Library room dedicated to community activist Carmen Fernandez

Community activist Carmen Fernandez was posthumously recognized July 9 at a ceremony to name the meeting room at Woodrow Wilson Library in her honor.

Fernandez founded the nonprofit Hispanics Against Child Abuse and Neglect (HACAN), an educational and advocacy organization dedicated to strengthening families through parent education and out-of-school activities for youths.

Fernandez spent many Saturday mornings in the Woodrow Wilson Library in Bailey’s Crossroads facilitating community programs and activities for elementary school-aged children through HACAN’s Morning Star program.

At the unveiling of the plaque, Mason Supervisor Penny Gross said, “It’s Saturday morning and here we are at the Woodrow Wilson Library, where Carmen spent hundreds of Saturday mornings. That was Carmen, always willing to give time and effort to her community … Her legacy is here, in the faces of the many children she inspired.”

HACAN Executive Director Carmen Paredes called Fernandez “an extraordinary woman who could see people’s potential and believe in them.”

Fernandez passed away last September at age 88.

She was born in a rural town in Cuba and studied social work at the University of Havana before immigrating to the United States in 1960. After earning a master’s degree from the Catholic University of America, she spent 25 years working at Arlington County’s Child Protective Services.