Hear Together

Friends Of The Blue Ridge is making blue ridge communities better through celebrating cultural heritage, natural beauty, and our way of life. Eight volunteer chapters across North Carolina and Virginia identify projects such as trail maintenance, playground installation and improvement, and bike rack installation. They also joined together recently for a concert series in Roanoke, raising funds to repair damage done by Hurricane Helene.

In response to Black business owners unable to access lending capital to survive the impact of COVID-19, Bridging Virginia’s current board chair raised $100,000 to help a credit union provide loans to 5 Black business owners in Richmond.

Now serving the entire state, Bridging Virginia’s loan clients are made up of 85% people of color, and 90% women of color. These loans give small businesses resources without credit card interest rates or payday loans—providing risk-tolerant capital at affordable rates.

As a special education teacher, Taylor Perkins saw the struggles her students faced in the workforce after graduation, and wanted an environment that could showcase those special abilities in the community.

Now executive director and founder of CraveABLEs, Taylor’s staff serves Lynchburg and the surrounding counties, and focuses on hiring people with various abilities. The 30 employees include able staff and support staff, who run the ice cream storefront, food truck, event room, and host field trips.

Founded in 2008 and located in Afton, Hope’s Legacy Equine Rescue serves the entire state of Virginia, providing services for the rescue, rehabilitation, and adoption of all breeds of equines. 

Hope’s Legacy has been on a campaign of growing and expanding, recently completing their intake barn for equines with medical needs. Hear from Director of Development, Laura Purvis, below and find opportunities get involved at hopeslegacy.com.

Founded in 1933, and donated to by Walter P. Chrysler in 1971, the Chrysler Museum has fifty galleries, a growing collection of more than 35,000 objects, an interactive space for families, and the only glass studio of its kind in the Mid-Atlantic region. Admission is free and open to the public 6 days a week.

Serving Norfolk and the entire Hampton Roads, the museum features European paintings, decorative arts, sculpture, antiquities, and an extensive glass collection. 

Humble Hustle is a nonprofit in Roanoke that empowers, exposes, and educates over 500 Black youth participants in Roanoke through their programs.

ForKids serves 14 cities and counties over the Hampton Roads region to provide mental health counseling, educational resources, help with building generational wealth and finding employment—all conducted through a trauma-informed care lens. They also prioritize physical health with an on-site dental clinic.

The 400 calls they receive in one day to their regional housing crisis hotline help to meet various needs, including utility assistance, children’s clothing, and more.

Listen to our interview with Will White, shelter program manager, below, and learn more at forkids.org.

A mix between tennis and ping pong, pickleball is an equal-opportunity sport that is enjoyed by people of all ages. The Central Virginia Pickleball Club, a nonprofit founded in 2016, worked with the local government to paint pickleball lines on tennis courts throughout Charlottesville. Since then, interest has only grown.

When Max Pfannebecker saw the level of determination in the kids teaching his son how to skate, he wanted to bring that same level of determination and grit to everyday life. 

Triangle Skateboard Alliance serves the Coastal Virginia area, especially the peninsula around Williamsburg. Their original plan to build on to the existing skate park has evolved into skate camps, food drives, school supply drives, and fundraisers for other nonprofits like addiction recovery centers. Pfannebecker’s vision is to help create a community that takes care of the park, and then take that set of values and perpetuate it. 

Center In The Square originally opened in Roanoke in 1983 with five organizations, and saw 45,000 patrons in one weekend. Kids can experience multiple things in the building at one time, giving the staff the momentum they need to keep thinking about gifting the spaces to other nonprofits.

BikeWalk Williamsburg and Bicycle Co-Op has partnerships with more than 23 local social service agencies: House of Mercy, CASA, Literacy for Life, and many more. With a certified voucher from any of those recognized organizations, the co-op provides the certificate holder with a bike, a light, a lock, and a helmet for free. 

The Grandin Theatre is a cultural icon in the Roanoke region. If you think about a montage collage poster of a place, in Roanoke, it’s the H&C Coffee sign, the Mill Mountain Star, and the Grandin Theatre marquee. 

Executive Director of the Grandin Theatre Foundation, Ian Fortier, says the theatre is 92 years old and is the first talking cinema house in Roanoke. In Grandin Village, it’s the economic, geographic, and historic anchor.