The Arlington Community Foundation has inherited a large amount of money and the local charity organization wanted advice from residents as to how to spend it.
The solution was to hold a forum —a "community conversation" — to get suggestions on how to spend their recent cash influx of a quarter of a million dollars.
"We’re asking a group of knowledgeable, committed Arlingtonians to advise us," Tricia Rodgers, executive director of the Arlington Community Foundation, said.
The money first came into the hands of the foundation a year ago when the Ashton Heights Women’s Club donated its infrequently-used clubhouse to the organization with instructions to sell it and then use the profits in the community. The foundation did just that and was able to garner $250,000 from the sale of the property.
Now it is looking to reinvest the money in a much-needed area in Arlington and it got plenty of ideas at the forum, held last week at the Arlington Career Center.
JIM WHITTAKER, head of the Columbia Pike Revitalization Organization, suggested the creation of a youth center devoted to giving teenagers a safe place to congregate after school.
This idea was praised by County Board candidate Mary Hynes who said that, if the plan were to come to fruition, the county might want to look into helping fund it.
Whittaker also wanted to see more of an effort made towards allowing locally owned stores and businesses to endure.
"What makes Arlington special," Whittaker said, "is the Mom and Pop shops. I worry that they are in trouble because of rising rents and competition."
Kelly O’Dell, a resident of the Fairlington neighborhood for ten years, wanted to see the money used to create innovative solutions to the community’s homeless problem.
"We need to not just manage the problem of homelessness but create new solutions," she said.
The event became an arena for the participants to discuss what they love about Arlington and what they think could be better.
Naomi Verdugo said the county needs to better align its priorities and allocate more funding for things like health care for the aging and the poor.
"[County Board Chairman] Paul Ferguson (D) and the [rest of the] board care so much about the environment," she said, "But when I see what they put into disability services it’s not good."
Jeannie Cummins voiced her appreciation for the county’s maintaining of its identity in relation to neighboring areas.
"Arlington has done a really good job at developing neighborhoods," she said. "It’s much less of a bedroom community than other areas."
While the forum may not have reached a consensus on how the foundation should spend its money, Arlington Community Foundation officials said that they were grateful for all the input.
"When we received the gift [from the Ashton Heights Women’s Club], they told us to ‘Instill a prairie fire of giving,’" Rodgers said. "We want to find out what is the best use of our money."