Leesburg, VA November 2022

Giving Thanks LO C A L S E RV I C E S

DU LLES SOUTH SOU P KITCH EN PREPARES M E AL S FO R TH E HU NGRY

N OV E M B E R 2 022

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LIFESTYLE LETTER

Saying Thanks!

November 2022 PUBLISHER

Hann Livingston | hann.livingston@citylifestyle.com EDITOR IAL COOR DINATOR

Melinda Gipson | melinda.gipson@citylifestyle.com

Thanksgiving, from its very origins, involves giving thanks for God’s abundance. In our gratitude for not going hungry, we may be forgiven for overdoing it a bit, so long as we celebrate with friends and family! Designer Julie Shaheen does just that from her dream kitchen, which we’re delighted to share with you.

Others make it their business to celebrate the holidays by giving back to those less fortunate and we’ve compiled a series of heart-warming stories involving several of our community’s true givers – folks who show up day after day to teach our children and to help the abused and the needy, whether the cameras are on or off.

Finally, we want to offer a heart-felt shout out to the moms out there who not only labor over the holiday turkey and all the trimmings, but who instill in their children a true sense of duty to share their bounty. Dolly Mahapatra, this one’s for you: Thanks!

M E L I N DA G I P S O N , E D I TO R I A L C O O R D I N ATO R @LEESBURGLIFESTYLE

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Proverbs 3:5-6 Leesburg Lifestyle™ is published monthly by Lifestyle Publications LLC. It is distributed via the US Postal Service to some of the Leesburg area’s most affluent neighborhoods. Articles and advertisements do not necessarily reflect Lifestyle Publications’ opinions. No portion of this magazine may be reproduced in any form without written consent. Lifestyle Publications does not assume responsibility for statements made by advertisers or editorial contributors.

Information in Leesburg Lifestyle™ is gathered from sources considered to be reliable, but the

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L I F E ST Y LE LE T T E R

accuracy of all information cannot be guaranteed.

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N OV E M B E R 2 0 2 2

inside the issue The Thankful Issue

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30

36

18

F E ATU R E D

D E PA RTM E NTS

18 Building Communities, One Coalition at a Time

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Lifestyle Letter

36

Giving Back

LIF E + C U LTU R E

12

City Scene

42

Inspired By

A RTS + C U LTU R E

18

Hometown Hero

50

Must See

24

Local Limelight

52

Realty Report

30

Now Open

54

Trend Setter

Leveraging Fear to End Hunger

30 Dulles South Soup Kitchen Ribbon Cutting

A RTS + C U LT U R E EDU CAT I O N

LO CA L S ERV I C ES

ENT ERTA IN M E N T R E A L E STATE

HOM E + D E SIG N

Serving Prepared Meals With Dignity, No Questions Asked

36 The Salvation Army Angel Tree Hailed a Logistic Triumph 2022 Program Will Deliver Gifts to 1,200 Local Children

42 P7 Builds a Network of Selfless Women Helping Others Third Annual Fashion Show Benefits Women Giving Back and Silent No More

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O N T H E C OV E R

Photography: Melinda Gipson Dulles South Soup Kitchen Chef Saira Gavidia does food prep in the organization’s shiny new Pavilion kitchen.

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city scene

Where neighbors can see and be seen.

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1-7: Ida Lee celebrates Labor Day weekend with its traditional dog swim. This year 175 pups participated.

CONTINUED >

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C I T Y SC E N E

#GiveWithBOCC

For the rest of 2022, our branches have designated a charity they are supporting. Follow the #GivewithBoCC campaign and help together by giving to these local charities.

WWW.BANKOFCLARKE.BANK

CIT Y SCENE CONTINUED

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At this year’s Leesburg Airshow: 1: Tim Fisher, Owner of Aero Elite Flight Training. 2: Local filmmaker Buzz Covington (CovingtonImages.com) just released his movie “The Longest Month” on Amazon Prime. 3: C-47D Skytrain Douglas Aircraft Cargo Plane Luck of The Irish. 4: The Flying Circus Airshow out of Bealeton, Virginia, performs wing-walking. 5: Smokehouse Pilot’s Club. 6: Flight Crew of Liberty Warbirds with their Vietnam-Era Huey. 7: Open Air Pilots

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C I T Y SC E N E

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COMM G IN LD I BU

UNITIES, ONE COA LIT IO

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LEVERAGING FEAR TO END HUNGER

AT A T I M E

ARTICLE BY MELINDA GIPSON | PHOTOGRAPHY BY MELINDA GIPSON, INMED

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H OM E TOWN H E R O | ARTS + CULTURE

There’s something about Graydon Manor, or perhaps any large tract of land with a 100-year-old manor home, that compels the imagination. The place engaged the vision of developer David Gregory a half dozen years ago when he bought the 131acre estate and sought to divide it into a kind of co-housing village with multiple, single-family dwellings, a winery that would feature a farm-to-table restaurant, a library, a greenhouse and a convenience store.

