This year my company and family are helping the CORE Foundation. The CORE Foundation helps a combination of the Reston charitable organizations and specifically helps at-risk youth and underprivileged kids in sports to provide them with a healthy lifestyle and habits.
While CORE supports many organizations, we chose to get involved in those supporting our community and specifically Cornerstones. Cornerstones is a nonprofit organization that promotes self-sufficiency by providing support and advocacy for those in need of food, shelter, affordable housing, quality childcare, and other human services. Being in the business of homes, we feel that every person should have a place to call home, with a warm meal and safety.
Our business and family chose to get involved with CORE after our trip to Louisville, KY this past February. While there, we learned about how many people were homeless because of where we stayed in the downtown area. My daughter and I experienced finding a homeless individual who was kind and gave us directions back to our hotel while warning us to be safe at night. We tried to provide him with the little food we had, but instead, he asked for a hot meal. Through our company’s marketing manager who lives in Louisville, we were able to get him that hot meal that night, as her family works close to the homeless community in Louisville. When I got home, it made me realize that I needed to do more for those who were homeless in my hometown.
Since we are an active family, we find it easy to connect through the sports to give back to our community. We know and understand the importance of sports in kids lives as it helps them grow up to be fit, confident, strong and capable. We hope to get many more kids involved, no matter what their financial abilities are. I recently finished my 2nd Reston Sprint Tri (which has raised over $300K for Cornerstones over the years). My daughter, Abigail, participated in the Reston Superhero Splash and Dash last weekend, while my husband, Andy, and I are volunteered on the course. And, would you believe, my husband Andy is so impressed with me doing the Sprint Tri two years in a row… He’s committed to doing it next year! At our CORE we and AKG Design Studio will continue to fill the needs of those in our community.