John Muir once said “Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul alike.” Thanks to Walter Hussey, winner of the 2016 Governor's Award for Outstanding Adult Volunteer, there is one more beautiful place in Virginia to do just that. Walter’s passion and excitement for nature led him to plan, map out and implement the 70-acre Meadow Management Program space at Pleasant Grove Park in Fluvanna County. He was instrumental in developing partnerships with six state agencies and a long list of other organizations...

As an honoree on the January 2024 Serve Virginia Honor Roll, Tracy Keller has been an ambassador of girl leadership since her teen years in Girl Scouts. There, she earned the highest award, the Gold Award, for creating and carrying out an elementary educational program on prevention of tobacco use. Now, more than thirty years later and as CEO of the Girl Scouts of the Colonial Coast since 2005, Tracy continues to facilitate conversations that empower girls and women, and helps shape programs within her community. Recently, Tracy embraced the challenge of volunteering as the lead for the Empowering Girls...

Michael J. Mixon is an AmeriCorps Seniors volunteer through RSVP Northern Virginia. He recalls, "I was working full-time as a systems engineer until early 2019 when my work transitioned to four-day weeks. With the extra free time available every week, I was motivated to spend time serving my community. My wife encouraged me to seriously consider joining RSVP Northern Virginia. I took her sound advice, joined the program, and have been active for 6 years." He adds, "I want to provide a shoutout to RSVP Northern Virginia. Stacey Iden, the RSVP Northern Virginia program manager, and her staff provide RSVP volunteers...

C'erra Rhodes is a first-year Virginia Collage Advising Corps adviser at Madison County High School, having graduated from Radford University in 2023. She attended Charlottesville High School, where a VCAC college adviser supported her with her own college application process. “I was served by VCAC advisers throughout my junior and senior high school years," recalls C’erra. “I wanted to serve as a VCAC adviser because I remember the challenges I faced during the college application process as a first-generation student. Without the guidance of my VCAC adviser, I'm not sure if I would have navigated it successfully on my own.”...

Thanks to his lifelong commitment to service, Virginia AmeriCorps member Chris Sandquist is a recipient of the Harris Wofford Joint Service Award, honoring individuals who have successfully completed both a full-time service term or its equivalent in AmeriCorps and the Peace Corps.   Chris grew up in Waynesboro, Virginia, before moving to Maine for college and then spending two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Tunisia, North Africa, where he taught English as a Foreign Language to businesspeople and college students at the Tunisian National Institute of Modern Languages. He recalls, "Joining the Peace Corps after college was a...

When Veronica McMillian founded the Micro-Nonprofit Network in 2009, she wanted to educate, empower, and equip small nonprofits through capacity building and program development. Since then, the Network has helped more than 300 small nonprofits (making $50,000 or less in the first three years) become 501c3 organizations and create sustainable infrastructure that empowers them to thrive with pride. Though she holds an M.A. in Human Services Counseling from Regent University and is an adjunct instructor at Tidewater Community College, her nonprofit expertise comes from firsthand experience starting and running her own nonprofits. After her first nonprofit shuttered in the 2008...