The county nixed that plan, though it’s still in litigation and probably won’t be resolved until next year. In the meantime, David, who has a sincere heart for serving the community’s needy found the opportunity to use the Graydon estate and the work of INMED Partnership for Children for the county’s Hispanic population to tie together a number of philanthropic projects into a new entity called the Synergy Community Foundation.

Interestingly, each piece of the plan empowers an entirely different community, but all aim to eliminate poverty and provide economic opportunity to the disenfranchised in creative ways.

As developers set their sights on the Leesburg Mobile Home Park, David, the principal of the Zeeland NV property company now headquartered on the Graydon estate, worried about what would happen to the more than 130 lower income families that would be displaced by the area’s redevelopment.

So, David first proposed moving the 77 trailers to the Graydon estate, then when other’s plans to purchase it fell through, he simply bought it himself.

“It looked like the town had a plan to accommodate the developer and these people were simply going to be discarded,” David said. “We couldn’t let that happen.” But simply purchasing the park wasn’t enough. David also purchased the adjacent salvage yard and is now working with INMED’s Sterling Opportunity Center to use the 12-acre facility to build a community aquaponics garden to provide fresh, all-natural produce and protein to the residents year-round, right in their backyard, said INMED U.S. Programs Director Jennifer Lassiter Smith. The renovated onsite office building will be used to offer nutrition education, wellness workshops, fitness classes and other resources the families need to narrow health equity and food security gaps, she added.

When the $11 million purchase went through this spring, INMED hosted a celebration for trailer park residents, many of whom represent families that have lived there for more than a decade. “That day David met with the leadership committee that was negotiating with the earlier developer and from the very first day he gave all of them his cell phone number and he regularly meets with them. They were initially fearful because they thought they would all be displaced but now they’re talking about how they envision their future and their kids’ futures,” Jennifer told us.

It will still take something like $3 million to build the aquaponics facility, even using reusable Connex boxes and shipping containers, and to provide the training and other resources necessary to make it a going concern, but David is clearly engaged

David Gregory with map of Graydon Estate

Leesburg Trailer Home Park residents celebrate Gregory purchase

CONTINUED >

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Meeting with LTHP leadership

Aquaponics Artist’s Rendering

Matt and Jennifer Lassiter Smith with Hazard

for the long haul. In a lengthy interview, he made clear that he approaches the problem of poverty in a community of plenty as more of an economist than a philanthropist.

“Economists look for patterns of shortage and abundance and Loudoun County is a place to observe both. We look at it in terms of business opportunities and investments that can have long-term impact. How someone runs a philanthropy is bewildering to me and makes almost no sense, but together Jennifer and I have coalesced around ideas and around voids that needed to be filled for the past three years,” he explained. One such void involves food security.

“It’s almost criminal that in one of the wealthiest counties in the country children go to bed hungry,” David said. His work in donating a facility to the Dulles South Soup Kitchen (see p. 30), is designed to address that need.

But there are many others. Many lower income workers are forced to bring their children to job sites after school and overuse emergency rooms rather than employing preventative medicine that would improve their overall health

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H OM E TOWN H E R O | ARTS + CULTURE

and wellness. All these issues put burdens on the business community that could be lessened by offering opportunity rather than remediation, David explained.

At the heart of the problem, “no one wants to see poverty where they live and work,” David said, resulting in inconsistent zoning and development policies. “The county is a little schizophrenic on their desire to have affordable housing.

No one wants affordable houses near them,” he added.

Conversation about zoning issues and growth in Western Loudoun inevitably lead back to the Graydon property, and one inspired use about which bureaucrats can have virtually no say. This Halloween, the estate became home to a new haunt in town – a scary outdoor experience masterminded by the former haunt-master of Shocktober, Matthew Smith.

As we reported when we first profiled Shocktober (bit.ly/ GhoulSchool), Matt’s love of choreographing a good scare engages its own community he calls “haunters.” So, it was a snap to bring the band back together, so to speak, and turn the Graydon estate, surrounding the property’s 11,000-square-foot,

Hazard Haunts Graydon

century-old manor home, into a dystopian, post-apocalyptic wasteland.

