Sixty-five Girl Scout troops from the Hornets’ Nest Council will swarm neighborhoods in Davidson, Cornelius and Huntersville on Wednesday and Thursday this week, dropping a recycled grocery bag with a flier on each door step. If you fill your bag with non-perishable food items and put it outside your door before 9 a.m. on Saturday, the girls will pick it up at your home and deliver it to the Ada Jenkins Center’s Loaves & Fishes Pantry. Read the full story

World Habitat Day is Monday, focusing on housing worldwide. Above, the Kibera slum in Nairobi, Kenya. (Photo by Habitat for Humanity/Steffan Hacker)

A Giving Spirit Foundation presents its 2nd annual Autumn Family Fest this Saturday, Oct. 3, on the green at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church. Also below, details about the Davidson Housing Coalition’s Ride for Hope & Housing, also on Saturday. We also have news about upcoming events to raise money for Easter Seals, Barium Springs Home for Children, the Hole in the Wall Gang camps, United Family Services, and a NASCAR-related charity aimed at women in the automotive business. Also, info about Monday’s World Habitat Day 2009, and tomorrow’s (Wednesday, Sept. 30) dining fund-raiser for Cornelius Animal Shelter‘s wellness program.

Read the full story

One of a series of articles on DavidsonNews.net focusing on nonprofits, needs, and people who are helping.

By MICHELE MILLER HOUCK
DavidsonNews.net

How would you like to “bank” volunteer hours while you are young so that you can benefit when you are older? That was only one of the 350 ideas volunteers sorted through last week to come up with the best of the best for further action. Citizens submitted the concepts through an “idea search” that was part of Charlotte Mission Possible, a project by a consortium of Charlotte-area news organizations.

Read the full story

Ride for Hope & Housing planned Saturday in Davidson

Erik Thorsheim and his dad Peter plan to ride the 25-kilometer route in this Saturday's Ride for Hope and Housing.

SOURCE: Davidson Housing Coalition

Davidson Housing Coalition’s 5th annual Ride for Hope & Housing is Saturday, Oct. 3, in Davidson, and its youngest rider this year is also the first rider to add fund-raising to his preparations for the ride.

For the first time this year, the annual benefit ride is giving participants an opportunity to raise money in support of their rides. This personal fund-raising is encouraged, but not required. Read the full story

A trio of local nonprofit organizations is hoping to use social networking to expand awareness of their agencies. United Family Services, the Ada Jenkins Center and Davidson Housing Coalition on Friday announced a media campaign called “Tell Two” that will incorporate messages via email, Facebook, Twitter and the Web.

“It’s innovative because we are asking the public to understand that our strength lies in cooperation and not just in the individual work we do as agencies.”

Kathryn Firmin-Sellers
United Family Services/Tell Two co-organizer

Read the full story

By MICHELE MILLER HOUCK
DavidsonNews.net

The financially troubled Davidson-Cornelius Day Care Center has appointed an interim director and formed a task force to develop a new business model. The goal: to ensure the 40-year-old center’s survival by bringing “best practices” to its existing “rich culture” of child care, according to the task force’s leader, interim comptroller John Venzon. Read the full story

As Davidson-Cornelius Day Care Center fights for its life, the outpouring of support has been constant. Some long time supporters wonder what happened.

By MICHELE MILLER HOUCK
DavidsonNews.net

Flash back 12 years: Davidson-Cornelius Day Care Center had a waiting list — for every class.  State funding helped support two-thirds of the center’s students, making it available to a wide variety of kids. Children of college professors and blue collar workers flourished together. A six-figure endowment was growing with the stock market. Supporters say that the center barely missed four stars on its state certification. Read the full story

Arc of Mecklenburg County fights for the advocacy, protection, and well being of Charlotte’s developmentally disabled citizens. Now it faces challenges of its own. Read the full story