Julie’s son Nathaniel is 12 years old.  He likes playing video games and is doing well in school.  He owns a toothy smile that beams out from under his mop of hair.

Nathaniel’s smile might not be here if not for the March of Dimes’ work with Inova Fairfax Hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) of which he is a graduate. Nathaniel was born four months premature, weighing one pound, twelve ounces.

Julie Kipers didn’t know Nathaniel’s birth would necessitate a four-month NICU stay until the day before it began.  Now, after she and her family received myriad benefits from the infrastructure of support and comfort afforded by the March of Dimes, she has flipped roles, becoming a long-time volunteer on the Parent Advisory Committee.

“His medical conditions now are barely there. He looks and acts like an average kid,” she said as happy shouts from the just-finished March-For-Babies Walk reverberated around Reston Town Center.

Julie related a story from that morning, when parents of a recent NICU graduate emphatically shook Nathaniel’s hand, glad to see evidence that their own child can in fact transcend such harsh maladies.

“Parents need to know from other parents that they will get through it day by day,” Julie said. “We’ve been learning how best to get the family through those times.”

The Kipers family is an ideal example of what the March of Dimes’ NICU Family Support Program can do for our area’s families, thanks in part to the ample yearly financial donations generated by the Dulles Greenway.

Over 6,000 families have engaged in programs of comfort and support as a direct consequence of the Greenway’s financial contributions, according to Shannon Gilbert, Director of the March of Dimes’ National Capital Area chapter.

In 2005, the local chapter sought to expand its Family Support Program to Inova Fairfax in light of the 12,000 births cared for each year in that facility.  That’s when the Dulles Greenway — already long-established as a benefactor for the March of Dimes — stepped up its support.

The relationship between the Greenway and the March of Dimes’ National Capital Area chapter is as old as the Greenway itself.  Since the privately owned toll road opened in 1995, the Greenway has continuously partnered with the chapter through outreach like the March For Babies.

Now, as a beneficiary of the Greenway’s annual Drive For Charity since that campaign began seven years ago, the March of Dimes relies upon the substantial monetary outlay to fund the many facets of its NICU Family Support Program.

“This program would not be in existence without the Dulles Greenway,” said Gilbert flatly. “The Greenway is what started it.”

The program, now in its sixth year at Inova Fairfax and with a satellite program at Inova Loudoun, has proven to be a needful one.

“Whether your baby is going to be in the NICU for a few days or many months, it can be a very difficult time, universally,” said Sara Donahue, a March of Dimes NICU Family Support Specialist.

“That’s where we can come in and provide that extra support to make sure the family knows what’s going on and what they need to know to make the best decisions and reduce the stress.”

Education, information, bilingual services, staff training and nursing modules are a few of the many pillars in the structure of support and comfort provided by the NICU Family Support Program — even down to the sense of normality that comes from piecing together baby’s first scrapbook.

Donahue added that the program employs a philosophy of “family-centered care” in which all members of a baby’s family become an integral part of the healthcare team, knowing the right questions to ask of providers while maintaining intimacy with their infant.

“We make sure there are no boundaries for parents to be parents to their baby,” she said.

So high is the quality of care given at Inova Fairfax’s NICU that a year ago it became the first facility in the nation to earn the Gold Seal of Approval from the Joint Commission for the care of premature infants — a recognition Donahue calls “a very big deal.”

With the aid of the Dulles Greenway, the March of Dimes NICU Family Support Program provides much-needed comfort and support at the most critical times so that kids like Nathaniel can show off that smile.

“Very happy,” said Nathaniel about his regular work as a March of Dimes volunteer, flashing the grin.  “I really like helping other kids who also really need it.”

By Jason S. Rufner

Each year since 2006, the Dulles Greenway has donated an entire day’s worth of tolls to directly benefit local charities that serve those areas the Greenway serves.

In 2012, that day will be May 17. The diverse charitable organizations to be granted equal shares of that day’s proceeds are Every Citizen Has Opportunities, the Loudoun Abused Women’s Shelter, Fresh Air / Full Care, the Loudoun Wildlife Foundation and the National Capital Area chapter of the March Of Dimes.

The toll highway’s own scholarship fund, the Dulles Greenway Citizenship Award, will also receive funding through the Drive For Charity.

The Greenway has donated over $1.2 million since the Drive For Charity’s inception, averaging in excess of $211,000 per event. In the 2011 edition of the Drive For Charity, the toll road collected $236,354.87, a record sum in the campaign’s history.

