JABA Busy with Holiday Fun, Gift-wrapping Fundraiser
Throughout December, JABA has scheduled several holiday delights for its members. This week, Buford Middle School’s choir sang holiday songs on Wednesday and Tom and Kathy Sendall shared their antique mechanical music makers with JABA members on Thursday morning. “The Sendalls brought music boxes and instruments similar to player pianos. The collection dated as far back as the 1800’s and early 1900’s,” says Mary Williams Community Center Manager Kelly Carpenter. “Each music maker used a slightly different technique, ranging from paper reels with holes punched, to wooden reels, to metal discs.”
Next week, JABA members will venture to Graves Mountain Lodge for a special holiday gathering. “This is a trip the members have taken before, but not for the special holiday gathering,” Carpenter says. “We’ll be participating in the Holiday Social at the lodge where they plan to have hot drinks and caroling. Then they are serving a special holiday menu for lunch with roast turkey and all the trimmings.” After the fun, JABA members will participate in a gift exchange.
JABA relies on community support to provide such engaging opportunities for its members. Thus, with paper and scissors in hand, JABA volunteers will be wrapping gifts at Barnes & Noble from 5:00pm to 8:00pm on Tuesday, December 17 to raise funds for the organization. “The gift wrapping is a fundraiser Barnes & Noble offers to local nonprofits,” Carpenter explains. “We can only wrap items purchased at Barnes & Noble, but we are collecting donations for doing the work of wrapping.”
Promote Winter Health with Common Ground’s Winter Hibernation Workshop
Next Wednesday, December 18 Common Ground will host a workshop dedicated to promoting health throughout the winter. Kathleen Maier, AHG, PA, a practicing herbalist with over twenty years of experience, will lead this Winter Hibernation workshop from 7:00-9:00pm. The workshop will be centered around practices inspired by Traditional Chinese Medicine. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, winter is the time of the Water element, which governs the kidneys and bladder. Thus taking time to rest the adrenals, which affect immunity and the nervous system, can be especially useful at this time of year. The class will touch on simple ways participants can use herbs to replenish the ‘burn out’ from adrenal stress and how to honor the seasons within and without.
Maier is also the director of Sacred Plant Traditions, where she offers a Three Year Clinical/Community Herbalist training program, and a founding Board member of Common Ground Healing Arts. She is co-author of Bush Medicine of San Salvador Island, Bahamas.
The cost for this workshop is $25.00. Fees received from workshops like this enable Common Ground to offer a sliding scale fee for many of their other services, so that the healing arts are available to all. Common Ground is also seeking support for its services through its giving campaign, so that it may continue to providing access to the healing arts to community members, regardless of income.
Carver Rec Hosts Winter Break Camp
Carver Recreation Center will be offering Winter Break Camp for children ages pre-K-6th grade over the holidays. Camp will feature arts and crafts, games, field trips, gift-making, swimming, and other activities. Parents can sign their children up for Week One (December 23-27, excluding December 25) and/or Week Two (December 30-January 3, excluding January 1), running from 7:30am to 5:30pm each day. The fee per week is $75.00 for residents and $113.00 for non-residents. Parents must provide a lunch and snack for their children each day. For more information or to register, call 434-970-3260.
Literacy Volunteers Receives Two Grants Through Charlottesville
Literacy Volunteers of Charlottesville/Albemarle is excited to have been awarded two $5,000 grants through the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation. The Bama Works Fund of Dave Matthews Band in the CACF and the community endowment fund both awarded Literacy Volunteers funds to put toward its English as a Second Language (ESL) tutoring program, “Community Connection,” and for tutor recruitment. Since moving to the Jefferson School City Center in December of 2012, LVCA has seen a 20% increase in demand for tutoring services. Many of these new students are involved in the “Community Connection” program, which addresses civics concepts while providing English language instruction. In 2014, LVCA expects to serve at least 260 adult ESL students through the program and will have over 200 active tutors in the program.
Jefferson School City Center is a voice of the nine nonprofits located at Charlottesville’s intergenerational community center, the restored Jefferson School. We are a legacy preserved . . . a soul reborn . . . in the heart of Cville!