Folks like Hazard (“just the one name, like Madonna,” quips Jennifer) pictured here, live for the haunt and are likely to find steady work with Matt’s new company Screamworks LLC, beginning with ScreamLoco.com’s 2022 installation. “To escape the horrors of a world ravaged by a toxic post-apocalyptic wasteland, humanity sought safety underground.... Do you dare venture into their world to uncover the mystery of what happened?” goes the set-up. Visitors begin their trip with a simulated elevator plunge down 30 stories sending them into a claustrophobic nightmare.

If that sounds tame, remember that Matt is a master of psychological deception and that many Shocktoberians have gone on to work in Hollywood, Universal Studios and King’s Dominion, turning their mastery of make-up, special effects and make-believe into careers. We regret that, by the time you read this, the fun may largely be passed for the show’s 2022 October run, but we’re assured they’ll make it an annual affair.

Shocktober during its 12-year stint raised around $3 million for charity, so it’s no surprise that ScreamLoco’s profits will benefit the Synergy Community Foundation and its vocational training programs. Says Matt, “Shocktober’s Carlheim Mansion was also a tad limiting. Here we have a blank slate. We can do hay rides, we can do Zombie runs.” A Christmas show featuring the Grinch, to Krampus to Santa Claus isn’t out of the question. “We’d have a wholesome Santa Claus with almost no blood spatter at all,” quipped Matt.

For her part, Jennifer says, “It’s all my world together in a bow, and I love that.”

And for David, it’s all about building new coalitions with practical solutions to poverty. Or, put another way, it’s about “building things, not just talking about them,” he says.

NOVEMB ER 2 0 2 2 | C I TYL I FE STYL E . C OM / L E E S BUR G

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THE LOUDON E D U C AT I O N F O U N D AT I O N : Advancing Excellence and Innovation in Public Education

Photo by Douglas Graham

ARTICLE BY DANIELLE NADLER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, LOUDOUN EDUCATION FOUNDATION PHOTOGRAPHY BY DOUGLAS GRAHAM, KIRSLYN SCHELL-SMITH, LOUDOUN COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS

The Loudoun Education Foundation is a public-private partnership empowering the county’s students and educators to dream big. Even in one of the wealthiest counties of the country, there are areas of need that are hidden in plain sight. For more than three decades, LEF has helped bridge gaps for Loudoun County Public Schools, from weekend meal bags to scholarships, enrichment programs to classroom teacher grants.

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LOCA L LIM E LIGH T | ED UCATI ON

Photo credit: Kirslyn Schell-Smith

DIVERSIFYING THE TEACHER WORKFORCE SCHOLARSHIP The Loudoun Education Foundation’s newest scholarship is an investment in people of diverse backgrounds who dedicate their careers to serving our students. The Diversifying the Teacher Workforce Scholarship embraces the ideas that teachers should represent the vibrant communities they serve, and that students benefit when everyone has a seat at the educator’s table.

LEF and Superintendent Scott Zielger surprise Ashburn Elementary special education teacher Meghan Alice Smith with a round-trip Southwest flight.

YEAR OF THE EDUCATOR The 2022-23 school year is officially the “Year of the Educator” in Loudoun County, thanks to a collaboration between LEF and LCPS. Each month throughout the school year, a randomly selected teacher and support staff member are presented with a heartfelt thank you and a prize valued at $500 or more. Businesses and individuals are encouraged to get in on the fun with cash or in-kind donations earmarked for the initiative, at LoudounEducationFoundation.org.

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BACKPACK COALITION Provides weekend meals for more than 1,000 students each week, serving more than 30 local public schools. Demand for in-school pantries has doubled this year, and LEF is looking for businesses or organizations to sponsor an elementary, middle, or high school to help them meet the need. Those interested in helping out can contact Backpack Coalition Coordinator kirslyn.schell-smith@lcps.org.

MENTAL HEALTH AND WELLNESS

The Loudoun Education Foundation team, joined by a student volunteer, packs meal bags for their Backpack Coalition program. Photo Kirslyn Schell-Smith

Loudoun Education Foundation partners with A Place to Be music therapy center, Inova Loudoun Hospital, and Jack Kent Cooke Foundation to create a fun, interactive music therapy-type television program for second-graders in every Loudoun County public school.

CURRICULUM ENRICHMENT PROPEL and Level Up is one program LEF supports that closes the “excellence gap” by strategically supporting students from low-socioeconomic communities. This after-school STEM program supports more than 300 students in 14 schools, with the goal of preparing them for rigorous coursework in high school and beyond.

