Supplies will be collected Saturday (May 25) 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Walmart in Massaponax.

Requested items include:

• Work Gloves

• Safety Glasses

• Sunscreen

• Socks

• New underwear (men, women, children)

• New bras (all sizes)

• Water

• Trash bags

• First aid

• Toiletries (shampoo, face wash, bar soap, deodorant, eye wash, etc)

• Paper goods

• Cleaning products

• Hand sanitizer

• Travel packs with toothbrush, toothpaste, etc.

• Diapers

• Formula/bottles

• Sleeping bags, pillows, blankets

To help with the collection efforts, contact Shanna Cyphert at shanna.justahand@gmail.com.

And while we’re talking about fundraisers to help children with cancer, here are some details about the national effort Alex’s Lemonade Stand:

Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to finding cures for all kids with cancer, announces that chefs and moms Melissa d’Arabian and Alex Guarnaschelli will support the Foundation’s 2013 National Lemonade Days initiative (June 7-9).Each will provide kid-friendly recipes and tips to volunteers who sign up to host a lemonade stand during the initiative aiming to raise $1 million for childhood cancer research.

ALSF’s National Lemonade Days began in 2004 when Foundation creator Alexandra “Alex” Scott (1996-2004) set a goal of raising $1 million for childhood cancer research. Alex, who was fighting childhood cancer herself, invited volunteers across the country to host lemonade stands to help her reach the ambitious goal. Through the help of these volunteers, Alex reached her goal before losing her life to the disease in August of that year. Each June, the weekend before Father’s Day, Alex’s mission of raising $1 million continues through National Lemonade Days, once again inviting supporters everywhere to contribute to a cure.

Inspired by Alex’s story, d’Arabian and Guarnaschelli wanted to offer their different culinary perspectives to lemonade stand hosts. d’Arabian and Guarnaschelli have each crafted kid-friendly lemonade recipes to share and offer their own advice on what makes for a successful lemonade stand.

Food Network and Cooking Channel star Melissa d’Arabian grew up in hot and dry Tucson, and is a lemonade stand expert, having held numerous stands with her sister growing up. More recently, her family has felt the effects of childhood cancer personally, when a young first grader in their community lost his life to childhood cancer.

“Last year, our school lost a first-grade hero to cancer, bringing the whole community together,” said d’Arabian. “About the same time this child was lost, my four daughters squeezed their own lemons, giving away lemonade with a donation jar for charity. Their generosity inspired me to get involved in a bigger way with Alex’s Lemonade Stand – combining our celebration of our local hero’s life with my daughters’ mad lemonade-making skills.”

Alex Guarnaschelli, who recently won Food Network’s “Next Iron Chef: Redemption” and is a regular judge on the primetime show “Chopped,” will provide a recipe for lemon lime lemonade and a pairing of ginger cookies. With a 5-year-old daughter of her own, Guarnaschelli was inspired to join the movement after hearing of the journey of Alex’s parents with their daughter.

“I have a daughter who has taught me a lot along the way. She is only 5, but she is a powerful little human,” says Guarnaschelli. “It stuns me how effective children can be in their messaging; and I believe that every child should enjoy that basic right to become an adult. Getting rid of childhood cancers is one effective way to reach that goal.”

During National Lemonade Days, ALSF offers support to all volunteers who sign up to host lemonade stands. In addition to having access to a member of the Foundation’s staff to help with any lemonade stand needs, Lemonade Days participants also receive a limited edition box while supplies last. The box consists of materials to assist in the fundraising process including an ALSF banner, thank you notes, stickers, balloons, posters, adult and child speaking points and a pre-paid return envelope for proceeds.

For more information on National Lemonade Days, and to sign up to host a lemonade stand and receive the recipes and tips of Melissa d’Arabian and Alex Guarnaschelli, click here.  

HLA-Ra will meet bi-monthly.  After June, the group will meet again August 15 to learn about technology for the hard of hearing and October 17 to hear a presentation from National HLAA.

Membership fees are $11 per year for an individual and $16 for a family.

The Hearing Loss Association of America is a non-profit, educating organization of hard of hearing people, their relatives and their friends. It is a devoted to the welfare and interests of those with any degree of hearing loss who are committed to participating in the hearing world.

Some of HLA-Ra’s activities include advocating to improve communication access for hard of hearing people at hospitals, courts, and other public facilities, providing information on acquiring and using assistive devices and  ways to cope with hearing loss.

For more information on HLA-Ra e-mail Arva Priola at the disAbility Resource Center, apriola@cildrc.org  or call 540/373-5890 (CAPTEL) or 540/373-2559 (voice).

Leave non-perishable food by your mailbox, and your postal worker will collect it. The food will be donated to the Fredericksburg Area Food Bank.

The need for food donations is great.  Taking part is easy.  Letter carriers will pick up your donations when they deliver your mail.

All you have to do is leave non-perishable food items at your mailbox, and the letter carriers will do the rest.  The food collected will go directly to food pantries in the community.

Last year, local letter carriers picked up more than 91,000 pounds of food and delivered it to the Fredericksburg Area Food Bank.

Volunteer Tina Duncan hangs a banner atop a new Empowerhouse transition home in downtown Fredericksburg on Thursday.

