Volunteer
We are excited for you to help us!
Here are some possibilities, but we’re open to ideas:
Join a Committee (Communications, Grants, Events, Ideas)
Volunteer at Foundation sponsored Lake events
Staff Foundation information booths
Working to Keep Foundation in Limelight
Volunteers of the Month
Mark Vyrros and Roy Weinstock, the Lake Monticello Community Foundation’s volunteers of the month.
Retirement has been all about volunteering for Mark Vyrros and Roy Weinstock, the Lake Monticello Community Foundation’s volunteers of the month. Both had decades-long careers in video and photography, and both found ways to continue using those skills at the Lake.
Vyrros and Weinstock have been particularly helpful in documenting the activities of the Foundation. Among other things, they shot photos and video of the Festival of Trees, the video about the all-inclusive playground, press events for the playground, the Foundation-sponsored shred day, and more.
“I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for kids and adults with handicaps,” Vyrros said of his particular interest in the $100,000 playground project. “People and the government try to help them, but it always falls short of what they need.”
The Foundation “is a perfect fit for the Lake Monticello community,” Weinstock said. “It’s a great way to get things done that need to be done.”
Both see photography and video as the key things they can do to aid the community. Weinstock said he has “always loved to communicate, and through TV you get the best bang for the buck.” Vyrros sees it as a way to connect with the community and “see what’s going on.”
Both have vast experience in visual communications. Vyrros spent 40 professional years as a photographer and videographer, including for the U.S. Customs and Boarder Patrol, and teaching video, production and editing at PVCC. Weinstock’s 50 years includes as a field photographer for WRC-TV in Washington, working on special effects in Hollywood, including on a couple of Star Wars scenes, and as an animator and assistant director.
And both now are involved in the Lake’s Broadcast Group, with Vyrros finishing his term as chairman this year. They keep their volunteer work for the Broadcast Group separate from that for the Foundation.
Vyrros said he joined the Broadcast Group soon after he moved to the Lake in 2013 “for something to do.” He said he found doing video as an avocation particularly enjoyable. “And the pay is great,” he joked. Vyrros saw Weinstock wearing an NBC cap at a Newcomers & Old Friends meeting shortly after he arrived at the Lake in 2019. “I immediately said boy have I gotta talk to you,” Vyrros laughed.
Weinstock said he likes continuing to volunteer in video because “I have amassed a vast well of knowledge” about video and “I want to pass it along to the next generation.” And, he said, it’s “a great way to meet people and make friends.”
Both indicated enthusiasm about continuing to volunteer to keep the Lake Monticello Community Foundation in the well-designed and well-focused limelight.
Parks’ ‘Artistic Eye’ Makes Him Foundation Volunteer of the Month
For a nuclear physicist, Barry Parks certainly has an “artistic eye.” And that’s one of the reasons he’s the Lake Monticello Community Foundation “Volunteer of the Month.”
Parks, who would quickly note he was not a nuclear physicist, just a “senior nuclear safety enforcement officer,” uses his artistic eye for things like designing the Foundation’s “Living the Dream” t-shirt, to help with the Foundation’s banner design, and to photograph Foundation-organized parades at the Lake.
Parks blames many of his volunteer activities on LMOA board member Judy Fish. He said he was attending a Lake Broadcast Group meeting, where he’s also a regular volunteer camera operator, and happened to mention his love for photography and occasional computer-generated designs.
“Judy said she had some ideas on ways I could help,” Parks said. “And that was it. I suddenly found myself volunteered for about ten things.”
Parks has always used both his left brain (nuclear physics) and his right brain (art). He bought his first Macintosh computer in 1985, and shortly after used it to design a poster promoting physicist Carl Sagan’s visit to EPA, where he worked then. “It was really kind of crude in retrospect, but everybody seemed to like it,” Parks recalls. “After that, it just kind of became my thing.”
