Past Recipients

Maybe YOUR organization will be our next recipient! Complete the

Charitable Organization Fact Sheet and bring it along.

We look forward to seeing you at 6:15 p.m. on Tuesday, July 19, 2022, IN-PERSON!

New Location: The University Club of Va Tech, Lane Stadium, 185 Beamer Way

Local Charitable Organizations Highlight - April 2022

The Arc of the New River Valley was founded in 2011 as a local chapter of the Arc of Virginia. We are an all-volunteer organization whose mission is to partner with people with intellectual and developmental disabilities to:

Advocate for their human rights and access to the services they need at the state and local levels;
Inform and educate the community about issues affecting people with disabilities and their families;
Advocate for their full participation in community life; and
Facilitate opportunities for social connection and relationships.

Several of our board members have disabilities and provide essential perspectives on what is needed by the disability community.

The NRV Youth Cycling Alliance

The New River Valley Youth Cycling Alliance is a new nonprofit that received its official 501c3 designation just last year, though they have been serving the community much longer. Its mission is to provide opportunities to develop and support the youth cycling community in the New River Valley through year-round activities that include youth mountain biking race teams, group rides, skills sessions, bike safety, trail and public lands stewardship, and physical fitness in a fun, supportive, and inclusive environment. Bicycling is a wonderful sport that can be enjoyed far into our golden years, and encouraging a love of cycling in young children is a wonderful way to start healthy life habits.

This year, the NRVYCA started a program called Pedal Power, which aims to address the gender disparities in the cycling community. The goal is to get more girls, especially those aged 5–12, interested in cycling and mountain biking, and to recruit more female mentors. Nationally, women represent only 20% of the cycling student-athlete community. With girls representing such a small percentage, we need to address the pipeline of girls exposed to and interested in cycling. Studies have shown that all-girl learning situations have positive impacts on the experience of girls in outdoor settings, especially when learning a new skill. We also want to show girls and women that mountain biking is a really fun sport that other girls and women are participating in. The short-term goal of Pedal Power is to recruit and train mentors for the program, as well as to buy equipment for skills clinics to make mountain biking accessible to everyone, and host more community mountain biking events for girls. The long-term goal is to have increased female representation in the mountain biking community.

Retired and Senior Volunteer Program

Each year the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) of Montgomery County and Radford serves approximately 200 homebound seniors who receive home-delivered meals through the New River Valley Agency on Aging and Radford/Fairlawn Daily Bread Meals on Wheels. This is our fourteenth year of conducting this project. It is a joint effort with RSVP of Montgomery County and Radford, Christiansburg Recreation Center, and New River Valley Agency on Aging; however, RSVP is responsible for the primary funding of the project. This project provides another support system for seniors to maintain dignity and independence while remaining in their home environment, it serves those citizens who are most vulnerable in our area, and many of these seniors do not always have transportation to the store and during the winter months, many are housebound for even longer periods of time. We have been unable to conduct annual fundraising projects in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID. Without continued support from the community, our funding for this project will be depleted in 2022. If you would like to help us continue this program by making a separate donation, please contact Mandy Hayes at hayesaw@montgomerycountyva.gov or call 540-382-5775. Checks can be made out to RSVP and mailed to 210 S. Pepper Street, Suite D, Christiansburg, VA 24073 or you can make an online donation here.