Alpha Phi Omega - Theta Chapter - University of Virginia

Barrett Daycare Center is a daycare center for children aged 3-6 from low income families. On a typical Barrett midweek day, members of Alpha Phi Omega volunteer at their after-school program by playing games with the children outside on the playground for the first hour and helping the children learn to read, or engaging the children in other interactive activities, for the second hour.

This midweek benefits the children, as each child is given more individual attention, and provides the teachers with significant relief.

Martha Jefferson is a quaint nursing home for the elderly located a few minutes from grounds. Some visits to Martha Jefferson entail members of Alpha Phi Omega playing bingo with the residents. Other midweek activities include reading to the residents or landscaping their courtyards.

Many residents do not have family members that visit them regularly, so we feel it is important to demonstrate to the residents that there are individuals who care to take time to visit and interact with them.

Garrett Square / Friendship Court is a low income housing community about a block away from the Downtown Mall. The after-school program at the community center provides a place for the neighborhood children to play board games, talk, read, and surf the web. Alpha Phi Omega has worked closely with the program at Garrett Square for over 10 years to assist in reaching their goal of providing safe and educational activities for the children.

Aside from having a pledge project to improve the facilities at the community center several years ago, Theta Chapter sends a group of brothers and pledges every Friday afternoon to the center to mentor the children there. Mentoring means different things to different kids, some of them like to play Connect Four and Mancala, while others prefer to read or draw pictures. The brothers and pledges who attend this midweek enjoy the incredible level of energy and enthusiasm that the children have in addition to the satisfaction they get from connecting with an often overlooked portion of the Charlottesville community.

The Cedars Nursing Home midweek is a wonderful opportunity for the brothers and pledges of Alpha Phi Omega to get to know elderly members of the Charlottesville community. Every week, about six to ten brothers and pledges travel to Cedars to play Bingo with the residents. Volunteers at Cedars are sure to experience a host of stories, jokes and memories.

This midweek is important to the residents because it gives them the opportunity to interact with a group of young people on a regular basis, as many of the residents do not have family members that visit them regularly.

The Charlottesville-Albemarle Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) is a nonprofit animal welfare organization that provides a safe environment for the lost, abandoned, and homeless animals of Charlottesville and Albemarle County as they wait to be adopted into good homes. Despite their spaciousness at the SPCA, a kennel in a room with other barking dogs can be a frightening place for a dog. Furthermore, so many dogs are left at the SPCA that it is impossible for SPCA staff to walk and interact with each dog on a daily basis without help. Many of the animals at the SPCA were abused by their former owners and are left scared and distrusting of humans.

Every week, members of Alpha Phi Omega walk, play with, and do their best to comfort and regain the trust of the dogs at the SPCA. Other SPCA midweek activities include cleaning the cat cages, grooming the cats, and helping SPCA staff members with various other tasks.

The Albemarle Housing Improvement Program (AHIP) is an after school program that provides elementary-age school children a place to do their homework and interact with peers while their parents are at work. Every week, APO volunteers read with the children, help them with homework, play games (including Family Feud and Hangman of Fortune!), and make crafts with them.

In general, the APO brothers and pledges who volunteer at AHIP return consistently every week, building strong friendships and a sense of trust in the kids that encourages self-confidence and a desire to learn.

Cavalier Food Rescue is a little midweek that makes a BIG difference. Every week, grocery stores in Charlottesville must dispose of all the bread, produce, bakery items, and prepared items that have not been sold over the past week in order to make room for their new stock. Normally, this food would be thrown away.

During Cavalier Food Rescue, however, Brothers go to these grocery stores and pack two cars to capacity with the leftover food. The food is then deposited at the Salvation Army, where there is a soup kitchen for the homeless. Cavalier Food Rescue is a great midweek because it takes advantage of an often-overlooked aspect of the food industry in order to positively affect lives in the Charlottesville community.