRIP II), owners of the Dulles Greenway, has had a long-standing commitment to the community's welfare.

From the beginning, TRIP II provided funding for local youth sports teams, elementary school fundraisers, and high school graduation events. But in 2006, TRIP II had a desire to expand its support of the community, and initiated the Drive For Charity Event…

These 5 charities will share in the distribution of the Drive for Charity's 1-day gross revenues in 2009, 2010 and 2011:

These organizations were selected based on the valuable contribution they provide to the local community in the areas of community outreach, youth health & welfare, and the environment.  To ensure long-term funding, TRIP II chose to make a 3-year commitment to each organization selected.

 

 

 

With Greenway 'Drive for Charity' funding…here's how this year's recipients have benefited:

 

 

  • March of Dimes, the funding from the Dulles Greenway Drive for Charity is used to partially fund the NICU Family Support project at Inova Fairfax Hospital for Children which provides information and comfort to families in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.  Funds provide a part-time NICU Family Support Specialist to oversee activities for 1,200 families each year such as patient care kits, parent educational classes, and staff training.  Over 5,000 families have been touched by the work of March of Dimes through the generous funding from the Dulles Greenway.
  • ECHOWorks, a Loudoun based organization that finds jobs and provides transportation for people with disabilities plans to purchase 2 12-passenger vans with the funds that they received from the Drive For Charity Event this year.  ECHO is one of only a handful of providers in Virginia which has its own fleet of vehicles to provide daily transportation to their workforce.  As a result, Echo is removing one of the significant barriers to employment for people with disabilities.  The vans run approximately 245 days per year and provide 4,900 trips per year for passengers.  Trips that may not have been possible without the "Greenway Vans".
  • Loudoun Abused Women's Shelter (LAWS) provides crisis intervention, support and advocacy for victims of domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse in Loudoun County.  Additionally, LAWS works with middle and high school aged youth to promote healthy relationships and reduce incidents of dating violence.  The donation from the 2010 Drive for Charity will be used to support the Loudoun Child Advocacy Center, a child-friendly setting for children who are victims of abuse to talk about what happened to them.  Chlidren and their non-offending care-givers also receive appropriate help and referrals to assist them in dealing with very difficult situations.  www.loudouncac.org.
  • FreshAir/Full Care, A Loudoun based all volunteer charity, which will use the funds from the Drive For Charity Event to assist low income working parents to pay for the cost of summer Camp for their children. This provides the children with a safe and enriching experience through the summer months. This year 71 children have been approved for various camps throughout Loudoun County.
  • Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy, a local all volunteer non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the preservation and proliferation of healthy wildlife habitats throughout Loudoun County, will be using their proceeds from the Dulles Greenway's Drive for Charity to plant trees and shrubs along the county's streams which will improve and protect the county's water quality, offer over hundred educational field trips and programs throughout the county on the importance of wildlife including field trips at the Greenway's Wetlands Mitigation Project, collect scientific data on the state of Loudoun's wildlife, and provide 4 scholarships for their 2-week Nature camp and 1 scholarship for an advanced student to a wildlife resource camp out of the area.
  • Dulles Greenway Citizenship Award was able to expand its program to ensure long-term funding. The Citizenship Award was established in 2000, awarding its first scholarship funds in the spring of 2001. Since that time more than 91 students have received scholarships for college. In 2010, the program awarded $1,500 scholarships to 10 students from public high schools in Loudoun County.

 

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