The American Physical Therapy Association is the winner of this year’s Alexandria Business Philanthropy Award.
The announcement came at an award’s breakfast on May 10. The Alexandria Volunteer Bureau and the Alexandria Chamber of Commerce sponsored the award.
“This association certainly exemplifies the spirit of this award,” said Councilwoman Redella S. “Del” Pepper, who presented the award.
APTA has provided support to ALIVE! (Alexandrians Involved Ecumenically) for the past five years. Association employees volunteer in ALIVE’s child development Center classrooms and APTA matches their employees’ time with up to one hour every month of paid time to volunteer. The association also contributes corporate funds, assisting ALIVE! in providing services to 46 at-risk children and their families; provide over 2,500 Alexandrians with food and nearly 1,900 Alexandria families with heat, shelter and medical care.
“This award means a lot to us because of the involvement of our employees,” said APTA's executive director, Frank Mallon. “We have been fortunate to share in ALIVE’s service to this community. The dedication of that organization to serving this community has been an inspiration to us and we have gained immensely from working with the staff and the families they serve.”
“We were pleased to give the award to APTA because their staff has consistently contributed so much in terms of volunteerism to Alexandria,” said Alexandria Volunteer Bureau executive director, Aaron Spevacec. “This award is a way for us to recognize the many corporations that participate in volunteer efforts throughout the city each year.”
NIGEL MORRIS, the president of Capital One, gave the keynote address at last week’s event and spoke of the importance of volunteerism. Sixty percent of all Capital One employees participate in some type of corporate volunteer opportunity, he noted. “Building a successful business is well and good but business success ultimately means little to us unless we achieve a greater good,” Morris said. “We know that real community change is a collective effort that depends on collaboration to create value and spur change.”
Morris introduced his daughter, Ainsley, who, along with two friends, has started an organization called Kids Helping Kids, INC.
The organization began because the Morris children wanted to do something to help victims of the Sept. 11, terrorist attacks. “We lost a very close friend in the World Trade Center bombings and they wanted to do something to show their support,” said Lori Morris, Ainsley’s mother.
The Morrises’ eight-year-old daughter, Hadley, set up a lemonade stand and raised over $100. “Then Ainsley, Remy and Joanna got together and decided to have lemonade stands all over the city,” Lori Morris said.
Remy Kauffmann is a sophomore at T. C. Williams High School and is in charge of publicity for the new nonprofit. “We want to provide lemonade kits to anyone who wants to sell lemonade,” she said. “All of the money that we raise will benefit two charities – Child and Family Network Centers and Camp Grimm, a camp for children that is run by the police. The stands will operate for one day, Sept. 28, throughout the city.”
THE IDEA WAS tried once before by a young girl in Tulsa, OK, who raised thousands of dollars to build a playground by selling lemonade.
“We need corporate sponsors to pay for the shirts that the sales people will wear and to pay for the lemonade powder, the cups and the ice,” said Joanna Kauffmann, an eighth-grader at George Washington Middle School. Joanna and Ainsley, who is an eighth-grader at The Potomac School, are in charge of corporate sponsors. “We hope to raise a minimum of $5,000 but, of course, we will take more. All of the money that we don’t spend on the shirts or the kits will go to the charities.”
The young people plan to distribute fliers to Alexandria public and private schools. Kids who are interested in participating in “lemonaide” on Sept. 28, should complete these forms and return them to 622 W. Braddock Road, Alexandria, VA 22302. Donors who would like to contribute money can make checks payable to Kids Helping Kids and mail them to the same address. The organization is in the process of applying for 501C3 status from the Internal Revenue Service.
For further information about Kids Helping Kids, check out the web site at lemonaideaxva@hotmail.com.