Mariflor Ventura is an immigrant from El Salvador and a local hero living in Arlington, Virginia. Mariflor, a mother who spends her time raising her twins when not working on an Arlington County School bus, usually kept to herself before the pandemic. Until one day, during the lockdown, her nearby neighbors, who became jobless and hungry, reached out for help. 

After helping one neighbor with milk, food, and diapers for the children, she noticed a need throughout her community. Mariflor expressed how she feels connected to single moms because she was once in their shoes a couple of years ago. Now she is determined to help mothers because she couldn’t help before. Many families in her neighborhood couldn’t go to food banks to get the help they needed, so Mariflor has been a saving grace for those in her community by providing for others right outside of her home.

Mariflor’s living room is stacked to the ceiling with toiletries, food, and everyday items for her to give away to the community, and every Friday, a line forms outside of her house around noon, and volunteers from her church help pass out boxes filled with food. She helps families with donations she receives from the support of neighbors, her church, and strangers. Her goal is to turn this into a non-profit since her journey of helping others has turned into something greater than she expected.

Amazed by how Mariflor is helping her community right from her home, Joel Bassam, from Easterns Automotive Group, sent Mariflor an inspirational video message and surprised her with $2,000 to continue to support her community. Brought to tears, the first thing Mariflor thought about was others. “I don’t deserve this,” she cried. “There are other people that deserve this more.”

Lana Anderson, a junior at Montgomery Blair High School, and her mom started an organization in 2017 called “Small Things Matter.” They are committed to helping others in need through food, literacy, and charity crafting programs. “Small Things Matter” is a teen-led effort that initially began to involve the youth of all ages in service.  

Lana’s mother shared that her daughter started volunteering when she was younger, and from there, she just liked helping others. She began to help those in need in little ways, which is the inspiration for the club’s name.

They currently run a food distribution program that began serving 300 to 400 families, and over the last year, has expanded to over 1,000. 

7News reporter Kidd O-Shea showed Lana and her mother a video from Easterns Automotive Group’s Joel Bassam, who joined with a special surprise. Blown away by the way they have pivoted their support for the community by feeding others, Easterns Automotive Group donated $2,000 to “Small Things Matter.”

Helping Hands, powered by ABC 7, is always looking to help people or organizations in need worthy of assistance. If you know someone that fits this description, please click here to nominate them.

Francis on the Hill is a program run by non-profit, Following Francis, that supports children and families in the Columbia Heights neighborhood. They provide fresh groceries and new clothing to neighborhood residents. They also improve public spaces in and around Meridian Hill Park.

When COVID-19 restrictions began, Dr. Carol Conner, the founder of Francis on the Hill, saw a chance to help those affected by the pandemic. They are proud to give fresh fruits and vegetables to those in need and not what they call “hand-me-down” food. Jay Steptoe, the East Coast Director, shared that they started with 30 families, and they now serve 450 families from two locations. Both of their sites, Cardozo High School and Chapin Street Merdian Hill Park, help about 450 families a week with about 20,000 pounds of food total. They accept large pallet-sized donations from organizations like the Capital Area Food Bank. However, they are always taking clothing donations.

Their message is to “Give with Dignity,” and we wanted to ensure that Following Francis and the Francis on the Hill Program can continue to do this incredible work in the community! From Easterns Automotive Group, Joel Bassam joined on this 7News Helping Hands segment to give Following Francis $2,000 towards their mission to continue giving to others in need!

A non-profit out of Sterling, Virginia, helps women and children in crisis by providing gently used clothes to those in need throughout the Washington, DC metro area.

Families can come and shop free of charge for everyday necessities. Everything that they receive comes from donors; however, they take pride in making sure that the clothes are of excellent quality. They make sure that they are giving away clothes they would want to wear themselves. When the pandemic hit, they closed the doors to their boutique to provide food items to those in need creating a food pantry. They specifically saw a need to help children; they even expanded to a diaper pantry over time. Since June, they have served almost 400 infants a month.

They relied heavily on funding from special events, but they could no longer have them once the pandemic began. This year they were also surprised with a $40,000 rent increase affecting their budget.

Touched by what they are working to achieve, Joel Bassam from Easterns Automotive Group donated $2,000 to help them continue their fantastic mission.

Helping Hands, powered by ABC 7, is always looking to help out people or organizations in need worthy of assistance. If you know someone that fits this description, please?click here?to nominate them.?

A group of parents in Arlington, VA, has been feeding families during the pandemic. Bethany Sutton and the PTA of the Randolph Elementary School opened a community food pantry for students and their families that may be in need.

When they first opened the pantry in April of last year, they intended to serve the community for three weeks until school reopened after spring break. However, when schools never went back to their regular schedule, they decided to keep the pantry open to the community. They have seen an average of about 150 families a week. Every Friday, families receive a bag of non-perishable items and any extra donations they may have received that week.

