March 24, 2025
Advanced notice for the May Meeting (May 8) and the Community Yard Sale (TBD).
1 – ECHO News
2 – keys found on Springfield Village Drive
3 – Rolling Rd Widening project update
4 – Village West Pool information
5 – Ad for our Landscaping Company
6 – Volunteers needed for the Sakura Matsuri Festival – April 12-13 – Washington DC
7 – Calendar
1 – From the latest ECHO newsletter:
ECHO Can Use Your Old Laptop
ECHO refurbishes donated computers to give to clients with school-aged children or to those who need a computer for work or work skills development. If you are planning to replace a Windows 10 laptop computer before the October 14, 2025 End-Of-Life deadline, please consider donating it to ECHO. ECHO will wipe the hard drive, install new software including Windows, and prepare the laptop for the next client on our waiting list. If you have questions, please email itteam@echo-inc.org.
ECHO’s Spring Yard Sale is April 26
The ECHO Yard Sale offers a gymnasium full of items on dozens of tables organized by category. Doors open at 8:00 am on Saturday, April 26, at St. Bernadette’s School Gym, 7600 Old Keene Mill Road, Springfield. From home decorations to electronics to jewelry to kitchenware, we have loads of nice things to choose from at wonderful prices. Proceeds support ECHO, Ecumenical Community Helping Others.
We could use some helping hands to set up, take down, assist cashiers during the sale and more. Set up is from 9:00 am to noon on Friday, April 25, and take down begins at noon on April 26. If you have a few hours to contribute to our good cause, please call ECHO at the “I can give help” number, 703-569-7972. Please note that, if you are looking for assistance from ECHO, always use the “In need of help” number, 703-569-9160.
Food Drive at Springfield Mall Firestone
Firestone Complete Auto Care, 6699 Springfield Mall is having a food collection drive for ECHO from April 14 to April 30. The collection box will be in the lobby of their business. Customers and visitors are welcome to contribute any amount of non-perishable foods or personal hygiene supplies.
All food collection drives are vital to ECHO’s mission of combatting hunger in our community. Every box and can helps. At this time, we especially need dried beans, cereal, rice, and spaghetti sauce. Laundry and dish detergent, toilet paper, toothbrushes for children and adults are also in short supply.
Spring Sprang!
The Clothing Room at ECHO welcomes the Spring Solstice by changing all the clothing from fall and winter wear to spring and summer items. It’s a big job, but warmer weather is very welcome this year! The Clothing Room needs donations of adult and children’s sized sneakers, shorts and short-sleeved tops, as well as men’s jeans in waist sizes from 28 to 38. Donations of new socks and underwear, packages of sanitary pads, and packs of baby diapers allow ECHO to help people live with dignity.
Our Housewares Department needs comforters of all sizes, bathmats and flatware. Please bring donations to our Donation Door at 7205 Old Keene Mill Road on weekdays between 9:30 am and 12:30 pm, or between 7:00 and 9:00 on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday evenings. Receipts are happily provided.
Interested in volunteering? Please check our website and click on “Volunteer” in the blue band on the homepage, or email volunteercoordinator@echo-inc.org.
Upcoming Dates to Note
April 5 - Saturday Opening
April 14 - 30 - Firestone Food Drive
April 17 - Closed in the evening
April 18 - Closed for Good Friday
April 26 - Spring Yard Sale, St. Bernadette’s Gym
May 3 - Saturday Opening
May 7 - Exec Comm meeting
May 19 - Board of Directors meeting
May 21 - Final session of Teen Volunteer Program
May 26 - Closed for Memorial Day
2 – from a resident:
Someone put a set of house keys on our mailbox a few weeks back but they aren’t ours. Can you note in the next newsletter that a set of house keys were found on Springfield village drive and to contact me if they think they are the owners?
3 – The ‘New Pattern’ sign should start soon. They will be to create one lane in each direction and eliminate areas with more than one lane. The ‘Do Not Pass’ sign will not be put back up because the road in that area will be narrowed. The next phase of work will eliminate the grass medians along Rolling Rd.
4 – From the latest Village West Pool newsletter:
Early bird special: We are planning to raise rates just a bit, mostly to keep pace with the minimum wage increase, so renew your membership by April 15 to lock in last year's rates. I'll send out invoices right after this email. If your household is dealing with the effects of Federal job cuts, we are here to help. Contact us to talk about setting up a payment plan.
Scout project: We are going to be the lucky beneficiaries of another Eagle Scout project! Noah Pappas will be doing his Eagle Scout project at Village West Pool on the weekend of May 3-4. The project involves turning the old and unusable shuffleboard court into a cornhole court! The new cornhole court will be available for Village West members this summer. To make this project a success, Noah is seeking donations to help cover the cost of materials. Any contributions would be greatly appreciated. As a bonus, the pool board has graciously offered to match donations. That means a $25 donation will result in $50 for this project! To donate, click HERE to find the donation info right on the pool homepage. Noah says thank you for your consideration and support!
Marketing and yard signs: We have room for more members, so it's time to let folks know we are here. Here's how you can help!
- Tell your neighbors about us (especially your new ones!).
- Review us on sites like Google or Yelp.
- Brag about us on social media.
- Host a yard sign. Email villagewestpool@gmail.com to let us know we can post a pool sign in your yard.
- Design our new yard signs. It's time for a resupply/refresh! If you have a graphic design background or just enjoy designing things, this is a fun way to earn some volunteer credit. Email us to volunteer.
Work days: It takes a village to get the pool ready for the season! Knock out your volunteer hours in the spring and you can kick back all summer knowing that you'll be getting your $150 volunteer fee back. Here are our first volunteer opportunities:
April 5, 9 AM to 3 PM - General pool setup and cleanup
April 12, 9 AM to 5 PM - Picnic table sanding and painting
May 10, time TBD - Planting and landscaping
Planting day honcho needed: Jen will be out of town on May 10, but the flowers will be here ready to plant! So we need someone to lead this work day. Jen will give you instructions and provide supplies; you'll just need to guide our volunteers on what to plant where. Please contact Jen at villagewestpool@gmail.com to help out.
5 – Since the grass medians on Rolling Rd will be removed and replaced with the VDOT project, we will not be needing to maintain them. Since we will not be using Image Works Landscaping for two years, I wanted to give them a shout-out because they have done such a great job all these years.
mailto:sales@imageworkslandscaping.com www.imageworkslandscaping.com
6 – Next month is the largest Japanese Street Festival in America. They are looking for volunteers for both days for the early shift (9am-2pm) or the late shift (1:30pm-6:30pm). If you have a child needing volunteer hours, this festival is a great opportunity to obtain it. I will be in charge of the Japan Now section of the Festival. You can sign up at https://www.sakuramatsuri.org/volunteer .
7 – Calendar
March 26 – Lailat al-Qadr
March 30 – Last Day of Ramadan, Eid al-Fitr
April – 12&13 – Sakura Matsuri Festival – Washington, DC
April 15 – Tax Day
April 20 - Easter