(PETER CIHELKA / THE FREE LANCE-STAR)

In today’s paper, you can read about a new transition home for empowerhouse, which helps people in abusive situations.

It took a village to raise this house, and here are just a few examples of how the local community helped:

One supporter listened to a presentation on how she could give money or give toilet paper and a range of things in between. She thought to herself, “I can give more than toilet paper,” and threw a party that raised $14,000.

Another supporter inspired her school to collect  2,000 rolls of toilet paper.

Four other supporters invited guests into their homes and had shower parties to encourage buying items for the house from a Bed, Bath, and Beyond registry.

MOPS Tabernacle (Mothers of Preschoolers) collected new sheets, pillow, and towel sets to give to the new residents and take with them when they leave.

Surgi-Center of Central Virginia did a holiday drive and asked their associates to give and the doctors in the practice matched, bringing in $3,100 for the new house.

MacDoc Realty adopted two rooms at the house and the Fredericksburg Realtors Foundation and other community members adopted rooms, which started at a donation of $3,000 per room.

Others adopted rooms and gave to see the house put to use for this purpose knowing that the need is there and that families will benefit.

Philanthropist Doris Buffett bought the house for empowerhouse.

About 20 youths from Heritage Park  came to the house last Friday night and worked on cleaning, bed assembly, and hanging art work to get the house ready to open.

Arch DiPeppe, local appraiser, has been hunting treasures at yard sales,  looking for more items that will complement the furniture in the house including, toys, floor lamps, framed artwork, and small pieces of furniture.

Local artist Betsy Glassie donated four paintings to bring color into the house to lift the spirits of the new residents.

Employees from Frit-O-Lay spent the Day of Caring doing yard work for the home.

Rugby players from the University of Mary Washington painted the house.

Women In the Giving Spirit raised $4,500 at its annual Daffodil Luncheon and donated the money to the house.

Molly Maid of Stafford/Fredericksburg provided money–and some free house cleaning.

The transition house is open, but empowerhouse could still use community help to keep it furnished and the pantry stocked. Click here for details or call 540/373-9372. You can also mail donations to: P.O. Box 1007, Fredericksburg, VA 22402.

That donation could provide more than 15,000 meals for hungry people in the Fredericksburg area.

The donation includes 20 pallets of breakfast items, canned vegetables, baking items and juice. Food bank director Oya Oliver was there to greet the delivery truck:

“We really appreciate all Wegmans brings to the community through providing jobs, the Check Out Hunger campaign and food donations like this to help the neediest families. Hunger is all around us every day and when stores like Wegmans donate food it saves waste and helps strengthen our families.”

When the Wegmans tractor-trailer arrived at the Fredericksburg Area Food Bank, Store Manager Chris Depumpo was on hand along with other Wegmans employees to help unload the truck. He said:

 “Food for the hungry is one of our most important giving priorities. We’re proud of our company’s long-standing tradition to make a difference in every community we serve.”

And if you don’t have 18,000 pounds of food lying around, you can still help the food bank. You can click here to vote for the local food bank in a competition for a Walmart Foundation grant. The food bank would use the money to support its food pantries in area schools. Those pantries help feed students who receive free and reduced lunches during the day but have no food for dinner, weekends and school breaks.

And with summer coming soon, the food bank will need even more help. Typically, donations drop while regular donors are busy with vacations but the need rises dramatically as families struggling to feed their children don’t have the free and reduced school meals to help. To prepare for the summer, the food bank often asks for even more “kid-friendly” food donations: cereal, peanut butter, jelly, macaroni and cheese, fruit cups, etc.  Call 540/371-7666 for more details on how you can help.

For questions or to enroll, call MHAF at 540-371-2704 or send an email to mhafred@mhafred.org.

You can read more about the program here.

And here are a few more details:

SAMHSA, federal government agency for substance abuse and mental health services, has recognized WRAP as an evidence-based intervention strategy for adults facing mental health challenges. By program requirement, certified WRAP Facilitators are “peer consumers” – individuals who know mental illness first hand and have incorporated WRAP principles into their lives. They have completed a rigorous 40-hour training program covering facilitation skills, program principles, and guidelines. They bring handouts that supplement the WRAP workbook that each participant gets to keep.

With the bullying issues and the transgender attacks not long ago, with the change in public opinion about same gender marriage, we feel that there’s a need for a safe place for area LGBT people to go for support and for family and friends to understand, be supportive, and be supported. People who have been “in the closet” are thinking of coming out and need that support, as do their families and friends. The City of Fredericksburg has been an incredibly supportive place to live and/or work, so it’s a natural for a PFLAG chapter to form here, particularly for folks in the surrounding counties.

In the story, personal attendant Eric Barnes said this about his job:

“Here’s a human being that has special needs, and he needs help, and if I’m able to help him to the best of my ability, I’m helping him and I’m helping me. I know I can’t take care of everyone, but I can take care of the one person who needs me. That’s the biggest reason I do this: He needs me.”

Here are the details about the workshop:

Date: May 29; Time: 10am to 12pm; Location: The dRC (409 Progress Street in Fredericksburg). To register, call or e-mail:540-373-2559, cdepollo@cildrc.org