Even in this down economy, the New Dominion Women’s Club exceeded its 2008-09 club year fund-raising goal by nearly 40 percent. They gave more than $1,200 to six local charities: McLean Project for the Arts, SHARE, Falls Church/McLean Children’s Center, Langley Residential Services, Reading is Fundamental, and Education for Independence.

"The New Dominion Women’s Club has filled the past 40 years serving our local community," said Jennifer Salopek, NDWC president. "Our logo and mission statement is ‘Helping local charities,’ and basically what we do is we raise money and we give it away."

NDWC’s full mission statement is "a civic organization committed to enhancing the quality of life in our community through volunteer service and financial contributions, while providing an opportunity for fellowship among women."

"This past year, the 2008-09 club year, our major fund raisers were a spring fashion show and luncheon, an art gallery opening which was joint with MPA and a white elephant sale," said Salopek.



NDWC works with 20 local charities, as well as others if the opportunity arises. Every year, the members vote on which charities their fund raising should benefit.

"This year, we decided to select fewer charities in advance, so we really knew what we were working for, and to do it in a way so we could give each one more money and make a bigger difference," Salopek said.

NDWC has had a longtime partnership with MPA, and both organizations cherish the other for their work.

"Their volunteers have worked on many of our programs, everything from our old museum shop event which we used to do, to now working with us on our MPA Art Fest, our outdoor art fest, they’ve taken the lead on the Children’s Art Tent, where the children will be making arts and crafts during the day," said Nancy Perry, executive director of MPA. "They provide all of the leadership and volunteers and they come up with the idea for the activity. This will be our third art fest, this coming Oct. 4, and the last two years each year we had more than 500 children go through the Children’s Art Tent that the New Dominion Women’s Club managed. They’ve taken a real leadership role with MPA, our partnership has been great."

In addition to their major fund raisers and commitments, NDWC helps charities in many other areas of need.

"We have what we call ‘Hands-On Volunteering’ opportunities which are usually one shot, relatively short, time commitments," Salopek said. "Last fall, we asked the Falls Church/McLean Children’s Center what we could do for them and they said that would like to have a spring bulb park planted near their playground. So, a whole bunch of us went over there last October and donated the bulbs and equipment and put them in for them."



SALOPEK explained that the club does a lot of ad hoc volunteering when it sees a need, as well as taking care of the charities that are "near and dear to the members’ hearts."

"This is a group of very dedicated women who work hard to improve out community," Salopek said. "I think a lot of people are surprised to find out that there are homeless people and hungry families living in the 22101 and 22102 Zip codes and we really try to address those problems."

SHARE, another local charity that NDWC works with often and one of the recipients of this year’s fund raising, provides food, used clothing, emergency family assistance, used furniture, transportation, holiday food and gifts, and school supplies to local families in need.

"I am most closely associated with our Holiday Store, where our needy clients get to come and pick out gifts for their families for the holidays," said Bonnie O’Neill of SHARE. "The New Dominion Women’s Club helped me tremendously because they actually took wishes of some of our clients and individual members, went out and purchased gifts that were requested by our clients. It was very sweet and very personal."

SHARE needed all the support they could get and NDWC voted to give extra attention to SHARE in this "time of need," by holding a food and household items drive at all of their meetings and events.



NDWC celebrated its 40th anniversary in June with a gala including Honorary Chairpersons Supervisor John Foust (D-Dranesville) and his wife, Dr. Marilyn Foust, and keynote speaker, sports journalist Christine Brennan.

"She was great. She was a fantastic keynoter," Salopek said of Brennan, who happens to be the sister of NDWC social chair, Amy Swaak.

NDWC’s club year runs from September to June, and the club is open to any woman who is interested. Meetings take place at the McLean Community Center on the third Monday of every month.

Salopek encouraged any interested women to attend their first meeting of the year on Monday, Sept. 21, at 7:30 p.m., at the community center.

For more information about NDWC, visit www.ndwc.org.

To donate to SHARE, visit www.shareofmclean.org.