Current News/Press

(From the Richmond Times-Disptach, Sunday, July 27, 2008)

The Comcast Foundation recently presented the Greater Richmond ARC a check for $11,100. The money will provide support for ARC's Day Support services. On Hand were (from left) Henry Pearl, area vice president for Comcast; Demis Stewart, executive vice president of ARC; Marshall Butler, president of ARC; and Ken Dye, director of government and community affairs for Comcast.

The First Lady of Virginia, Anne Holton, recently paid a visit to the Greater Richmond ARC’s headquarters on Westwood Avenue to tour the facility and learn more about the services ARC provides over 1,300 area residents and their families. Mrs. Holton, a former juvenile and domestic relations district court judge in the City of Richmond and daughter of former Governor Linwood Holton, toured the Infant and Child Development Services (ICDS) offices as well as After School & Day Support Services and ARC Industrial Services. Read More

For the eighth year, the Greater Richmond ARC, in
partnership with featured wineries, select Richmond restaurants and community sponsors, raised funds through the Ladybug Fund winetasting events to help young children with developmental disabilities and delays achieve to their fullest potential. Over $96,000 was raised at this year’s events, ensuring scholarships will be available for ANY family who needs ARC’s Infant and Child Development Services (ICDS). No family should be turned away from specialized pediatric rehabilitation when it can give them the best possible start to leading a fulfilling life. Read More

More than 300 volunteers from the Richmond area joined together on Saturday, May 3, 2008 for “Comcast Cares Day” to help revitalize the facilities of the Greater Richmond ARC’s Westwood Avenue headquarters. Together on this day - Comcast’s annual, nationwide day of service – Comcast employees and their families and friends, along with representatives from the ARC and members of the local community, all pitched in on a number of projects to help support renovations currently underway on the ARC building, including cleaning, painting, landscaping and carpentry work. Volunteers also helped to install furniture donated by Comcast. Read More

(From Richmond.com “Community Spotlight” April 24, 2008)

The Greater Richmond ARC has come up with a new name for one of its longstanding, most important programs.

The previously named Civitan Vocational Services will now be known as ARC Industrial Services, a program that provides opportunities for individuals with mental retardation and developmental disabilities to work in a variety of capacities at either ARC's production facility on Westwood Avenue, or on-site at various businesses throughout the area.
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On April 5, 2008, young artists from the Greater Richmond ARC gave their time and talent to create a unique work of art with Richmond artist Robert Walz. Parents, friends and volunteers supported the children creatively, emotionally and physically while the artists busily went to work. Read More

The Infant and Child Development Services' annual Holiday Party was held at Trinity United Methodist Church on Forest Hill Avenue on December 11th. This year marked one of the biggest and best parties ever with 79 children and 68 adults in attendance. Most of the children receive therapy from ARC, and this year they brought along many of their siblings to help celebrate. Of course, Santa Claus made an appearance and distributed books and holiday cheer to every boy and girl. Read More

Since 2003, ARC has been steadily growing its business with Madison, Virginia-based Plow & Hearth, a division of 1800Flowers.com. Plow & Hearth is a $30 million a year national catalog, retail, and Internet company that specializes in high quality gardening, home and leisure products.

The ARC/Plow & Hearth relationship began in early 2003 with ARC providing fulfillment work for its long-time client, Virginia Box/Pratt Industries. Pratt’s client, Plow & Hearth, lacked a reliable workforce and adequate storage facilities at its Madison headquarters, so Pratt subcontracted ARC to pack, box and return ship Plow & Hearth products, warehousing the surplus material until it was needed. However, distribution also a presented a problem once the product was shipped back to Plow & Hearth’s rural headquarters north of Charlottesville, and company officials began to search for possible solutions. Read More

Lisa Cox, Director of Infant and Child Development Services for the Greater Richmond ARC, was among 40 Richmond area residents under age 40 selected by Style Weekly magazine as the top area young professionals for 2007. The annual competition draws a large number of nominations each year, and judges make their selections from a diverse group of people in a variety of professions.

According to Style Weekly's Editor, Jason Roop, "These are some of Richmond’s most remarkable young men and women. They’re inspiring and serving others, changing our community for the better and exuding an enthusiasm about Richmond’s present and future that you just might catch." Read More

“A Place for Everything and Everything in It’s Place” sounds so organized and peaceful. We can all see the benefits. But it can be a tough rule for busy families to follow. And sometimes it feels downright impossible if that family has a member with special needs.

Children and adults with special needs often struggle with skills necessary for being organized: sequential reasoning, short- or long-term memory, and reading, for example. But there’s a simple tool that can help everyone in the family, regardless of needs, abilities, or age: labels.

Julie Morgenstern, author of the book Organizing From the Inside Out: The Foolproof System for Organizing Your Home, Your Office, and Your Life, says that her “secret weapon” is the model of a kindergarten classroom. Read More

The Defense Supply Center Richmond (DSCR) recently won national recognition for its employment of individuals with developmental disabilities at a conference sponsored by NISH, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to create employment opportunities for people with severe disabilities by securing Federal contracts through the AbilityOne Program, formerly known as the Javits-Wagner-O’Day Program.