Here at the Lake, Parks’ works also include such things at the logo for the Community Spotlight that focuses on future local events in Lake Monticello News, the promotion for the Lake Monticello Community Foundation’s free pool pass program, the “Lake Needs More Fish” t-shirt for Judy Fish’s board candidacy, and the lawn signs for Jeff Spinello’s board candidacy.
On the photography side, Parks’ main focus has been on Lake birds, he said. “I used to love to do sunrises and sunsets, but my house is completely surrounded by trees,” he said. “But that means there are birds everywhere, so I take pictures of birds.” Parks said there are two types of photographers – those who only shoot people, and those who shoot anything but people – and he’s mainly the latter.
Parks and his wife moved to the Lake from northern Virginia about four years ago, after retiring from the Department of Energy in 2013. He says he’s never regretted either retirement or moving to the Lake “for a single minute.”
In addition to his design work and photography and working with the Broadcast Group, Parks keeps busy traveling, volunteering "a lot" for his church, and cooking. “When I retired I decided to take over cooking to help even the work load with my wife,” he said. “That way, my retirement would be a net positive for her, too. Cooking is kind of like art to me, with all the preparation and presentation. It just doesn’t last as long as other art. But I get a lot of enjoyment out of it.”
But “it’s really important to volunteer,” Parks said. “There is no way we can spend enough money to do what needs to be done. So everyone has to put his shoulder to the wheel. It’s just basic physics. Everybody has to contribute what his or her particular talent is.”
Laker Craig Conboy is a Volunteer ‘Jack of All Trades’
Whether he’s portraying a six-foot Christmas elf, distributing food to the needy, or installing free replacement American flags to benefit the Lake Monticello Community Foundation, LMCF “Volunteer of the Month” Craig Conboy keeps busy most of the time.
For the Foundation, Conboy is signing up volunteers for the Monticelloman triathlon (LMCF gets a $50 contribution for each volunteer signed up), helped with the successful Memory Tree project, organized the Christmas wreath decorating and porch decorating contest (including handing out prizes dressed as an elf), and shows up to help at most projects.
Conboy is an usher and keeper of the flags for Cunningham United Methodist Church. He’s also the church’s food bank coordinator, coordinating food drives and packing an average of 160 lunches at CUMC three times per month for the homeless in Charlottesville.
He was a member of the LMOA Communications & Marketing Committee, a prime assistant in the pre-pandemic Festival of Trees at the Lake, helps his wife Kim take seniors to get COVID shoots, and was on the American Legion honors detail. His home was recently named a Certified Wildlife Habitat, partially for its three water sources, eight bird feeders and feeders for squirrels – all of which helped attract five families of blue birds last year.
Conboy also was named “Grandparent of the Year” by Grandparent Magazine for the “Papa’s Sports Camp” he organized for eight years for his seven grandkids – complete with calisthenics, sports drills, kayaking, movies and outings. “It was great for the cousins to come together for those years,” he said.
“I think it all comes from my mother,” Conboy said of his varied volunteer efforts. “She was always involved in church, the schools, the PTA. She was always organizing things. I’m sure she kind of looks down and smiles.”
“For myself, I always feel that you should give back,” Conboy said. “We’ve received so much and we just need to give back.”
Conboy’s volunteering mainly started after he retired after 29 years in the military, he said. “When have kids and grandkids involved in sports and stuff, didn’t always have a lot of time.”
Conboy moved to the Lake in 1989, mainly because of “just the peacefulness,” he said, noting there were only 500 homes here then. “I also liked fact we are close to a major university, and to the mountains. Oh, and the water! I was big into kayaking.” It also helped that he could be close to two daughters who live in the Richmond area.
Asked about future volunteering plans, Conboy said he’ll basically step in where needed, but he has no real plans to slow down.
‘Volunteer of Month’ Put in Over 100 Hours on Foundation Website
As a software engineer, Volunteer of the Month Jose Ramirez probably didn’t think it would be that big of a deal to create the Lake Monticello Community Foundation’s new website. Think again.
Ramirez had built a couple of websites before, but only simple ones and just for fun. The Foundation wanted a more-extensive site, including with the ability to make donations directly on the site (LakeMonticelloCommunityFoundation.org). And the Foundation didn’t want to spend a lot – or any – money to build it.