“We believe and expect that we will set another record for this year’s donation,” said Terry Hoffman, Public & Customer Relations Manager for the Dulles Greenway.

A five-part series of articles highlighting the good works done by these five charities – and examining the ways the Greenway’s Drive For Charity enables those good works – has been published in a multitude of blogs and media outlets since mid-March. These articles are available at DullesGreenway.com/Drive-For-Charity.

When the Dulles Greenway was being constructed and introduced back in the mid-1990s, it brought the Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy along with it.

While there exists no direct causation between the Greenway’s building and the LWC’s founding, both began serving Loudoun around the same time and immediately struck up an evolving relationship where economy meets ecology.

“The Greenway has partnered with us since the mid-’90s. We’re linked to the Dulles Greenway in just about every single way,” said Joe Coleman, co-founder and current president of the Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy (LWC), a small all-volunteer non-profit established in 1995 whose stated mission is to help Loudoun’s wildlife habitats survive and thrive.

The same expansive development of office parks, data centers and single-family homes that made the Dulles Greenway’s course viable also made the LWC’s efforts necessary. Acres of vital wetlands, native meadows and natural green spaces lost to concrete and steel needed replacing, and Loudoun’s remaining beauty needed protecting.

Right away, the Conservancy and the Greenway found common ground … literally. The 200-acre Dulles Greenway Wetlands Mitigation Project, also known as the Dulles Wetlands, was begun by the Dulles Greenway during its construction to allay the loss of habitable land to the Greenway itself. The Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy has since taken upon itself to assist the Greenway in stewardship of the Wetlands, covering territory along both sides of the Goose Creek in the Potomac River’s watershed.

Though artificial, the large swath of undeveloped land looks and feels entirely natural, and is the site of frequent and regular LWC-led excursions to observe the Wetlands’ residents — otters, frogs, deer, fox, fish, reptiles, insects and a seemingly endless variety of birds — for educational and scientific benefit.

“The Greenway has been a tremendous steward of their wetlands,” Coleman said before launching into details about guided walks and educational programs the LWC holds in the Wetlands as they show off the dragonflies and warblers.

Doing useful science and restoring usable habitat are two functions of the Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy. Two others are educating Loudoun’s human residents and advocating for Loudoun’s non-human ones. All four of these goals are continually achieved partly due to the Greenway’s annual financial contribution through the Drive For Charity, held this year on May 17.

The Conservancy has enjoyed a significant donation coming from the Greenway’s Drive For Charity in each of the campaign’s seven years.

“The money that comes to us from the Drive For Charity helps underwrite all the programs that we do,” said Coleman, noting his organization’s extremely low overhead costs. “It goes a real long way. You can do a lot of programs and projects with that.”

Though nearly every program offered by the LWC is free to the public, costs are involved in bringing in guest lecturers, conducting scientific monitoring, treating kids to field trips, planting new trees and restoring wildlife habitat to health.

Coleman, a Loudouner for almost 20 years and a Northern Virginian for much longer, is quick to point out that his is an organization “of treehuggers, not extremists.” Societal development, he says, is inevitable and beneficial — so long as the natural environment that permits society’s existence is preserved and cherished.

“Plus we find that [land] developers really do value open green space,” Coleman pointed out. “They market it as a selling feature. We’re just trying to help make sure that those spaces are as healthy for wildlife as possible. We can all be good stewards of our land and our wildlife.”

Coleman delights in telling of the vibrant natural places that flourish in Loudoun County, even the highly developed eastern side. Birds nest in Algonkian Regional Park. Wildlife abounds in the Horsepen Preserve. Blue heron make homes in their own rookery along the Broad Run.

“People want to learn how they can have wildlife as neighbors without fearing it,” he said.

The greatest, gravest threat to wildlife in Loudoun or anywhere, according to Coleman, is the loss of its habitat. Once the home of a beaver or blue heron or butterfly or box turtle is destroyed, it stays destroyed, not to return. Then the wildlife has to find someplace else to live wild, somewhere else to forage, hunt, shelter and breed — often unsuccessfully. Then the wildlife dies, not to return.

As the Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy and the Dulles Greenway continue to go green together, a culture of life is being maintained which keeps Loudoun beautiful and vital for generations (of all species) to come.