Hillsboro Elementary students take part in a stretching exercise between classes. Photo credit: Douglas Graham

FINALLY, LEF PROVIDES TEACHER SUPPORT AND ENCOURAGEMENT Did you know that public school teachers spend an average of $750 on their own classroom supplies? Or that the cost of their education and certifications is several times their annual salaries? The Loudoun Education Foundation wants our educators to feel the love and have tangible support, in the form of classroom grants, continuing education scholarships, recognition for excellence, and enrichment opportunities. Despite being one of the fastest-growing public school districts over the last generation, LCPS regularly ranks among the best in Virginia and beyond.

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LOCA L LIM E LIGH T | ED UCATI ON

After school STEM programs help diverse students compete in math and science, photo by Kirslyn Schell-Smith

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Devina and Her Mother Dolly Who Taught Her to Share

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NOW OP E N | LOCAL SERVI CE S

Dulles South Soup Kitchen Ribbon Cutting: SERVING PREPARED MEALS WITH DIGNITY, NO QUESTIONS ASKED

ARTICLE BY MELINDA GIPSON PHOTOGRAPHY BY MELINDA GIPSON, DULLES SOUTH SOUP KITCHEN

David Gregory, Chair Randall and Devina at September's Ribbon Cutting

As Meg Philips, head of the Dulles South Food Pantry remembers it, “It was the height of the pandemic and we were working with a small, small group of staff and volunteers, trying to feed people in need,” when Devina Mahapatra reached out asking about starting a soup kitchen. Meg told her, “That would be so great; here are some ideas.” She thought, “a lot of people have really big hearts and really good intentions but aren’t necessarily doers. Then, three months later, Devina emailed, ‘Okay, we’re ready.’”

In those three months, Devina posted a website, raised donations of fresh produce and other food, and found a small kitchen and volunteers to help make nutritious, home cooked meals, all while working full time and raising her own family. Within weeks, flyers went out to families who relied on the food pantry about where to pick them up.

CONTINUED >

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31

“I saw hunger firsthand.... I come from a family where we’re very fortunate to be on the other side of hunger, and my parents never took that lightly.”

— Devina Mahapatra

From humble beginnings, feeding a couple dozen families, the Dulles Soup Kitchen has blossomed to a finely tuned machine that can turn out 3,000 meals a month. It’s all possible with the help of the board, Kali Vasanthan, Kumar Iyer, Anisha Nanda and Neha Arorahe, the addition of a full-time chef, Saira Gavidia, and access to the industrial-sized kitchen and pantry of the Pavilion at Bean Tree donated by developer David Gregory. But, fundamentally, this is a story about how one woman, who admittedly creates Agile systems for a living, just decided to get it done.

Devina and her two brothers and one sister were brought up in India where she says, “I saw hunger firsthand.... I come from a family where we’re very fortunate to be on the other side of hunger, and my parents never took that lightly.” Growing up, hers was the kind of home where the homeless and disabled would come by and announce that 20 of them would be coming by for lunch. “So, my parents would have these lavish meals made. My job was to serve them and make sure they were enjoying their meal.”

When she moved to the United States, she often volunteered in her local soup kitchen. When she moved to Loudoun County five years ago, she found it odd that there wasn’t one. “No one is going to convince me that there isn’t hunger over here...

32

NOW OP E N | LOCAL SERVI CE S

I know there is,” she said, “so I’m just going to have to start one.”

She began by reaching out to the area’s food pantries to develop partnerships so the food would get to people with whom these organizations already had relationships. “It didn’t make sense to reinvent the wheel,” she explained. She first tapped volunteers to collect food from farmers markets and supermarkets and food pantries. She applied for and received grants from local groups like 100 Women Strong.

And, she set up a system that began with food prep on Monday and distribution Tuesday through Friday.

Meeting David Gregory was a milestone because it allowed the group to move from a very small kitchen to a world-class facility where it could more easily reach pockets of poverty in Sterling and southern areas of the county at scale. The kitchen always needs donations to pay for food and food containers, for access to farm fresh produce in the winter months and to grow its capacity to more than 5,000 meals a month.

The kitchen’s motto is, “No one should go to bed hungry,” but Devina’s side missions are to engage more young people and businesses to help meet the needs in the county, letting them know, “it’s easy to do good if you want to do good.” To donate or volunteer visit dullessouthsoupkitchen.org.

