Annandale Volunteers: Meet Mollie Loeffler

The month of April is National Volunteer Month and the week of April 10-16 is National Volunteer Week. To celebrate this, Annandale Patch is launching a new weekly column to recognize the people who volunteer their time in Annandale and surrounding communities for their work in our neighborhoods. Every week, we will bring you a profile featuring a resident who spends their time giving back to the community.

For our debut volunteer profile, we’d like to introduce you to Mollie Loeffler. Read on to learn more about her and how you can nominate a volunteer for us to feature!

Mollie Loeffler is a Mason District resident and the president or the Parklawn Civic Association in Alexandria. She was recently awarded the 2010 Citizen of the Year award by the Fairfax County Federation of Citizens Associations for her work both with Parklawn and her role in reestablishing the Mason District Council of Community Associations.

Since 2007, Loeffler has played an integral role in revitalizing the Parklawn community. She credits her desire to save her neighborhood from undesirable changes as her motivation for getting involved and volunteering her time. “I was walking around with my kids one day and saw trash in the streets and noticed a lot of the negative changes that were going on at the time with single family homes being turned into apartment buildings and thought ‘I’m not going to sit here and let my neighborhood go downhill,’” said Loeffler. “I’m more of a doer.”

Loeffler’s leadership and the support of others on the Parklawn team, including residents Richard Zambito, Daren Shumate, Dave Galway, T.J. Chipres and Mike Gates, have helped the civic association receive two $5,000 grants from the Fairfax County Neighborhood Enhancement Partnership Program (NEPP).

Some of the funds went toward last year’s Music in the Park program. The event, which was co-organized by Amanda Aguilera, featured local bands and vendors and help from the Glasgow Middle School music department. “The community was bursting with pride that day,” Loeffler said about the event.

The goal behind reestablishing the Mason District Council was to give people a chance to discuss issues affecting their community and figure out ways to solve them collectively. “Every neighborhood has the same issues, how do you get volunteers and get people to get involved and have events.  Now people are communicating and it’s awesome,” said Loeffler.

Loeffler said the council is hoping to start a community recognition award around June just for Mason District civic associations and homeowners’ associations.

“All we have is us,” said Loeffler. “I would encourage everyone to get involved on some level. It’s important to give a little bit of time toward your community.”

If you are a volunteer (or know someone who is a volunteer) and you'd like to be featured, send an e-mail to sherell@patch.com with your name, phone number and a brief one or two sentences about your volunteer experience.