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Fellowship Square provides affordable housing and services for older adults. |
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Senior Housing Summit
Resident Life
Christy's Corner
Community Partners
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Volunteers Deliver
Fellowship Square Annual Meeting
New Board Officers
Welcome Summer Interns
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Making Our Point at the Mid-Atlantic Senior Housing Summit |
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The digital summit covered topics such as who is developing and financing affordable, assisted living in the DMV, as well as design, tech, and development trends that are keeping seniors safe.
In a BISNOW article on the Summit, Zeitz is quoted discussing the wide gap between the cost of providing senior housing and what typical seniors are able to afford. "Affordable senior housing doesn’t happen without the subsidies, especially at the local level, especially for people who have no assets, no income," Zeitz said. "We’re serving people who make less than $15K from [Supplemental Security Income], and that's all they’re going to have."
This was a great opportunity to advocate for more senior affording housing and appeal to those in a position to do more and build more! Fellowship Square was also proud to help sponsor the event.
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RESIDENT LIFE REAWAKENING! |
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Fellowship House Residents are
Buzzing with Activity!
As some COVID restrictions are slowly lifted at our communities, residents can once again participate in small group gatherings and outdoor activities:
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Hunters Woods Fellowship House
Hunters Woods Fellowship House resident, D. Soldatenkov, hosted an outdoor concert to commemorate ‘Victory Day’ and salute our residents who served during WW2.
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Lake Anne Fellowship House
American Health Care Professionals offered outdoor blood pressure screening for Lake Anne Fellowship House residents (including B. Thompson (at right)).
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Largo Landing Fellowship House
Largo Landing Fellowship House residents C. Williams and F. Dickens help sort a variety of dental health ‘goodies’, generously donated by Denise Smith from the State of Maryland Attorney’s Office.
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Mother's Day Celebrations |
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Mothers at all four Fellowship House communities
were able to celebrate their special day:
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Lake Anne Fellowship House
At Lake Anne Fellowship House, mothers were treated to flowers.
At right: Guiying T. receives a carnation from Lake Anne staff members Jenny Wang and Annette Logan.
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Largo Landing Fellowship House
Largo Landing Fellowship House honored and celebrated their mothers with a delicious mid-day brunch, a 5x7 photography portrait, roses and special gift bags. They had a surprise visit from The Office of State's Attorney for Prince George's County Maryland - Director of Communications Ms. Denise S. Smith. The Largo mothers shared their most memorable moments of being a mother (some for 70 plus years!)
At left: Largo Landing resident Rev. G. Bryant with her flowers.
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Lake Ridge Fellowship House
The women of Lake Ridge enjoyed a Mother's Day ‘photoshoot’ and were each presented with a bouquet of flowers. The mothers who participated in the photoshoot received a copy of their personalized photo. Throughout the day, ‘Mother-themed’ contests were held and raffles and prizes were given out.
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Above: Lake Ridge’s Mother’s Day honorees included their eldest mother (Nancy D. – pictured left), youngest mother (Carolyn J.) and the mother with the most children (Rochella M. – pictured right). The ladies are pictured in front of the Mother's Day Prize Table! |
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Hunters Woods Fellowship House
Hunters Woods’ female residents received a rose from staff members as they entered/exited the building in celebration of Mother’s Day!
At left: Pictured is Aiju Q. with Assistant Manager Norma Ferman who is handing her a gift bag donated by Turner Construction Company.
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Salad Days with Wilted Lettuce |
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Retirement is an exciting time in life when you hang up your uniform and take control on how you spend your days.
The 850 residents who call Fellowship House home, have all made it to retirement by choice or by necessity.
They are living the good life, some may say, but they struggle to make ends meet. They live on a very low fixed income – typically less than $12,000 for the year. And while rents are low, they pay the same amount that you and I do for groceries, gas, cell phone service and other expenses.
Financial literacy and budgeting are core fundamentals to manage personal income and expenses. But, when you work low paying jobs all your life, or have your modest savings wiped out from a catastrophic illness, injury, divorce or other life-altering circumstance, it makes it hard to have the funds you need at retirement to live the good life.
