Annandale volunteers take part in National Day of Service

Volunteers work on landscaping at the ACCA Child Development Center in Annandale.

When President Obama asked the nation to take part in the National Day of Service Jan. 19 to honor the legacy of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., many Annandale residents answered the call.

Twenty-two people signed up for a gardening project organized by Sue Clark. They spent Saturday morning weeding and mulching the landscaped area in front of the ACCA Child Development Center on Columbia Pike and preparing the vegetable garden beds behind the building.

One of the volunteers, Vicki Merryman, from the Pinecrest area who also volunteers at Green Spring Gardens, said she wanted to participate in the Day of Service because “it’s important to give back to the community.”

Annandale resident Sue Clark readies the ACCA gardens for spring planting.

The AACC Child Development Center depends heavily on volunteers, local churches, and corporate grants to enable it to provide a high-quality program at an affordable cost, says Executive Director Maria Isabel Ballivian. The center serves 183 infants, toddlers, and preschool-age children, the majority of them from lower-income families.

Left to right: Rachel Sinaiko, her parents Alex and Ivy Sinaiko, and friend Ally Smith paint an apartment for a Homestretch family.

In another part of Annandale, 14 volunteers worked on fixing up an apartment on Americana Drive for Homestretch, a program that provides transitional housing to help homeless families rebuild their lives. Fourteen volunteers painted the walls and cleaned the woodwork and windows. More people had signed up to help, but there wasn’t enough room for them in the small apartment, said the organizer, Mary Alexander of Annandale.

Homestretch helps its clients get jobs and provides a range of services, such as financial skills training, child care, counseling, and legal assistance, along with a safe place to live for six months to two years. About half the families helped by Homestretch are single mothers escaping domestic abuse.