Past Events

Rise Against Hunger

For this event Upwards partnered with Lansdowne Woods in order to help with coordinating with volunteers to help with packaging food for the less fortunate in Nicaragua. This allowed for many cross generational interactions amongst our student volunteers and the seniors participating in the event.

ARC Residential Home Holiday Decorating

For this event we partnered with the Arc of Loudoun, which gave us the connection to two senior residential homes. We had members of our non-profit and clubs help us with selling pies in order to fundraise. This money was used to buy decorations for the residential homes. Alongside this, students at the Academies of Loudoun and Independence High School made more decorations that were used at the event. Finally, for this event we coordinated volunteer groups to come to two residential homes to help with decorating them.

Videos of Talent

For this event Upwards partnered with Brighten-a-day Foundation. We had our student volunteers create videos recording their talents ranging from singing to reading poems. This event was organized in hopes to bring a smile to the seniors faces!

Care Packages

This event included a partnership with Loudoun County Public Libraries, as they helped to distribute the care packages that we made. We had students from the Academies of Loudoun and Independence High school help put together packages with goodies, brain teasers, and a pamphlet that highlighted the significance of senior citizen mental health. We were able to make about 75 packages, which were then sent to LCPL to be distributed amongst several nursing homes.

In order to spread information and awareness about our non-profit, we have had various partnerships with Blend coffee bar. We have put up flyers, bookmarks, and stickers here on various occasions. Alongside this, we have also used Blend as a setting for several fundraisers. In order to raise money we have sold bracelets with our logo on them alongside receiving donations through our Go Fund Me.

Blend Fundraisers

Card Making

Upwards had yet another partnership with Brighten-a-day Foundation. We had students create cards with various positive messages and wishing seniors happy holidays. These were then distributed through our partnership, in hope to have a upbringing impact on seniors!

ACL Mental Awareness Seminar

Upwards hosted a seminar at the Academies of Loudoun amongst the students in order to raise awareness regarding senior citizen mental health. For this, we prepared a presentation and handed our pamphlets. This was a successful seminar, as due to it we were able to expose our club to numerous new students, resulting in us gaining around 50 members.

Mental Health Bookmarks

We had officers of our clubs help Upwards with creating bookmarks with facts and positive messages regarding mental health in senior citizens. These were then distributed amongst the Brambleton Library, Independence High School, the Academies of Loudoun, Freedom High School, Blend Coffee Bar, and all across our social media.

Talent Show

For this event Upwards partnered with FBLA, and together we were able to set up two talent shows at different nursing homes, Waltonwood and Somerset. We had student volunteers sign up to be the talent, and even opened up the stage two a few seniors. This event was advertised through various flyers placed around both Independence High School and the Academies of Loudoun alongside having a feature in the Independence morning announcements. At both nursing homes, we had a panel of judges and voting sheets for all of the senior spectators in order to increase their participation. Through this process, three winners were selected and were able to win prizes while a smile was brought to many seniors faces.

Upwards had various student volunteers that helped out with making pamphlets on senior citizen mental health in order to spread awareness. These were distributed amongst various schools including Freedom, Independence, and the Academies of Loudoun.

Pamphlet Making

Yoga

Upwards partnered with Sun Rae Yoga in order to set up an event for seniors where they can follow along with one of Ms. Brigitta's sessions. This event was hosted by Lansdowne Woods and was spread through their newspaper to seniors. This event was inspired by past studies that have been conducted showing that yoga has a positive impact on mental health, due to its decrease of stress levels and increase in chemicals such as endorphins.