Looking Back at an Amazing Year!

I was always conditioned never to look back. Its acceptable to look back briefly to appreciate your current position and promising future but the keyword here is "briefly". Today, I choose to reflect a little longer than usual because 2016 has been a great year for TGNCK! Lets see here...what happened:

We formed in 2015 and received our tax-exempt status. We opened a brick-and-mortar and celebrated that by having a packed ribbon cutting ceremony where all guests donated school supplies that went to three elementary schools. We prepared over 2,000 meals throughout our region, distributed just as many hygiene packages, provided blankets and coats for three elementary schools, local families and the unsheltered homeless. We coordinated two Moving Forward Makeover workshops. We established a partnership with the men of Kappa Psi and Pi Lambda Lambda Chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. We were featured in several magazines and newspapers. We received numerous contributions and grants. We held team building functions to strengthen the morale of our most important resource...our volunteers! Last but not least, we received the support and assistance of our amazing community! Feel free to view our Gallery page to see exactly what we've been doing!

We cannot THANK YOU enough for the amount of support and encouragement you give us. Just to give you a hint of what we are working on for next year: we have our inaugural charity gala coming up in February, each program will be lead by a Committee Chair, we are actively looking to secure two volunteer Office Managers to manage the office and we are looking to roll out our much anticipated Resume Writing 101 Workshop for Veterans! This workshop will also include interactive interview tips and ideas! We are looking to engage our teenage youth volunteers with students in need of tutors to help strengthen academic confidence and performance!

If you haven't submitted a volunteer application yet...it is never too late to submit one! We are always looking for dedicated team members to help rebuild and strengthen our community!

Ribbon Cutting Time!

We did it! On August 10, 2016, the Lake Ridge Rotary Club sponsored our Ribbon Cutting Ceremony, hosted by The Prince William County Chamber of Commerce! The entire day was filled with a million emotions. I feared a small turnout, but would have still been completely appreciative of anyone who decided to take time out of their schedule to come down and support our event. We had well over 45 guests to attend our ceremony. Our office was filled with laughter, words of encouragement, delicious food provided by The Blue Arbor Café, Firebirds, and Not Your Average Joes. Honorable Gerald Connolly, Delegate Richard Anderson and Chairman Gerald Wittman sent representatives, Occoquan District Supervisor Mrs. Ruth Anderson, Occoquan Mayor Elizabeth Quist, Occoquan Events and Community Development Director Mrs. Donna Brown, The Lake Ridge and Woodbridge Rotary Club, Prince William County Chamber of Commerce, The Northern Virginia Black Chamber of Commerce, Woodbridge High School JROTC leadership, Omega Psi Phi Pi Lambda Lambda Chapter, Game 7 RIders and King's Knights Motor Club, The Law Offices of Sheyna Nicole Burt, PLC and Stratford University were all in attendance. What's Up Woodbridge even conducted an interview (in front of EVERYONE...SO NERVOUS). This was by far one of the best nights of my life. The Town of Occoquan gave us a warm welcoming! I am more than excited, eager and ready to rebuild and strengthen my community!

Check out the interview conducted by What's Up Woodbridge

Status Check

Wow! So much has occurred since my last post. Allow me to share with you the great accomplishments of our TGNCK team. To start things off, we secured our very own headquarters location in the beautiful historic Town of Occoquan, VA. We hosted our first "coming out" Social Mixer/Fundraising event (June), Not Your Average Joe's hosted a month long Cause Night to raise awareness and funds for our organization (June), The Home Depot, located in Dale City, VA, donated all manpower and equipment necessary to completely renovate our headquarters office (June-July), and we published our very first edition of The Good News! our quarterly newsletter (visit Documents to take a look). We have been moving at a rapid rate to establish our foundation and I cannot stress how appreciative I am to have the support of our community businesses and households.

We are gearing up to prepare for our Ribbon Cutting Ceremony, on August 10, 2016 from 5pm to 6:30pm, sponsored by The Lake Ridge Rotary Club, with catering provided by The Blue Arbor Café and FireBirds Wood Fired Grill! During this groundbreaking event, we will begin accepting school supplies to prepare for our Back to School Blast Community Cookout to raise and donate 100 fully supplied backpacks to the students of a local Elementary School. If you would like to help prepare our future Leaders for the upcoming school year, bring your donation to 308 Poplar Alley #B, Occoquan, VA 22125, during our daily hours of operation.

TGNCK is excited about rebuilding and strengthening our communities. We are always looking for volunteers who foster the same charge: rebuilding and strengthening communities through Outreach, Unity, Compassion & Selfless-Service. If you are interested in volunteering with us please take a look at our Volunteer Application (Volunteer Page) to see how you can make a difference through our various outlets.

As always, I am truly glad that you support our initiatives and are on this journey with us! Stay tuned to see the work we are doing in our community.

The amount of success and community support we have been shown, thus far, is confirmation that we are truly walking in our passion. There is no greater feeling...truly...honestly!