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The Angel Tree Team: Kim Carrier, Bonnie Inman, Karen Reed, Marcey Kellogg, Kyesha Miller, Grace Winter

The Salvation Army Angel Tree Hailed a Logistic Triumph ARTICLE BY MELINDA GIPSON | PHOTOGRAPHY BY MELINDA GIPSON, THE SALVATION ARMY, LOUDOUN CORPS

2022 Program Will Deliver Gifts to 1,200 Local Children Warehouse Sorting Center

36

G IV IN G BAC K | L IFE + CULTURE

Angel Trees

One of the longest running, most beloved Loudoun County charities is our local The Salvation Army’s Angel Tree program. Longest running because it is believed to date back to the early 1900’s. Beloved, because it annually brings joy to more than 1,200 children and their families at Christmas in the form of new toys, clothing, books and shoes, AND because nothing puts a smile on the giver like knowing they are making a needy child happy. More than thirty local businesses and hundreds of local shoppers contribute, adopting “Angels” to join their own holiday lists.

Behind the scenes, it all happens through the extraordinary planning, organization, attention to detail, creativity and energy of small, loyal team, says Bonnie Inman, Director of Development . It’s so extraordinary, in fact, that Loudoun Care’s annual Outstanding Volunteer Awards gave this group top honors for adult volunteer group of the year.

Just two Salvation Army staff members, social workers Kym Carrier and Keysha Miller, work with longtime volunteer Marcey Kellogg, warehouse coordinator Karen Reed and volunteer coordinator Grace Winter. Families first apply to have their Christmas lists adopted online. Children 12 years old or younger whose families earn 40% less than the area median income, are eligible. The list opened on September 12 and was already oversubscribed by the end of the month. Kym and Keysha screen the applicants and then make their list, including both wished for and needed items. To give each child 4-5 items means more than 5,500 presents are collected between November 1 and the middle of December. But first, each angel needs a sponsor.

Local companies and organizations step up, each adopting a group of Angels. Multiple family sponsors include Ashburn Village Sports Pavilion, Brambleton Community Association, Casey’s Automotive Sterling, Catoctin School of Music, DHL, Dulles Motor Cars, Harmony United Methodist Church, Holder Construction, Inova, Karter

Montessori of South Riding, Karter School of Cascades, South Riding Kindercare, Leesburg United Methodist Church, Morningside House of Leesburg, One Loudoun Neighborhood Association, Rosedin Electric; SMA Data Products Group, Inc.; The Virginia Institute of Surgical Arts, Town of Leesburg and Winter’s Angels. More are always welcome. So that no child is left out, on November 1, any remaining Angels on the list are released to the public.

Walmart is a special partner for the charity, as it provides both an online registry and an in-store tree and donation boxes where people either can shop for an individual Angel using a tag with the child’s name, photo and gift list, or just donate individual items from multiple children’s lists.

(Barbie Dream Houses and bicycles are perennial favorites.)

My Guys Moving & Storage also regularly pitches in, collecting from all the company participants and delivering the presents to The Salvation Army’s Leesburg Warehouse.

“That takes a whole day because we fill up a whole moving van,” Kym says. “Loudoun is a very giving county.” (Check out the video the team made last year of My Guys Moving collection day: bit.ly/ATreeVideo.)

Individuals and other groups who adopt Angels then bring new, unwrapped, labeled toys and clothes to a storefront collection point at the Village at Leesburg at 1606 Village Market Blvd, SE, #C-115 (the plaza that hosts the Leesburg Farmer’s Market). For the third year, Rappaport, the leasing company for Village of Leesburg, has donated the space for the project’s distribution center. The dropoff site worked so well during Covid that the same space also is used to distribute bags and other items to families after they’re inspected and organized at the warehouse.

As Karen describes the warehouse process, each family receives a number and each child in the family a letter matched to the master list. Each family is assigned a 2-ft square box where items are collected and bagged with a CONTINUED >

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37

Angel Tree Sorting Center

“Every year we’ll see kids show up with their faces in their cell phones, who might prefer to be somewhere else, but after a half an hour you’ll see huge smiles on their faces as they race around asking what else they can do.” separate section for larger items. When each Angel’s donation is lined up, it is easy to spot children who might have been forgotten or might need additional attention, Karen explains. “That’s partly where the Walmart list comes in.

We will take those items and kind of pad up each box so that every child when they wake up on Christmas morning really feels like they were well cared for.”

Individuals, groups, Girl Scout troops, businesses, and whole neighborhoods sponsor Angels, says Grace, but the program does more than just help needy families. “This event is not just about supporting these families but helping the community to rally together. You learn about volunteering and how we all help each other. We work with a lot of young volunteers and many change their whole life path because they realize how much giving their time can impact someone else,” she said. Grace will be posting a “Sign-up Genius” volunteer link shortly, so make a point of

38

G IV IN G BAC K | L IFE + CULTURE

getting your kids involved too, Marcey added. “Every year we’ll see kids show up with their faces in their cell phones, who might prefer to be somewhere else, but after a half an hour you’ll see huge smiles on their faces as they race around asking what else they can do.”

