Community Connection

Girls on the Run Central Virginia and Blue Ridge are currently in their 18th year of bringing this life-changing program to the girls in our communities, and have served over 14,000 participants. With your help, they look forward to helping even more girls reach their limitless potential this year and beyond. 

The Virginia Discovery Museum is a nonprofit children’s museum in Charlottesville that fosters intellectual curiosity and development among young children through educational and imaginative play.

This summer, they’re hosting their annual week-long, half-day Summer Camps from June 10th through August 16th. Whether your child is brand new to the camp experience or already knows the ropes, their camps for children 4 and older provide opportunities for kids to gain confidence, make friends, and explore a range of enrichment-focused topics through hands-on learning and play. 

Campers can dive into the amazing world of insects, exercise their mind muscles with chess, bring books to life through robotics, and more!

Downtown Ashland Association is a nonprofit in Ashland that aims to harness the power of community to build a stronger future for everyone.

They invite you to listen to local musicians live at Ashland Fourth Fridays every fourth Friday of the month through September. Bands playing on the Ashland Town Hall Pavillion stage include the Sweet Potatoes, Rhythm Ranch Homestead, The Ham Biscuits and more.

The Virginia Public Access Project, also known as VPAP, is a nonprofit organization committed to remaining non-partisan. Their mission is to provide information about Virginia’s state and local politics so our fellow citizens have what they need to make informed decisions that align with their values.

As June primaries approach, they invite you to visit vpap.org to learn more about the candidates running on your ballot, stay up-to-date on political news, and more.

Chesterfield Food Bank Outreach Center helps anyone facing food insecurity in our area and works to overcome the root causes of food insecurity. Whether suffering from a medical event or temporary job loss, it often takes just one life change to cause a member of our community to become food insecure. They aim to prevent them from falling through the cracks. 

Chesterfield Food Bank Outreach Center has a Workforce Program that helps those in need secure employment, a Motel Outreach program for those living in motels, and provides food to over 20,000 people a month through 7 distribution locations.

Sylvia’s Sisters is a nonprofit organization fighting period poverty in Central Virginia.

One in 4 girls will miss school this year because they can’t access or afford period products. Sylvia’s Sisters’s goal is to provide disadvantaged girls and women with quality period products so they can get an education, or earn a living, without the stress of worrying about how to healthily manage their cycle.

They provide thousands of quality period products to schools and community organizations across the region and provide menstrual health educational services.

Wayne On Main resumes at The Wayne Theatre in Downtown Waynesboro on May 29 at 6 p.m. Wayne On Main is an outdoor summer concert series that features live music from a variety of genres. These concerts take place just outside the Wayne Theatre on West Main Street in Waynesboro on the last Wednesday of each month, May through August, and feature local and regional artists like Jack and Davis Reid, Randy Black Trio, Valerie McQueen, and Sundried Opossum. You can learn more about the Wayne on Main outdoor concert series and other upcoming programs at the Wayne Theatre by visiting waynetheatre.org.

Massanutten Regional Library serves Harrisonburg, and Page and Rockingham Counties, and is presenting their annual Summer Reading Challenge—a chance to join with others and celebrate the joy of reading. Themed “Adventure Begins at Your Library,” the Summer Reading Challenge is for readers of all ages and runs from Monday, June 3rd through Sunday, August 4th. They invite you to sign up and track your reading alongside MRL and participate in their local programs and events, which are each designed to foster a love of reading and literacy skills.

You can learn more about the Summer Reading Challenge at any of their seven library branches or online at mrlib.com.

Massanutten Regional Library is a proud financial supporter of WNRN.

On Saturday, May 11, the Rotary Club of Rockingham County is hosting the annual Harrisonburg Soap Box Derby as one of their community service projects.

The Soap Box Derby is an opportunity for children and teenagers to design and construct their own gravity-powered cars, providing them with a variety of STEM-related experiences. The race will take place on Research Drive, just off Route 11 north, which will be temporarily transformed into a racetrack for the event.

More information is online at Harrisonburg.soapboxderby.org

The Crozet Arts and Crafts Festival invites you to bring your family out to Crozet Park on Mother’s Day Weekend, Saturday, May 11th & Sunday, May 12th, for the 44th Annual Crozet Spring Arts and Crafts Festival.

Their event welcomes over 125 artists and includes live art demonstrations, wine tasting, treats just for Moms, and live music from Webley Twizzle Project and The Pinkerton Raid.

Four-legged friends are welcome and parking is available.

All proceeds from the event benefit non-profit and community owned Claudius Crozet Park.