VIP members can qualify for cash back by making 180 trips on the Greenway within a 12 month period, an average of 15 trips per month.  Cash back earnings are based on 5% of the toll expense.  The more trips a member makes the larger the cash back potential.

Becoming a VIP member is free and new members receive an additional 15 bonus trips when they enroll online at dullesgreenway.com.  To earn cash back through the VIP Miles Frequent Rider Program a Virginia E-ZPass account is necessary to track trips on the Greenway.

Saving time, saving money, and living better—it is all yours with the VIP Miles Frequent Rider Program and the Dulles Greenway.

Each summer during the past decade, dozens of Loudoun’s children have enjoyed the robust activity, healthy socialization and memorable experience of a trip to a Loudoun summer camp — thanks to the work of Fresh Air/Full Care.

Fresh Air/Full Care (FA/FC) is a non-governmental, non-profit, volunteer-run organization whose singular goal is to provide underprivileged children of age 12 and younger with safe, secure, nurturing daycare and camp programs while their parents are busy with work.  In the summer of 2011, 105 kids participated in 531 weeks of camp through FA/FC, valued at over $74,000.  Similar numbers of youth will be so lucky in 2012.

For the last seven summers, Loudoun’s children were granted such valuable experiences thanks to donations from the Dulles Greenway.

“Critical,” said FA/FC President Charles Harris, describing with one word the importance FA/FC places on the annual contribution made by the Greenway through its Drive for Charity campaign, held this year on May 17.  Every penny of all tolls collected by the Greenway on that day will be distributed to five Loudoun-based charitable agencies, including Fresh Air/Full Care.

Since some sources of funding have recently become unavailable to FA/FC due to economic and political circumstances, the dollars generated by the Drive for Charity have become even more important.

“The only funding for summer camps for the working poor is what Fresh Air/Full Care provides, and most of that comes from the Dulles Greenway,” Harris said. “For the last couple years that’s basically been the only funding for summer programs.”

He added, “If it weren’t for the Greenway, we wouldn’t be able to fund this program.”

Harris is a former Loudoun County Supervisor who assumed the FA/FC presidency in 2004, responding to “a tremendous unmet need for childcare services for the working poor in our county.”  Having his own background with public assistance, he knows first-hand the vital need for youth to benefit from productive experiences in secure surroundings.

“It’s crucially important to help young people, especially pre-school and early grade school kids, have safe environments in which to be raised, especially when the family is going through some trying situations.”

That’s what Fresh Air/Full Care has been doing:  Helping young people as their family goes through trying situations.  That’s what the Dulles Greenway has been helping Fresh Air/Full Care to do.

The results are tangible.  Theresa Smith and Chris Shadwick of the Loudoun County Department of Family Services (DFS), which works closely with FA/FC, delight in regaling others with successful tales from the camp trails.

One such story tells of a local father who maintains his restaurant job an hour’s drive away while being the sole parent for his two children, both of whom have attended summer camp through FA/FC for the past several years.  The man’s eldest child recently took it upon herself to undergo formal training as a camp counselor. She will have gone from regular campgoer to a paid position and a potential career.

“He’s a very grateful man,” said Smith as Shadwick finished the story.  “He can’t afford to give them this himself so it’s been wonderful for them and a real success story for his daughter.”

Fostering an environment in which success is achievable by all of Loudoun’s children — regardless of finances — is a touchstone of the continuing partnership between the Dulles Greenway and Fresh Air/Full Care, according to Janis Light Chamblin of DFS.

“It’s just a wonderful thing that the Greenway does this for our families and our community.  It’s great for the kids and the parents.  It addresses a huge need in Loudoun County,” Chamblin said as Shadwick and Smith nodded, agreeing.

On Sunday, Donna Quinn and I decided to go for a visit over to the Bald Eagle nest at the Dulles Greenway Wetlands Mitigation.

By our calculations, the eggs should be hatching and we just had to go see.

Well, we were not disappointed.  As we pulled out the spotting scope and walked towards a break in the trees where we could get a clear shot of the nest, we noticed that no one was sitting on the nest.  That was clue number 1.

Clue #2 that something was up…….one of the adults was standing guard over the nest, a few branches away.

But things can happen, and nests can fail, so while we hoped that the two clues seen so far meant babies, neither of us said a word.

Instead, we got the scope into position and peered in through the eyepiece, seemingly trying to reach with our eyes to try to move this branch or that so we could see what was inside.