Ramirez volunteered to do it for free.
But before he could really build the site, he had to learn how. Ramirez said he ended up spending about eight hours a day for two weeks on the site, all in his spare time.
First, Ramirez had to find the best host for the site. Then he spent hours and hours researching the best software for the site, since he knew non-savvy people would be doing most of the work posting content and maintaining it after he finished. “I just had to find a way to make it easy for people to edit it and add to it,” he said.
Building a website from the ground up was new to Ramirez. He had to build all the interconnections that are in the “back end” of a rather simple-looking site. Ramirez, who works for a global pharmaceutical biotech research and development team located in charlottesville had, among other things, worked on testing the software that is used for medical devices that range from glucose reading all the way to Covid-19 but had never build a website from scratch.
Ramirez said he didn’t mind all the effort. “I like just learning all types of tech and software stuff,” he said. “This was a chance to learn something new. And the good thing was that I could do it on my own schedule, with no hard deadline.” He said he also found it satisfying to work with the Foundation “to understand what people want and find the tools to put it together.”
Ramirez said he also “just likes to help out.” He said doing the work for such a charitable cause as the Lake Monticello Community Foundation was well worth it. “If I can help with my technical ability, I’m glad to do it,” he said.
It’s not impossible that Ramirez might build another website someday, now that he has some more experience, he said.
He has also been experimenting with video, creating promotional videos to advertise a local business, and creating an occasional fun TikTok. “I just like being creative with technology,” Ramirez said. “I like learning, and I get a lot of joy out of this.”
As far as being named Lake Monticello Community Foundation “Volunteer of the Month,” Ramirez said “I really didn’t want recognition. I just like to help. And to have a little fun.”
From Fashion to Graphics, Foundation Logo Designer is ‘Volunteer of the Month’
The deceptively simple logo for the Lake Monticello Community Foundation is the work of the multi-talented Danielle Canfield, whose graphic design work has been the face of corporations and non-profits both here and abroad, and whose fashion designs have graced Paris runways and Vogue magazine.
Canfield said she was glad to volunteer her time designing the logo, since she comes to Lake Monticello often to visit her mother, Anita Boles, a member of the Foundation board. “I just love it down there,” Canfield said. “I think it’s wonderful that you are starting the Community Foundation. That kind of structure is just so important.”
It turned out coming up with the design was surprisingly easy. Foundation President Nancy Parsons provided a rough sketch that Canfield converted into some polished alternative designs. The Foundation board quickly decided on a basic approach, requested some modifications, and then signed off on the finished version – which includes a stylized version of the iconic umbrellas on the Main Beach, along with a representation of the Lake’s waves, and the Foundation name.
It’s not always that easy, laughed Canfield, who estimated she spent only a few hours on the Foundation project. Often customers have no idea what they want, which means the designer has to research the company for concepts to develop into alternatives, then work long hours to refine them until the customer is satisfied. Also, Canfield was very familiar with the umbrellas.
“The people on the (Foundation) board really knew what image they were going for,” Canfield said. “The concept was there. It just needed a little fine tuning, and that’s where I came in.”
Canfield has been in the design business for years. Her bachelor and master’s degrees are in fashion design. Her master’s required her to do a fashion collection, which was so well-received that it evolved into a full line that was exhibited at big U.S. shows and the Paris Fashion Week. It even was featured in Vogue magazine.
Later, Canfield switched to graphic design, mainly for non-profits in the D.C. area for several years.
But the Arlington, Va., resident just couldn’t give up on fashion. She has mostly given up graphic design to return to the business she said she has loved fashion design since she took a sewing class at age 12. “I love it and didn’t want it to fall out of my life,” she said.
Now Canfield is working on a new fashion brand built around kimonos and the zodiac, she said. But don’t get in a hurry, she said it may be a year before it’s ready for market.
Meanwhile, she can bask in being the Lake Monticello Community Foundation’s first “Volunteer of the Month.”