Successfully Building Dreams: Give Local NRV 2026

This year's Give Local NRV's Day of Giving was one for the books We are so thrilled to share some of the incredible highlights from June. It was so inspirational to see the ways our community came together to support our adult literacy programs. We could not do what we do without the support of each and every one of you and we are so grateful!

We knew setting a goal for $20,000 was going to be a worthwhile challenge. Everyone is doing all they can right now to take care of themselves and their families. Dollars don't stretch as far as they used to. Every bit of our time and resources are being funneled into survival and care for ourselves and our families. But still, we know that literacy is the foundation for all positive change and community building, and we had faith that by showing up and sharing our mission, our supporters (past and new) would show up to create this crucial access and we were overwhelmed by the outpouring we received.

This year, we also tried some new initiatives and events to really be present out and about to share our mission. Thanks to the incredible support of The Bookhouse in Floyd, we hosted our first ever fundraiser open mic night! This saw poets and writers from all over the New River Valley show up to celebrate all things relating to the written word. Offering prizes and fundraising opportunties while enjoying refreshments from The Bookhouse cafe, we heard from past students, community members, and more! With our generous matching donation, we were able to raise $400 for our programs! This will nearly cover a full year's worth of learning for 2 students. Sharing space, stories, and poems is one of our favorite ways to be in community and we're so grateful for everyone's support.

Prize Winners:

 1st Place: John

 1st Runner Up: Dale

 Crowd Favorite: Deia

Then, we were so honored to participate in a Give Local NRV Trivia Night at Iron Tree Brewing with NRV Care, Inmate Family Assitance of the New River Valley, and the Town of Christiansburg! This event was an amazing way to raise awareness for the Day of Giving, meet new people out in the community, support local businesses, and (somehow??) come in first place at trivia! We were so grateful to be included in this event with these incredible organizations working so hard to improve lives in the New River Valley.

Our first prize came in the wee hours of morning as LNRV supporters woke up before the sun rose, chugged a couple cups of coffee, and donated to help us win the Early Bird Power Hour! Watching the donations roll in that early in the morning was so inspiring; it shows the force of our mission and how excited everyone is to support literacy! This prize won us an extra $500 from the Community Foundation, which means:

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• Two fully sponsored English classes

• Three GED scholarships

• Five family instructions

• Nine trained tutors OR

• Over 14 textbooks!

Thank you to everyone who set their alarms for such an early hour to help us win this lovely prize.

Finally, as we all gathered in our Dream Builder open houses, the 12 PM deadline was approaching swiftly and we were nearly $800 from our goal. As were were sitting around, feeling so deeply inspired by how close we were to our goal and how much hard work had been put in by our board, staff, volunteers, and students; a massive donation hit at exactly 11:58 AM and brought us over our $20,000 goal! You should have seen us, bleary-eyed from waking up at 5 AM and still over-the-moon in our celebrations. While we were hitting our personal goal, we were also watching the donation boards tallying up for the overall Giving Day... our community, thanks to the amazing leadership of the Community Foundation, raised over 1 million dollars for Give Local NRV! This record is an amazing testament to how much the New River Valley cares about each other and how much work is being done to take care of our friends and neighbors all over the region.

Then, to add to the incredible moment, we found out we were the recipient of the $1000 education grant from the Cranwell Family Foundation! This was such a surprsie for all of us and we were so honored to have our efforts honored in this way.

June was a whirlwind in the absolute best way. We are so grateful to every staff member, board memberr, volunteer, student, and supporter who put so much time, energy, and care into sharing our mission and helping us raise these crucial funds for literacy. With every GED graduation, passed citizienship test, and new vocabulary word learned, we will be thanking you!