By Candice Wessling and Fredda Shere-Valenti
With its culture of compassion, Leisure World of Maryland sets a standard for mature communities. This desire to help others is palpable and extends from Montgomery County shelters and food pantries to national charities like Tunnel to Towers and even beyond the USA. Our acts of kindness are both deliberate and random. They celebrate young needy moms with baby shower gifts of layettes and blankies and bottles to help ease their way. A contingent of native New Yorkers donate money to the Capital Area Food Bank and the National 9/11 Memorial. We even manage to share our surplus walkers and wheel chairs with “friends we haven’t met yet” in faraway places like Ukraine and Kenya. One could say, we just can’t help ourselves...
This Is How We Do It
With entrepreneurial energy and spirit, Leisure World residents have formed and led more than eighty clubs and groups over the course of our 58-year history. Among clubs oriented to sports, cultures or hobbies, six are specifically charity focused. But clubs of all kinds regularly include charitable works in their activities.
The Club to Help the Homeless and Working Poor (CHWP) is the crown jewel of Leisure World of Maryland’s charitable groups. Some 230 members devote time, talent and money that benefits numerous facilities in Montgomery County (population 1 million+), where we live.
The Fun & Fancy Theatre Group goes beyond their quarterly musical productions in the Leisure World auditorium to take an abbreviated show on the road once a month to entertain residents at nearby nursing homes.
Members of social clubs like New Yorkers and Friends (370 members) and the Leisure World Association for African American Culture (LWAAAC) (250 members) volunteer as door monitors at nearby Strathmore Elementary School during recess, assisting them in state law compliance.
Did we mention college scholarships? No fewer than three Leisure World groups raise funds for them: the Scholarship Foundation of Leisure World, Inc.’s own name says it all; they exist solely to help local students pay for a college education. Arts in Motion (AIM) presents world-class jazz musicians in monthly concerts and raises scholarship dollars in the process, and LWAAAC members fund scholarships for seniors at nearby Blake High School.
Even our Woodshop Users Group makes the most of their avocation. Group members fashion beautiful items that they donate to nearby Brookside Gardens Nature Center’s Museum Shop, which solely benefits from the proceeds.
The Feeling is Mutual
Our mutual housing associations (Mutuals) also hold their own fundraisers and do charitable activities, too, with an eye to the needy in the county as well as coordinating with our social work department to quietly channel food, money or other items to their neighbors who could benefit from them.
Gestures of generosity abound within Leisure World. A real estate company that leases office space in our Administration Building has hosted Toys for Tots every holiday season for as far back as we can remember, and residents have donated hundreds of gifts each year, and many thousands over many years.
When the management team holds its annual holiday party, the “price” of admission is non-perishable food items for the local food bank. The large box fills up quickly.
A Culture of Compassion
Leisure World of Maryland is a community of 8,500 active adults living on 610 acres in Montgomery County. Founded in 1966, we consider it a modern community because it acknowledges the interconnectedness of neighbors and nations. We are pleased and proud to share our culture of compassion whenever we can. Welcome to our world!