Good Stuff

by Sydney Johnson

Home Made

For 15 years, Arlington interior designer Liz Mearns has been helping clients make their spaces feel homier and more like them. During the pandemic, many began asking for help redesigning their bedrooms and home offices.

Those requests got the owner of Imagine Design thinking about how she could create a sense of comfort for people who were less privileged, including families transitioning out of homelessness. She rallied three longtime designer friends in Aurora Highlands—Tiffany McAvoy, Carey Bryant and Lucie McEldowney—and reached out to Carpenter’s Shelter in Alexandria, offering to decorate apartment units at The Bloom, an affordable housing property the shelter maintains in partnership with the Alexandria Housing Development Corp. Since August 2020, the foursome has furnished nine apartment units and two lounge areas, pro bono, contributing out-ofpocket funds as needed.

An affordable apartment designed and furnished by Imagine Giving Design

Working with a tight budget (about $1,500 per unit) was a challenge, Mearns says, but the outpouring of support was massive. Clients and friends offered cash and in-kind donations. Dozens of volunteers— from neighbors to an entire youth baseball team—helped collect goods; paint, assemble and move furniture; and hang artwork. The response was so robust that the designers found they had the luxury of being a little picky. “We’re very selective [with furnishings],” Mearns says, “because ultimately, when we do the recipient’s home, we want it to look like it was done with design in mind.” Each unit so far has been designed to match the incoming residents’ tastes. One little girl wanted butterflies. A boy said he liked race cars.

The effort has now blossomed into a nonprofit organization, Imagine Giving Design, with plans for future projects. Mearns says they hope to redesign community spaces at homeless shelters, offering their services as a way to help young interior designers gain experience. Donations and volunteers are welcome. imaginegivingdesign.org

Hello, Sunshine

People love their barbecue, but John Snedden is also aware that meat—and the resources needed to produce and distribute it—has a negative impact on the environment. So the founder of Rocklands Barbeque and Grilling Co. is making sure his company is doing its part to offset that impact.

In July, the Rocklands outpost on Washington Boulevard became the first commercial business in the county to receive financing via Arlington Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (C-PACE), a publicprivate partnership devoted to renewable energy improvements. A $125,000 loan from Arlington Community Federal Credit Union paid for two solar panel systems, which will help reduce the restaurant’s greenhouse gas emissions and lower its utility bills—a win-win for the beloved small business and the environment. The photovoltaic panels are expected to save about 59,000 kilowatt-hours per year.

“The bottom line is at the end of the day, it’s the right thing to do,” Snedden says. “We’re cognizant that many of our protein products have a large carbon footprint, as well as the overall energy use of a food production facility, so we are constantly looking for ways to be more energy efficient.”

This solar initiative is not the first action Rocklands has taken toward sustainability. The restaurant sources from local farms whenever possible, cooks with real wood (no chemicals), conducts energy audits at all of its locations, composts and recycles to keep trash from landfills, and uses packaging and supplies made with eco-friendly materials.

The solar roof has been up and running since late-January. “We’re psyched and looking forward to converting the sun’s natural energy into electricity,” Snedden says, “to run our refrigeration and lighting needs.” rocklands.com; arlington-pace.us

All the Feels

The pandemic has unleased a tidal wave of emotions— grief, frustration, boredom, anxiety, restlessness, sadness, loneliness. Now, imagine experiencing such intense emotions as a kindergartner.

Mount Daniel Elementary School teacher Lisa Murphy was in a staff meeting last year when she first heard about Kimochis, a line of plush toys designed to help kids understand their emotions. (Kimochi is the Japanese word for feeling; the parent company is based in San Francisco.) The characters include Cloud, who has unpredictable mood shifts; Bug, a caterpillar who is afraid of change; and Lovey Dove, a bird who feels anxious when others are unkind. Each plushie has a pouch in which children can place “feeling pillows”— emoticons with different facial expressions or words—to recognize that feelings originate inside. “These 5-yearolds experience really big emotions,” Murphy says. “I think in the context of the pandemic, they’re needing to process all these really confusing things.”

Wanting to help her students cope, Murphy applied for and won a $1,000 grant from the Falls Church Education Foundation (FCEF), a nonprofit that raises and distributes supplemental funds to Falls Church City Public School educators. The funds allowed her to order a collection of Kimochis, plus worksheets and lesson plans, which she began using in the classroom in January. “The kids love them,” she says. So far, they’ve prompted conversations about feeling happy, embarrassed, proud, left out and shy. kimochis.com, fcedf.org