Making it a family tradition adds meaning to the holidays, Grace adds. “Many families tell us that as soon as the Thanksgiving dishes are cleared away they are combing through the toy circulars in the paper!”

But shop early! All items need to be collected from givers by around December 10th for distribution to the families by the 16th or 17th. Angels may be adopted from bit. ly/AngelTreeLoudoun or via the local Walmart Registry which will be listed on this page: salvationarmypotomac. org/loudouncountycorps/rescuechristmasloudoun. If you want to adopt 10 or more Angels or have questions, call 701771-3371, or by email at angeltreeloudoun@gmail.com.

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ARTICLE AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY MELINDA GIPSON

Group Hug

P7 BUILDS A NETWORK OF SELFLESS WOMEN HELPING OTHERS Despite the fact that her company focuses on team building, sensitivity training and corporate events for some very public organizations, Lisa Jones personally shuns the limelight. After a heart-to-heart with this extraordinarily determined, artistic producer, we think we have an inkling why this is so.

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I NSP IR E D BY | A RTS + CULTURE

Lisa Jones

Jennifer Haas and Women Giving Back Exec. Dir. Nicole Morris

LISA JONES, POWER 7

Lisa is a survivor. She broke away from domestic abuse, emerging possessed of a kind of resilience over obstacles that could have held her back. Never in acknowledging this difficult history does she use the word “victim” as it applies to herself.

Rather, as she spearheads the Silence No More Movement locally, partnering with survivors of domestic abuse and those who advocate, support and ally with them to rebuild their lives, the word she uses most often to describe her efforts is “powerful.”

Power 7, or P7 for short, refers to a network of strong women with servant hearts who are committed to helping other women rise above their circumstances. She says, “P stands for Powerful not in status but in nature.

It means showing up and sacrificing when there are no cameras in sight, putting yourself second and being okay with that. The number seven means harmony, peace, synergy and completion,” Lisa explains.

Together the term refers to a movement of community members who are committed to helping women who are suffering exigent circumstances find their own voice, and take control of their own and their children’s futures. Members are diverse in age, nationality and personality and serve as a support structure for each other as well as those they serve. “I’m an army vet who understands a strong unit when I see one and this one is special,” Lisa adds.

Silence No More, as one link in that support system, calls attention to what it says is a growing epidemic of domestic abuse.. Says Lisa, “The idea behind giving victims a voice is not to normalize the existence of domestic violence in our community, but to sensitize us to the fact that it impacts so many of the people we know.” By partnering with and creating dialogue among organizations, agencies, community members, elected officials, and real-time victims and

CONTINUED >

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“The idea behind giving victims a voice is not to normalize the existence of domestic violence in our community, but to sensitize us to the fact that it impacts so many of the people we know.”

— Lisa Jones

survivors, SNM build a system that sustains victims for a minimum of two years.

Lisa recently partnered with Walmart and Women Giving Back to produce “XITBACK PACKs” complete with clothing, hygiene products, school supplies and even cell phones that can be distributed to women in any situation where they’ve been forced to flee abuse at home, often with just the clothes on their backs.

Women Giving Back (womengiving back.org), for its part serves more than 14,000 women and children every year with needed hygiene supplies, clothes, shoes and other essentials to return to the workforce and to school. (Read more about this amazing group in our story “Clothed in Dignity” (citylifestyle. com/washington-dc/ar ticles/beaut y/ clothed-in-dignity.)

Finally, One Sparrow (onesparrowdc. org) provides educational programs to help reduce poverty and homelessness, supplying, for example, training in financial literacy to move women from dependence on aid to self-sufficiency.

In September, Lisa produced the third annual “P7 Walk With Purpose Fashion Show” at the Reston offices of Carasoft Technology Corporation to benefit Silence No More and Women Giving Back. Eight women, many of them with their own extensive community followings for one reason or another, served

as models for the bold and colorful designs of Afua Sam. The Ghanaian fashion designer is the founder of Studio D’Maxsi” and “The A Concept by Afua Sam” (theaconceptbyafuasam.com). Her target client is someone who “want(s) to wear beautiful statement pieces that shine with spectacular colors.”

P7 members and models Gift Wyatt, Karla Allen, Amy Crescimanno-Ward, Erica Peart-Rowe, Kindra Dionne, Katie McGrath Schneider, Sehr Khan and Fatema Kolia brought positive energy to the fashion and a strong sense of collective support to the event, surrounding the designer in a group embrace after the runway portion of the show.