The DSCR received the award at the NISH National Training and Achievement Conference in May in Grapevine, Texas. Locally, the DSCR works in conjunction with the Greater Richmond ARC to provide employment for 70 individuals with developmental disabilities. For their outstanding support of an AbilityOne-producing nonprofit agency, the DSCR received the 2006 NISH Government Award for Local Federal Customer Support-Military Category award.
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The Greater Richmond ARC is pleased to announce Infant and Child Development Services (ICDS) physical therapist Anne Boyce Wilkins was recently awarded a Doctorate of Physical Therapy from Virginia Commonwealth University/Medical College of Virginia. Anne received her Master of Science degree from VCU/MCV and Bachelor of Science from William & Mary. She is a Richmond native and a graduate of St. Catherine’s School.

Anne said of her recent studies, “The degree will benefit my clients by providing more intensive research-based courses that will, in turn, lead to more research-based treatment protocols.” As a result, ICDS clients will be receiving the latest, state-of-the-art options for treatment based on their specific conditions.

Congrats, Dr. Wilkins!

Paula Jones, a long-time client of the Day Support services of the Greater Richmond ARC, has been recognized by Meals on Wheels as a valuable long-time volunteer, helping to deliver meals to those in need for the past six years. Paula says that in addition to delivering meals to Meals on Wheels clients, she enjoys seeing the friendly volunteer faces she knows. She also confesses she really loves the yummy snacks and being around the entire Meals on Wheels staff. Paula visits the organization two to three times per week along with other ARC clients and coordinators.

When the Greater Richmond ARC went searching for a new director of Camp Baker Services, they felt extremely fortunate to find Francis (“Fran”) Fitzgerald, a native New Yorker with extensive not-for-profit experience.

ARC President Marshall Butler said what made Francis (“Fran”) Fitzgerald really stand out were his credentials. Fitzgerald has more than 25 years of successful managerial and executive experience in the not-for-profit sector. Read More

The Greater Richmond ARC has been know for more than 50 years as a place where lives are changed for the better through work programs, individual therapy sessions and camp experiences.

Occasionally, Cupid comes calling.

Melvin Cary Jackson, an employee at the Jefferson Hotel’s T.J. Lounge, began working with ARC employment counselors when he moved to Richmond from Tidewater, Virginia, in the late 1990s. A hard-working, affable man with an infectious smile and gentle demeanor, Melvin was looking for companionship once he’d settled into his new digs, so he asked his former ARC job coach, Stephanie Crabtree, if she knew any single women in the area.

As a matter of fact, Crabtree did know someone whom Melvin might find interesting -- and who might also be interested in Melvin. She gave Melvin a phone number and told him to call her the next day.
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The Summer Institute on Leadership and Public Service at St. Christopher’s School in Richmond recently sent a group of rising public and private high school seniors from across central Virginia to volunteer at the Greater Richmond ARC’s After School program at its Westwood Avenue headquarters.

The intensive five-week program helps young people develop leadership skills and teaches them how to create positive, lasting change in our community. In its eighth year, the program has inspired rising high school seniors in the areas of community service, leadership and civic responsibility.
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Gwaltney Fleming, Inc., a Richmond-based architectural, design and general contracting firm, successfully completed the ARCspace renovation project this past spring at ARC’s Westwood Avenue headquarters. The rennovation provided ARC’s main lobby and Infant and Child Development Services (ICDS) offices and therapy rooms a much-needed makeover.

The completed project, valued at more than $130,000, has been donated at no cost by Gwaltney Fleming and several area subcontractors including: Acorn Sign Graphics, Atlas Carpet, B&L Floorcovering, Capital Interiors, Citywide Decorators, picture framing by Custom Framing Made Simple, Dominion Interior Supply Co., Dunlap & Partners, Hix Heating & Air Conditioning, JCF painting, JL Minter Electrical Contractor, Inc., Lee’s Carpets, Markel Corporation, MP Barden & Sons, Inc., Mohawk Carpets, Patcraft Commercial Carpet, Shaw Contract Group. A heartfelt “thank you” goes out to all the area companies that contributed to the project.

Thanks to your kind generosity, the Greater Richmond ARC raised more than $143,000 through the Ladybug Fund winetasting events held this past spring. These funds support young children with developmental disabilities in ARC’s Infant and Child Development Services (ICDS). Please feel free to email us with your comments or suggestions at Ladybug@RichmondARC.org and save the date for next year’s Ladybug Winetasting and Silent Auction:
April 27, 2008 at Plant Zero.

The Greater Richmond ARC’s Camp Baker Services received a helping hand over the winter when more than 200 Philip Morris USA employees from all over the country volunteered to perform a variety of clean-up, light carpentry and remodeling services at the Chesterfield County camp for the develop-mentally disabled. Read More

The Greater Richmond ARC's "What is ARC?" media campaign ended 2006 by placing in three prestigious regional communications competitions. The ARC campaign won honors respectively in the Richmond Ad Club's "Richmond Show" for Public Service Print in an Outdoor Campaign, the Public Relations Society of America's 2006 "Virginia Public Relations Awards" for for Creative Tactics, and the International Association of Business Communicators' "Best in Virginia" awards for Economic, Social and Environmental Development Communications.

It was truly a collaborative effort between ARC and our ad agency, Neathawk Dubuque & Packett, and goes a long way in bringing our organization to the forefront of the Greater Richmond community. The campaign has also significantly increased annual giving and inquiries for ARC services two years in a row.

Pictured: ARC award winners Dr. Joe & April Niamtu, ARC honorary Spokescouple and parents of two children with special needs: Joey, 6, and Evan, 4.

Read the Richmond Times-Dispatch article on the latest award below.