Fairfax County Volunteer Service Awards Ceremony were held on Friday, April 24. The Ceremony featured our beloved community advocate and champion, Winnie Lebo for her work with Westlawn. The Ceremony honored 158 individuals and groups who were nominated by local nonprofits, community members, and government organizations. In 2014, these outstanding nominees gave over 111,000 hours of their time, the equivalent of a $2.5 million investment in the community. An excerpt of the nomination is below.
Mrs. Winnie Lebo, current St. Patrick’s Outreach Ministry, Westlawn Volunteer and former Westlawn Mom and Grandma, has been selected by Penny Gross, Mason District, Board of Supervisors, as the Fairfax County Community Champion representing Mason District. Mrs. Lebo will be recognized at a ceremony in April for her hard work, care and compassion.
In 2010, Winnie started working with the Westlawn guidance counselors and parent liaison to identify needs in the community and then ask her congregation to fill those needs. Winnie has organized drives each year for school supplies, gently used winter clothing, and specific requests for Westlawn families in crisis. Winnie has collected over $1,000 in individual donations of gift cards to help families make ends meet. In 2013, Winnie discovered that one of our teachers was spending her own money to put together snack packages for Westlawn children who needed extra nutrition on the weekends. Winnie organized the “Snacks for Westlawn” program allowing St. Patricks’s members to donate snacks or funds to help the generous staff expand and continue this program. Finally, each year Winnie organizes the “Westlawn Angel Tree” program, the showcase of the outreach ministry, to receive a list of children’s requests for holiday gifts, coordinate the purchase, donation, wrapping and donating of individualized gifts for Westlawn families.
For more information: http://www.volunteerfairfax.org/
