Hyattsville Aging in Place Village, and Little Falls Village Winners of the 2022 WAVE Founders Award For Village Excellence

The Washington Area Villages Exchange (WAVE) is proud to announce that Hyattsville (MD) Aging in Place Village and Little Falls Village (Bethesda, MD) are winners of its first annual Founders Award For Village Excellence. Mary Jo Deering, WAVE President, congratulated the winners for their ingenuity, energy, and commitment to their communities. “You’ve demonstrated the very best of Villages’ abilities to meet the needs of older adults through creative, collaborative, volunteer-driven services and programs. You are shining examples and role models for villages across the region and across the country.”  

The award honors WAVE founders Virginia Hodgkinson (VA), Miriam Kelty (MD, deceased), and Andy Mollison (DC, deceased). Barbara Sullivan, Executive Director of the national Village to Village Network, hailed them as “visionaries who led the way to establishing a common forum to support the growth of the village model.” The Founders Award recognizes villages for programs and/or services that are outstanding examples of Villages’ contributions to the well-being of older adults in their communities and reflect the founders’ values of inclusivity; collaboration; creative problem-solving; and positive impact on villages, their communities and the larger village movement. One award is given to a village with an annual operating budget of under $25,000, and one award goes to a village with an annual operating budget of $25,000 or more. Each award comes with a $1,000 prize and opportunities to share lessons learned with other villages and organizations serving older adults. 

Hyattsville Aging in Place (HAP, Hyattsville, MD) won the under $25,000 budget category award for its project “Route 1 Food Security.” Funded by a grant from the Greater Washington Community Foundation HAP partnered with area organizations, including Central Kenilworth Area Revitalization CDC, food pantries, restaurants, farmers markets, and Meals on Wheels, and its volunteers delivered food to those in need in their community and those nearby along Route 1 during the pandemic. The project served 1,435 meals and made additional deliveries, including care packages, to 95 isolated older adults. To learn more about this project, contact Kris Aulenbach, HAP Board Chair, aulenbach2@aol.com.

Little Falls Village (LFV, Bethesda, MD) won the $25,000 and over budget category award for its project “COVID Vaccine and Booster Clinics.” LFV created a collaborative initiative to run five COVID vaccination clinics in 2021, giving a total of more than one thousand shots to village members, volunteers, and neighbors. Giant Pharmacy brought the vaccines and pharmacists; Sumner Village donated the space; LFV organized an army of volunteers; Glen Echo Fire Department sent their EMTs to stand-by for any medical issues; and friends of LFV staffed the clinic waiting room with refreshments for clients. To learn more about this project, contact Ann Humphrey, LFV Board Chair, aghumphrey@gmail.com.  

Virginia Hodgkinson expressed her appreciation of the winners’ projects: “They are wonderful and really deserve recognition. They can be a great inspiration to others.” WAVE is grateful to Ms. Hodgkinson for both her founding role in WAVE and for a generous donation that funds the cash awards.  

WAVE also presented a Special Appreciation Award to Silver Spring Village, for creating and managing the website for “Washington Area Village Shared Events,” better known as DMVVillageEvents.org. This website has transformed the way in which Villages across the region share programming resources. It 

is a collaborative effort, and over 350 educational and cultural events that are virtual and open to everyone have been posted. To learn more contact doug.gaddis@silverspringvillage.org. 

To learn more about the winning projects and the other fine nominated projects, visit https://wavevillages.org/index.php/founders-award/.  

About Villages and WAVE 

Villages are communities of neighbors helping neighbors. As nonprofit, grassroots initiatives, they are  volunteer-based, member-driven and self-governing. Villages mobilize volunteers to provide programs  and services that older adults need to remain safe and independent in their homes, such as  transportation, light home maintenance, tech support, friendly visits and check-in calls. Villages also  offer social and educational activities that reduce isolation and create interpersonal connections and  social support. Now is the time to join WAVE and the national Village to Village Network (VtVN) to  scale the movement to every community across the country. To learn more about villages, to join  WAVE and VtVN, or to find out if you have a village in your community, visit https://wavevillages.org or  www.vtvnetwork.org. 

Founded in 2012, the Washington Area Villages Exchange (WAVE) is a forum through which nonprofit  villages in the Washington D.C region share experiences and ideas. Through diverse educational  programming and networking opportunities, WAVE strengthens and promotes developing and  established villages in our region and helps build momentum for the nationwide village movement. 

Virginia Hodgkinson recalled “It became clear from the beginning that we could achieve growth and  success by sharing our experiences and finding answers to our questions about ways to organize,  develop programs, and find resources. Over the years, WAVE grew very quickly and we became the  largest regional organization in the country.”