Fellowship Square provides affordable housing and services for older adults.
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Give, Gather and Get Involved
This is my favorite time of year. The spirit of Christmas opens our hearts to help others, maybe more so than any other time during the year.
The holiday season brings a number of blessings to Fellowship Square and to the residents that call Fellowship House home. This year, numerous churches, businesses, and individuals gave generously: residents received turkeys for Thanksgiving dinner; they received hats, scarves and gloves to keep warm in the winter months; and volunteers served hot meals and planned memorable celebrations.
The magic of the season is the spirit of giving. The warm generosity you and so many others have shown us this year continues to make a positive difference for our residents. While the organization is more than 50 years old, 2018 was a remarkable year in which we made tremendous strides in expanding services for residents and redeveloping and improving all of our 670 housing units.
This is a special time of year for all of us and I know that the residents at Fellowship House feel very much appreciated because of your generosity. The support they receive from you tells them that there are still people who care – people that don’t even know them are willing to give something to make their lives a little better.
I greatly appreciate everything you’re able to do to
support our organization
, and I look forward to delivering more good news in 2019 about the housing and service improvements in store for our residents.
Thank you for your generous support and have a healthy and prosperous 2019.
With gratitude,
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Christy Zeitz
Executive Director
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THANK YOU…
to all who supported our very successful
“Get in the Holiday Spirit”
fundraiser!!
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On the evening of December 6
th
, our gracious community partner,
Hunters Woods at Trails Edge
, hosted over 100 guests at a festive wine and dessert reception to raise funds for our mission to provide affordable housing and services for older adults with very limited incomes. The evening was complete with a wine tasting by Elli Benchimol (Advanced Sommelier), a lavish dessert buffet, silent auction, music… and lots of mixing and mingling.
Special appreciation goes to our
GOLD sponsors
:
GraceFul Care
,
CPDC
and
Bozzuto
; and to our
SILVER sponsors:
Cornerstones
,
Five Grapes
,
Griffin Owens,
Grimm + Parker
and
The Medical Team
!! We are also grateful for our other supporters for their donations and gifts in-kind – and to all of our guests who joined us for the evening! Thanks to you, our residents will continue to have access to much needed programs and services aimed at promoting healthy lifestyles and aging in place.
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If you were unable to support our holiday fundraiser,
Please Consider a Gift to our ANNUAL FUND…
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Fellowship Square plays an extremely important role
in the lives of our residents and future residents. Paying for daily needs like food, medication and transportation is almost impossible for residents
who only have a few dollars in their pockets
. And all too often, this lack of resources takes a physical and emotional toll on older adults for whom there's no one they can turn to for help.
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Because of generous donors like you, we are able to provide for emergency food crises, taxis, Uber/Lyft pick-ups, and volunteer drivers. We cover costs associated with dental work, eye glasses and hearing aids – none of which are fully covered by programs like Medicare or Medicaid. We give seniors a safe, comfortable environment where they can maintain their independence and yet have the security of knowing that help is available when needed.
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Congratulations
to our Fellowship Square Team!!!
We are proud of our hardworking staff and all of their accomplishments.
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Cheers to another successful
Woodbridge High School Christmas Party
at
Lake Ridge Fellowship House
! Each year the high school seniors sponsor this annual event - the residents look forward to interacting with the students doing crafts, games and sharing in a delicious lunch provided by the Olive Garden.
Happy Holidays!
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Family Caregivers are Hidden Backbone of U.S. Long Term Care System
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We have many reasons to give thanks for our families during the holidays, but an under-appreciated reason is that families provide the majority of long-term care in the United States. Family members often provide care before or in addition to the care people find in nursing homes, assisted living communities, or home care. However, much of that care goes unrecognized and unsupported by the larger society.
Approximately 43.5 million caregivers have provided unpaid care to an adult or child in the last 12 months. [National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP. (2015). Caregiving in the U.S.] At $470 billion in 2013, the value of unpaid caregiving exceeded the value of paid home care and total Medicaid spending in the same year, and nearly matched the value of the sales of the world’s largest company, Wal-Mart ($477 billion). [AARP Public Policy Institute. (2015).
Valuing the Invaluable: 2015 Update
.] According to research by the
Family Caregiver Alliance
the typical family caregiver is a woman who is 69.4 years old.
On average, caregivers spend 13 days each month on tasks such as shopping, food preparation, housekeeping, laundry, transportation, and giving medication. Caregivers spend 6 days per month on feeding, dressing, grooming, walking, bathing, and assistance toileting. Family caregivers also spend an average of 13 hours per month researching care services or information on disease, coordinating physician visits or managing financial matters. [Gallup-Healthways. (2011).
Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index
.]
The
Family Caregiver Alliance
is one organization that provides resources to enable family caregivers and advocates for polices to strengthen support of family caregivers in the United States.
Robert Greenwood, Senior Vice President, Public Affairs
National PACE Association
Fellowship Square Board Member
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Welcome to our new Fellowship Square and Largo Landing Fellowship House board members:
Rev. Theresa M. Brion
(Fellowship Square)
Theresa Hill and Nicole Marshall (Largo Landing FH)
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Rev. Theresa Brion
is an Episcopal priest who serves as Chaplain for Goodwin House Bailey’s Crossroads, a continuing care retirement community. A former ERISA/tax lawyer and legal editor, she also maintains her license as a CFP certificant. Theresa also has experience in rural and small church ministry as well as ministry with homeless, low-income, and underinsured individuals.
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Theresa Hill
has 40 years of experience working for the Housing Counseling Services (HCS) in Washington, D.C., where she is Deputy Director. HCS provides comprehensive housing counseling, training, advocacy, technical assistance and housing opportunities for low- and moderate-income home buyers, home owners, and tenants; to help them achieve successful living in healthy, safe, and affordable homes.
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Nicole Marshall
is a realtor, an entrepreneur, and has been involved in assisting people with real estate needs including foreclosures and home sales due to disability issues. She has also had experience in fundraising, business development, buying, selling and investing. Both Theresa and Nicole live in the Largo Landing area.
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Thank you for making this celebration possible!!
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Call for Volunteers!
Do You Speak Chinese, Farsi, Korean or Russian?
Volunteers are needed at our Reston communities to help with translation services for our residents! We need your help to translate documents into other languages, or to assist with resident questionnaires and surveys in group settings. Please email
[email protected]
if interested.
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Interested in Serving on a Fellowship House Board?
We welcome individuals to the House Boards who have a passion and interest in ensuring seniors have dignified affordable housing, and robust programs and services to help them age in place. Please contact our Executive Director, Christy Zeitz at
[email protected]
to learn more.
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PLEASE NOTE:
The Fellowship Square main office will be closed on
New Year’s Eve Day
and
New Year’s Day
.
Happy Holidays from all of us at
Fellowship Square!!
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Reminder:
If you have a Thrivent account, please designate Fellowship Square
for donations
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Stay in touch with Fellowship Square on Facebook!
We post bi-weekly articles, monthly updates on activities and events, our newsletter, and pertinent information regarding our houses.
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