The evening also was graced by a stirring performance by Tulani (iamtulani. com), an R&B harpist and singer who brought her full-throated baritone to stirring anthems like Beyonce’s Halo and Prince’s Purple Rain. The contrast of her soulful electric harp playing and powerhouse vocals evoked shouting, clapping and even tears. Tulani, originally a local who now calls Atlanta home, has toured internationally with Lady Gaga and opened for Chaka Khan, Andra Day, Ceelo Green, Wyclef Jean, Musiq Soulchild, Erykah Badu, and George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic. In keeping with the empowering script for the evening, she told us she is now focusing on her own

CONTINUED >

44

I NSP IR E D BY | A RTS + CULTURE

Erica Pert-Rowe and Kendra Dionne

NOVEMB ER 2 0 2 2 | C I TYL I FE STYL E . C OM / L E E S BUR G

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Model Fatema Kolia Makes it All About Family

Tulani

Designer Afua Sam

A Trio of Divas

46

I NSP IR E D BY | A RTS + CULTURE

Oxus 7 Catered

Protecting What

solo career and will have an album coming out early in the new year.

Still, it was the words of Jennifer Haas, a former client of Women Giving Back that likely made the deepest impression with the diverse audience. Recalling her own experience she says, “I left a very toxic and abusive relationship with three children and nothing but the clothes on my back,” when she was referred to the charity. After she received assistance by volunteers with the group, she began volunteering. “I can 110% tell you that without the community of women here today and Women Giving Back’s support, I would not be in existence right now.... I wouldn’t know my own worth, really; I didn’t realize how deserving I was because of the abusive relationship I was in. I can’t express what I feel without crying today. It’s more than just clothing; it’s a really big community of women and it’s their support that have made the difference.”

We’d love to tell you how you could support Lisa’s XITBACK PACK initiative, but those details were still being worked out at our deadline. We suggest connecting with Lisa Jones at 99percentcomplete.com and keeping an eye on our Facebook page for details.

Lisa offers this encouragement: “I think that where you can be the most successful is if you can leverage your own individual passion.

You have things that you can do that nobody else can do, and that could help someone. My favorite quote is, ‘It doesn’t matter to me if you’ve stood with the great, it matters to me if you’ve sat with the broken.’’

Now, that’s powerful.

Matters Most

We believe at the heart of what we do is serve people and families with compassion, trusted advice, and fearless advocacy.

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50

M UST SE E | EN TERTA INME NT

Fantastic Beasts Appearing in Morven Park ARTICLE BY MELINDA GIPSON | PHOTOGRAPHY BY WARNER BROS. ENTERTAINMENT INC., PUBLISHING RIGHTS JKR

Buckbeak the Hippogriff

Ford Anglia

Hippogriffs, centaurs, unicorns, and Nifflers began magically appearing on Morven Park grounds in mid-September as part of the U.S. debut of “Harry Potter, A Forbidden Forest Experience” (hpforbiddenforestexperience.com/leesburg).

Of course, all the installations of the outdoor trail experience for Harry Potter fans were a closely guarded secret, except for a few scenes we were able to pry from the publicity department of Warner Bros. Themed Entertainment which developed the experience with publicists and theatrical producers Fever, Thinkwell and Unify.

The outdoor experience, inspired by the Haunted Forest depicted in the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling and associated movies – particularly the Fantastic Beasts movies – opens in October in Leesburg and Westchester, New York, as well as Groenenberg, Belgium and is returning to Cheshire, London.

Here, the experience will run from October through January.

October has already sold out with limited availability in November and December. Plenty of tickets remain for January.

By then, some 200,000 visitors will have made their way through the show, said Stacey Metcalfe, executive director and CEO of Morven Park, adding that it was a huge honor to be

selected for the show’s limited U.S. run. Heather McGill, Producer and Creative Director at Unify said, “The venue at Morven Park offers us beautiful, dense woodland with pathways, which is perfect for our guests to enjoy the magic of this experience.”

In addition to the trail populated by fantastic beasts, which can be enjoyed at visitors’ own pace (estimated to take 60-90 minutes), Potter fans will find a themed village at the end of the trail with food, drink, and a gift shop with merchandise from the Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts movies. Ticket prices are $25 for children and $36 for adults.

Each location of Harry Potter: A Forbidden Forest Experience has partnered with a charity to help contribute to reforestation and sustainability projects. The Leesburg and Westchester locations have partnered with One Tree Planted (https://onetreeplanted.org/). The partnership provides guests the option to donate the price of a tree. Donating $1 will buy a tree within One Tree Planted projects and contribute towards creating the forests of the future.

