Author: The BridgeLine

Despite the current economical crisis, there are many people out there who are very generous and happy to give. That is amazing and touching.

Our Belmont house has a wonderful and very long white picket fence that suffered from age and weather. Over time, the storms had blown out whole sections and the rain and sun had helped the paint to peel of. But now, the fence is in good shape again, thanks to A Quality Built Fence Co..

Jean Alther, Vice President, and her brother decided to donate the repair and paint ing of the fence to Building a Bridge. Thanks so much from all of us to their generosity!

The next unexpected gift came from Mrs. Ann Marshall, long term resident of Charlottesville, and a friend of a friend of Building a Bridge. She donated her CAR to us, we could not believe it! We were in so much need at the time, since two of our cars have given up to function. This kindness helps us tremendously to continue our work for this organization. Thank you Mrs. Marshall for you wonderful support of our residents.

And last but not lease, we were just awarded a grant from the HUT Foundation. That money will help us to remodel one of the bathrooms in the Lexington house to make it handicap accessible. The HUT Foundation, inspired by the values of integrity and compassion, seeks to fund project offering solutions to fundamental problems in the areas of education, humanitarian issues, and the environment. It further seeks to promote respect for others and to develop our commitment to family. A big “thank you” to the HUT Foundation for their support.

The Central Virginia Regional Chapter of the American Red Cross hosted an Adult CPR/AED plus Child CPR lifesaving training for non-profit organization in June.

Building a Bridge has two new Board members, Mary T. Miller and Greg Webb. Please read more about their expertise and what great new assets they are to our organization.

Fellowship, Friendship, FOOD!!!!! … so the invitation said, and … we did not promise too much.
What a wonderful afternoon we spent together; staff and residents of The Bridge, families, and friends gathered on a warm Sunday afternoon at our Belmont house for a picnic.

The weather was beautiful, though we were a little worried, as it had rained the day before and thunderstorms were on its way. The food was excellent; many people brought home made salads, cakes and other dishes to spoil the palate. Everyone seemed to enjoy meeting old friends and making new acquaintances. The musicians of the local group Pickin’ Shack (good friends of Dave) played for several hours. It was wonderful! Thanks so much to them for their support and friendship.

Brett Leake , motivational speaker, comedian and friend entertained us with great jokes, funny and touching stories about his parents, and an important message: Persons with traumatic brain injuries are as important in our lives as we are in theirs! Thanks to Brett for an amazing performance and for being an advocate to our residents.

We thank everyone who helped and joined us that afternoon and thus contributed to making this a wonderful and memorable event.

Timo had to leave earlier than expected.

He arrived in August 2008 just after finishing high school in Germany and he wanted to spend a year in a foreign country. Timo had chosen Building a Bridge, as he was inspired by the change of life that German friends had made who stayed with us last year. Timo had decided to spend a year with us before he would start college. In the beginning, everything was new to him: The country, the language, living with other people and working with persons with a disability. During these months, he has made amazing progress in every regard and grown into the role of a residential counselor, which requires patience, commitment, good learning skills, just to name a few important attributes. He now had to leave since college started earlier then expected..

We all will miss him a lot and hope that next year his sister Janika will join us.
Here are some photos that were taken during the course of his stay.

Good bye Timo and thanks for all you have done for the Bridge!

This event was held by the Nonprofit/Business Council of the Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce at the Charlottesville Pavilion.

It was a terrific opportunity to acquaint business leaders and other nonprofit organizations in our community with Building a Bridge and our services.

It was a rainy, windy, and cold day; however, it was a great success , 440 people showed up; even Miss VIrginia appeared. Here are some photos of the event.

Exciting news:

Building a Bridge has been awarded a grant from the Tzedakah Fund of Congregation Beth Israel. With the help of this grant we can now create a music therapy pilot project to meet the educational and therapeutic needs of the residents of The Bridge and enhance their lives through the joy of music. Music therapy will offer a new avenue for Building a Bridge residents to grow and discover and further their capabilities, which will facilitate integration into the greater Charlottesville community.

We already contacted a professional art therapist, Cathy Bollinger, MA, BC-MT, who has long-term credential within this Community. She has worked for many years with disabled residents of Innisfree and also started sessions with participating children at the Virginia Institute of Autism (VIA).
We are all looking forward to the music!

After all the hard work that was done during the spring cleaning, we can now see the reward.

Thanks to all the gardners.

Building a Bridge has now a Twitter account .