Nancy Feldner is a volunteer with the Columbia Baptist Church's Spend Yourself Food Pantry ministry in Bailey’s Crossroads, Virginia. As a professional chef and baker, she first came to Spend Yourself to provide cooking and nutrition presentations for those served through the Food Pantry and saw a way to meet additional community needs. Six years ago, she initiated God's Closet (El Armario de Dios), which provides clothing and supplies to Food Pantry clients, especially those with infants and preschoolers.   She assists hundreds of families each year, volunteering more than 100 hours each month to help meet the needs of low-income...

Descriptions like “tireless” and “dedicated” are often applied to volunteer efforts, but Walter Camp’s commitment to service gives these expressions a new level of meaning. Those who work alongside Walter know that when he serves a cause, he doesn’t just talk about it. He is known for putting in the hard work to make things happen no matter the task at hand. As Secretary of the Virginia Beach Clean Community Commission, he went above and beyond his normal role to join other volunteers in the 2021 Great American Cleanup, helping scoop debris from the Virginia Beach shorelines in his kayak...

Congratulations to Doug Mueller, one of the many dedicated Virginia volunteers who was nominated for the 2023 Serve Virginia Honor Roll, which spotlights the volunteers that serve their communities in a variety of ways, promoting quality of life and creating a lasting impact for others across the Commonwealth! In early 2020, when Doug began volunteering at the Hoffler Creek Wildlife Preserve near Portsmouth, Virginia, he had retired from a job in the U.S. government and was mourning the death of his 95-year-old father just months earlier. Doug recalls, "Dad was standing by my side when I enlisted in the U.S....

Congratulations to Lawrence Jia of Midlothian -- winner of the 2017 Virginia Governor's Volunteerism and Community Service Award for Outstanding Youth Volunteer! When Lawrence Jia saw someone close to him experience a financial crisis and face homelessness, he was moved to make a difference. He had an idea that if you could create a resource to help individuals become better informed consumers, better investors, and wiser savers -- you could change the landscape of adolescent financial literacy. In Lawrence’s freshman year, he created “Money Matters to Students” which today has almost 100 volunteers across three continents and has reached over...

Congratulations to Betty L. Robinette of Wytheville - winner of the 2021 Governor's Volunteerism and Community Service Award for Outstanding Senior Volunteer! For people who live in rural areas, fighting hunger is a serious issue. Communities like Southwest Virginia face a number of challenges – from scarcity of grocery stores and food pantries compounded with a lack of transportation to diminishing job opportunities and higher rates of unemployment. This is where Betty Robinette saw a growing need and did more than step into make a difference. Betty was the catalyst that started the Community Food Kitchen in 2012. When the...

For many kids, high school and college is an exciting and memorable time in their lives. But imagine what it would be like to go through this challenging and important phase without family support, without the tools to learn, and without a place to sleep at night. Change the World RVA, winner of the 2016 Governor's Award for Outstanding Community Organization, is the only organization in Central Virginia specifically addressing the needs of high school and college students who face homelessness. An all-volunteer organization, Change the World saw an overwhelming need in the community – with nearly 1,800 homeless students...