“The venue at Morven Park offers us beautiful, dense woodland with pathways, which is perfect for our guests to enjoy the magic of this experience.”

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NOVEMBER 2022

realty report A sample of recently sold properties in Leesburg.

N E I GH BO RH O O D

ORIGIN AL PRICE

SO L D P RIC E

%SO L D/ O RIG

$1,435,000

$1,435,000

100%

8

5

4.5

$975,000

$960,000

98%

23

4

2.55

Crescent Place

$1,050,000

$975,000

93%

20

3

3.5

Dry Mill/Leesburg Town

$1,050,000

$925,000

88%

61

6

4.5

Golden Springs

$1,150,000

$1,155,555

100%

5

4

3.5

Beacon Hill Catoctin Ridge Estates

DO M

B DRM S

B AT H S

Hamilton Meadow

$950,000

$950,000

100%

12

5

4.5

Hatcher's Run/Shelburne Glebe

$1,175,000

$1,250,000

106%

7

3

2.5

Historic Selma Estates

$1,399,000

$1,225,000

88%

101

5

4.5

Lansdowne on the Potomac TH Lansdowne on the Potomac Det Meadowbrook

$895,000

$900,000

101%

5

6

4.5

$1,195,000

$1,195,000

100%

5

7

5.5

$904,990

$1,052,660

116%

0

6

3.5

Potomac Station

$1,050,000

$1,050,000

100%

11

4

2.5

Raspberry Falls

$1,525,000

$1,400,000

92%

20

6

5.555

Red Cedar North Village

$989,000

$1,014,000

103%

3

5

3.5

Reserve at Rokeby Farm

$1,499,000

$1,350,000

90%

17

4

4.55

River Creek TH

$1,200,000

$1,100,000

92%

38

4

4.5

$989,000

$989,000

100%

5

5

4.5

Rock Hill Rose Hill

$1,100,000

$1,100,000

100%

2

5

4.5

Shenstone

$1,660,000

$1,640,000

99%

8

6

5.5

$925,000

$900,000

97%

19

5

4.5

When it comes to buying and selling homes virtually, “Rely on Pam”!

Spring Lakes

Village at Leesburg TH

$949,990

$900,000

95%

38

4

4.5

Watson Road

$950,000

$950,000

100%

11

4

2.5

White Oaks Farm

$1,066,755

$1,142,245

107%

11

5

3.5

Woodlea Manor

$899,000

$900,000

100%

5

5

4.5

After retiring further south, we decided to sell our River Creek home after leaving it on the rental market for over ten years. Selling an older home in a high-end neighborhood, with a tenant in place, with $150k of needed updates, long-distance and during COVID-19 pandemic—this could have been the ultimate real-estate horror story. Instead, it was one

of the easiest, smoothest house sales I’ve ever experienced. Pam handled everything and quickly sold the house for more than the asking price. Pam is the most professional and capable agent that I’ve ever worked with.

—Former River Creek Residents

TO LEARN MORE, CONTACT US AT: Pamela Jones, Inc. Dave Jones, GRI

TO LEARN MORE, CONTACT US AT: Pamela Jones, Inc. Cell: (703) 587-7440 Office: (703) 724-9494

52

R EA LT Y R E P ORT | R EAL E STATE

Dave Jones, GRI Cell: (703) 587-7440 Cell: (703) 587-7550 Office: (703) 724-9494 www.ETSellsFineHomes.com

Cell: (703) 587-7550 www.ETSellsFineHomes.com

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ARTICLE BY MELINDA GIPSON | PHOTOGRAPHY BY JULIE SHAHEEN

The Designer’s Kitc hen REDESIGNED FOR HOLIDAY ENTERTAINING Julie Shaheen, principal designer with Jewel Marie Interiors, recently redesigned her own kitchen to make holiday entertaining a breeze. Here are six of the design elements she built into her dream space. Need help? Drop her a line at julie@jewelmarieinteriors.com.

Because everyone always ends up in the kitchen, a large central island and chairs provide room to eat.

A large pass-through window offers access to the sunroom which allows additional natural light into the kitchen area.

A warming oven and microwave in the island keeps prepared food hot and frees up counter space.

We moved the cooktop from the corner to the right so it’s centered on the wall with a matching hood.

Counter depth refrigerator allows it to sit flush with your counters. I have used all Bosch appliances in my home; they come with a rebate if you order five +.

And now there are plenty of well-spaced outlets for kitchen appliances including on either side of the island. Plus: seasoning drawers and cookie sheet cabinets

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T R E N D SE T T E R | HOM E + DE S I GN