Thanks to you and others, Fellowship Square fills the gap of many of life’s necessities – we supplement their monthly food budget by providing groceries several time each month; we offer trips on the House Bus to local stores so they do not have to seek out and pay for their own transportation; and coming later this year, we will be providing free basic cable and free building-wide Wi-Fi – two expenses that residents currently are paying for themselves.
Because of your ongoing support, we’re able to step in and make the salad days worth living. Thank you for all you do for Fellowship Square residents.
With gratitude,
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COMMUNITY PARTNER SPOTLIGHT |
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A Longtime Lifeline for Residents |
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Cornerstones has been a staunch and loyal Community Partner of Fellowship Square for many years now. On a weekly basis, they provide surplus food from local grocery stores for our residents at Hunters Woods Fellowship House. On May 7, Cornerstones and Turner Construction Company provided fifty bags of dried food and grocery store gift cards for HWFH residents in honor of Mother’s Day.
Turner is an international construction services company that partners with Cornerstones. We are grateful for this special treat.
Cornerstones is a Reston-based non-profit organization that provides a variety of services to those who are having trouble meeting basic needs. Their mission is to provide stability, empowerment, and hope to those who need it. Cornerstones was founded in 1970, and, in 2019 alone, they have served more than 15,000 individuals.
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Tehanny Pica, Hunters Woods Fellowship House Community Manager, receives gift bags from Turner employees Luis Lopez Ortis and Margaret Roberts. |
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"Fellowship Fresh" Still Going Strong |
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Thanks to support from Community Partners like Cornerstones and the Capital Area Food Bank, Fellowship House residents continue to receive food donations on a regular basis.
Volunteers like Deborah and Kitisia (pictured above) continue to make food deliveries directly to residents’ apartments through the “Fellowship Fresh” program.
We are grateful to our regular volunteers and welcome new volunteers. To receive email updates on Fellowship Square volunteer opportunities, please click the button below.
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Annual Meeting Showcases
Project Success
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On the evening of May 5, Fellowship Square held the Annual Meeting for its corporate members. With over 40 attendees, the virtual event kicked off with remarks from guest speaker (and former board member) Jill Norcross of Virginia Housing, who congratulated the organization on the successful completion of its 3-year strategic plan, and offered insights into the future of affordable housing in the DC metro area.
Among other remarks from CEO Christy Zeitz, and Board President Carl Jenkins, highlights included an update video on Fellowship Square’s two largest projects to date: the Lake Anne redevelopment and Hunters Woods renovation projects.
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Thank You to Our Annual Meeting Sponsors |
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Congratulations to
Our New Board Officers
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Mike Scheurer – Vice President |
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Congratulations, also, to Mark Flemming - newly elected board member. |
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Meet Fellowship Square's
Summer Interns
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Tyler Thorne – Fundraising Intern
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Tyler is currently a student at the George Washington University, studying Political Science and Geography. He loves spending time outdoors, especially while exploring Washington DC and surrounding areas. He is passionate about city politics, and hopes to continue working in the field of urban development in the future. Tyler is excited to intern with Fellowship Square this summer and looks forward to supporting its mission to provide housing and services to older adults. |
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Matthew Abbott – Volunteer Coordination Intern
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Matthew Abbott, from Vienna, Virginia, is currently a junior at Mary Washington University in Fredericksburg and is majoring in Communications and Digital Studies. After graduation, he is planning on working at a non-profit institution. Matthew enjoys reading fantasy and science fiction. He also enjoys going to museums; his favorite of which is the Air and Space museum in Washington DC. He is very excited to work with Fellowship Square this summer and is looking forward to learning more about working with a non-profit organization. |
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Internships Available
Check out the position descriptions for our Communication, Resident Program and Marketing internships and consider joining us this summer to support our mission of providing affordable housing and services for older adults.
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Stay in touch with Fellowship Square on Facebook!
We post articles, updates on activities and events, our monthly newsletter, and pertinent information regarding our properties.
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