Then it happened….a little head popped up and bobbled around!  It must be a pretty young nestling as it seemed to bob its head up and down a bit and perhaps take rests since it would just pop up once in a while.

The sun haze was a bit much so my photos are not that great.  In fact, they’re sort of like the old “loc ness monster” photos from the ’70s….you can kind of make out the shape but it’s a bit blurry. In coming days, we’ll get more (better) photos.

For now, see a larger version of the photo here on our Facebook page. You can see it has its mouth open, no doubt waiting for lunch to arrive!

We also hope to see more little bobbing eaglet heads over the next few days.  In the past, this pair has raised 2-3 eaglets and this year will hopefully follow in that tradition.

Executive Director Sue Curtis and her understudy Nicole Acosta have interesting jobs working for the Loudoun Abused Women’s Shelter (commonly known as LAWS), one of five charities benefitting from the Dulles Greenway’s annual Drive for Charity fundraising campaign to be held May 17.

The interesting part isn’t that Curtis and Acosta oversee a 27-year-old non-governmental non-profit agency that provides much-needed social services to anyone — regardless of age or gender — who’s been victimized by domestic or dating violence, stalking, sexual assault or sexual abuse.

It’s that their jobs have something in common with those of undercover police or CIA agents: There’s a lot they just can’t talk about. Every day, LAWS handles situations that come straight from society’s less savory side, making sensitivity a requisite and privacy an imperative.

They can’t talk about cases they serve or cite examples of success stories or reveal whereabouts of facilities. The “S” in LAWS stands for “shelter” because that’s precisely what those served by LAWS require.

Sadly, many people require such shelter — a fact the two LAWS executives can talk about.

“There’s a misperception that this problem doesn’t affect our community as much as it does,” said Acosta, a six-year LAWS employee preparing to assume the executive directorship from Curtis in May. “People are surprised when we tell them how many individuals we serve in a year.”

Last year that figure was in excess of 1,000 children, women and men, all cases originating in Loudoun County.

“I guarantee if we’re serving 1,000, there are many more we’re not serving, for any number of reasons,” Acosta added somberly.

In her 23-year career with the agency, Curtis has seen that number rise with the population. She’s also overseen LAWS as the shelter has risen to meet new challenges, particularly in the wake of the infamous O.J. Simpson trial of the mid-1990s.

“That was like a two-year commercial for our services,” Curtis quipped. “We’d realized that there were so many women in the community who needed help that we needed to take this very small shelter-based program and expand our services.”

LAWS has been expanding its service capacity since, from counseling to support groups to court advocacy, communicating in English and Spanish. The organization runs several programs, such as the Parent/Child Nurturing Program, the Teen Violence Prevention Program, the Child Advocacy Center and a Crisis Hotline. LAWS boasts a staff of 31 including two attorneys.

Curtis and Acosta can talk about the fact that, unlike the police or CIA, LAWS is a non-governmental entity relying on grant, fundraiser and donation monies to provide necessary services to a growing, diverse and increasingly young Loudoun population.

That’s how proceeds from the seventh-annual Drive for Charity – in which LAWS has participated every year – makes its valuable presence felt.

“Money is so critical,” Curtis said. “If you’re going to do a good job, you have to have good people. So you have to be able to meet the payroll.”  Acosta added to the comment.

“When you’re serving a bigger and bigger number of people with the same amount of money and staff, you have to make sure the quality of services stays top-notch,” she said.

Money isn’t merely important. The message imparted by Curtis and Acosta is that money is absolutely paramount — and that’s why the Dulles Greenway’s substantial contribution to LAWS in each of the past seven years has been so key. Those funds go toward offsetting costs of LAWS’ entire operation so the shelter can foster social justice in Loudoun in the years to come.

“This is a huge donation for us,” Curtis said. “For those of us who work in non-profits, getting grant money is an arduous task.”

She described the daunting paperwork and grueling deadlines associated with applying for assistance from state and federal social welfare agencies, juxtaposing that funding avenue with the Greenway.

“But the wonderful people at the Greenway collect this money and write us a check,” the executive director said. “It’s wonderful. It’s absolutely wonderful.”

Ironically, if LAWS can demonstrate that the community supports it, that fact bolsters their chances of earning grants. The Dulles Greenway’s Drive for Charity donation is a large factor in that demonstration of community support.

“Even though the grants are a larger portion of our income, we wouldn’t be able to get those without this help from the Greenway,” Acosta said.