GAIYA'S GROVE SPECIAL PROJECTS
We believe in giving back to the community; here are a few
projects & organizations we have volunteered for or donated to:
These are some of the Gift Bags we made for the Alexandria, VA Women's Shelter in late 2006.
The shelter provides emergency housing and food for Alexandria women and children who have
been either abused or threatened. They can also arrange for shelter for family pets via a
partnership with the Alexandria Animal Welfare League. We were able to donate 25 handcrafted
Gaiya's Grove Gift Bags to the shelter just in time for the 2006 holidays. Hopefully this small
gesture was able to go a long way toward helping some abused women feel beautiful and cared for.
In early 2005, Noel signed up to donate money each month for a year to the United Way Foundation.
In September 2005, our founder joined up with October Skies to volunteer with the Humane
Society of Loudoun County, VA for a benefit festival. Noel coined the term "Raise The Woof",
helped design the festival flyers and t-shirts, and collected donations during the concert while
October Skies provided entertainment along with the Loudoun Travelers, Tara Linhardt, Danny
Knicely, Lenny Burridge, Gary Smallwood, Bryan Fox, Mike Echols, the Orphans of Twang, Fast
Eddie and Victor Marino, Tim Rumfelt, Sidewalk Bob and The Pedestrians, and Abe Kesner.
On September 23, 2007, Noel
participated (as an individual) in
the Humane Society's Walk for the
Animals on the National Mall in
Washington, D.C. as Team Captain
of the "Daggone Dogs." She also
designed the team slogan and
t-shirts. As a business, Gaiya's
Grove made several monetary
donations to this event in support
of homeless animals, and proceeds
from all sales for the month of
September were donated to the
D.C. Humane Society.  
In December 2007, Gaiya's Grove once
again partnered with the Alexandria, VA
Office on Women to provide the
Women's Shelter with holiday gifts.
Among the donations were 20 gift
buckets to be dispersed as needed at
various Office on Women functions, two
boxes of kitchen/household goods, 6
hand-dyed scarves (1 for each woman
currently residing at the shelter) and 6
hand-crafted gemstone scarf rings.
In late 2007, Noel was given an on-going position as a volunteer for the Newseum in Washington, D.C. The Newseum, a project of
The Freedom Forum, is a 250,000 Sq. Ft. museum of the news.
The Newseum's Core Messages are:

The free press is a cornerstone of democracy.
People have a need to know.
Journalists have a right to tell.
Finding the facts can be difficult.
Reporting the story can be dangerous.
Freedom includes the right to be outrageous.
Responsibility includes the duty to be fair.
News is history in the making.
Journalists provide the first draft of history.
A free press, at its best, reveals the truth.


Noel has enjoyed working with Newseum staff to this point and is honored to continue serving them.