The Women’s Club of Chevy Chase (WCCC) has supported Hearts & Homes for many years with monetary and in-kind donations as well as volunteering on special occasions. Toward the end of 2014, WCCC Service Chair Marilyn Sherman noticed that Hearts & Homes needed suitcases and so in 2015, the WCCC started a donation drive to collect gently used small to medium-sized suitcases, travel, and duffle bags for the youth to transport their belongings. Hearts & Homes recently met with the WCCC to gather the donated travel bags and thank the group for their ongoing support.

WCCC member Thelma Mrazek has been a member of the WCCC since 1992 and was previously on Hearts & Homes’ Board of Directors, before we became Hearts & Homes. She recalls, in the late 1990s, someone mentioned the Boys & Girls Homes (our former name) was looking for people to serve on the Board of Directors. She volunteered, joining our Board and serving as the Chairman of the Board from 2000 to 2001. She explained that the organization was renamed Hearts & Homes for Youth during that time because “people were confusing us with the Boys & Girls Clubs, which had a strong promotional campaign underway.”

We are all glad that our organization was renamed because it is a perfect fit for what we do!

Thelma recalled her most memorable moment with Hearts & Homes was an event where young men gave testimony to the difference made to their lives when they were placed in our care at our group homes. “They spoke of how it encouraged them to seek education or training and shaped them to be responsible citizens, holding good jobs and having families of their own.”

Hearts & Homes is grateful for these long standing relations with supporters like Thelma Mrazek and the WCCC, who have a rich understanding of the children in our care and our mission.