Bethany spends a lot of her time working to secure donations from various community partners. Even neighbors have joined to help by bringing items to her home to give to families. Blown away by Randolph Elementary’s parents stepping up to help families in need, Joel Bassam, director of marketing at?Easterns Automotive Group, surprised Bethany with $1,500 to continue their food pantry for their students.

Helping Hands, powered by ABC 7, is always looking to help out people or organizations in need worthy of assistance. If you know someone that fits this description, please?click here?to nominate them.?

A mother from Fairfax county has made it her mission to help children all over the country by providing warmth and comfort. Meg Smith began sewing ponchos for her son, Gavin when he was six years old. Due to his rare form of Common Variable?Immune Deficiency, he spent a lot of his time growing up in and out of the hospital. Meg created ponchos to keep him warm since he couldn’t wear robes because of his IV or PICC line. After her son passed, Meg and her business partner, Cindy, began to sew and donate ponchos to hospitals to keep other chronic and critically ill children warm.

They made their first delivery in 2019 to Inova Children’s Hospital, and they have now expanded across the country and recently became a non-profit called Cape Ivy. If you’d like to request a cape for your child?

Touched by Meg’s efforts to supply warmth, comfort, and support for children across our area, Joel Bassam joined with a message for Meg and a surprise of $1500 so that she can continue to expand her mission. This surprise will help Meg donate 128 capes.

Helping Hands, powered by ABC 7, is always looking to help out people or organizations in need that are worthy of assistance. If you know someone that fits this description, please click here to nominate them.

Hospitals are still working diligently to care for COVID-19 patients. Even though it may seem as if the world is returning to some form of normalcy, hospital workers are the true heroes that face the real effects of COVID-19 every day. We wanted to step up and show our frontline healthcare workers that we appreciate them.

We surprised 150 healthcare workers at Inova Fairfax with lunch from Ciao Osteria in Centreville! Joel Bassam joined virtually to share how Easterns Automotive Group wanted to highlight the true heroes who keep everyone safe during this crisis. It is necessary to show them that we cherish their endless hard work and care for our loved ones during this trying time.

The Inova Fairfax Covid response team appreciated the community working together to thank them for their commitment. Ciao Osteria’s owner expressed how important it is that we take care of each other, and we couldn’t agree more!

Helping Hands, powered by ABC 7, is always looking to help out people or organizations in need worthy of assistance. If you know someone that fits this description, please?click here?to nominate them

Southwest DC is an area that has been hit hard by the pandemic. In a ward full of residents facing food insecurity, people in the community have stepped up to make sure their neighbors do not go without, like Tawana Baylor. Ms. Tawana works as a violence interrupter in her neighborhood, but she is so much more to the children in her community. Many even said they see her as a second mother.

Tawana feeds the children in her southwest DC neighborhood and has done so for years. She manages a makeshift toy outlet, library, and grocery store all out of her small apartment while creating a safe space for families and children whenever they may need help. She funds her operation by pinching pennies and support from various family, friends, and non-profit agencies.

In this episode of Helping Hands, Ms. Tawana, as everyone calls her, brought balloons to one of her volunteers, Ben, in the community for his birthday, not knowing she was the one actually in for a surprise.

After Ben blew out his candles, Ms. Tawana was surprised with a check for $1,500 from Easterns Automotive Group to help her continue to feed the children in her community. Blown away by her selfless actions, Joel Bassam shared how amazed we are by her work in her community. She was initially in shock and brought to tears. She did not have the words to express her gratitude.

When Ms. Tawana finally found the words to say, she shared how happy she was that she no longer has to pinch pennies to make sure everyone in her community is cared for.

Helping Hands, powered by ABC 7, is always looking to help out people or organizations in need worthy of assistance. If you know someone that fits this description, please?click here?to nominate them.

COVID-19 has left some individuals in unfortunate circumstances. Some are still without jobs and the support they had before. However, it is incredible to see people in our community pull together to help one another during this time, like Sharita Rouse, the owner of gourmet candy apple store Tummy Yumyum in Manassas, VA.?

Sharita says, in 2008, God directed her to open a candy apple store, even though she had never made candy apples before. One day, someone stopped by her store looking for food, and again she says God directed her to start feeding anyone in need without asking, and since then, she has been feeding individuals for over ten years through her business. Due to the influx of people in need during the pandemic, Sharita began to provide hot meals for about 500-600 people a week from her candy apple storefront.?

It is always a pleasure to partner with ABC 7’s Helping Hands initiative and give back to those doing incredible work in the community. Presented by Kidd Oshea, we were excited to surprise Tummy YumYum with $1500 to go towards her actions in the Manassas community.?

Helping Hands, powered by ABC 7, is always looking to help out people or organizations in need worthy of assistance. If you know someone that fits this description, please?click here?to nominate them.