Weekly Village News for Jan. 16, 2026

From Frank...

I was away last week, visiting an ill family member in Florida. After my mom's passing, it's even clearer to me that our time here is limited and it's important to show up for others, when we can. So, like the mom that she always was, she's still teaching me things. And, of course, I was glad to be there to visit with my family and offer some support. The warm weather was also a bonus as I generally despise winter!

In a few days, on Monday, our nation celebrates the Dr. Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. Among many other inspirational, and perhaps challenging, questions that he posed was "What are you doing for others?" In doing so, he highlighted our collective responsibility to serve our communities and humanity. It was a call to selfless action and making the world better, especially for the vulnerable, and a challenge to live beyond personal desires for greater purpose. His philosophy connected individual acts of service, using talents for good, and collective action to uplift communities, fight poverty, and create a more inclusive, equitable society.

As I've mentioned in this space previously, I feel so privileged to witness the selfless acts of kindness that are an everyday part of our Village: volunteers helping members, members sharing with volunteers, members supporting and caring for other members, etc. It's powerful to be a witness to the caring that I see among people. There's also the fact that the Village, as an organization, wants to ensure that it is doing what we can for others. It's worth reminding everyone, including the many subscribers to this newsletter that are not yet members, that the Board of Directors has authorized free memberships to anyone that has an adjusted gross annual income of $50,000 or less as an individual or $60,000 for a couple. The free memberships are available for either a social or Members Plus membership. (For more information on membership, please visit our website.) We want to ensure that limited finances are not the reason why someone doesn't join our Village.

We have some great upcoming events in this newsletter, including an opportunity to attend the Flower Show in Philadelphia and meet new friends from Georgetown Village. We also have a new book club forming, among many existing programs. Details are below. I hope that everyone will find something of interest. If not, please let us hear from you about other programs that might be of interest. We want everyone to be engaged as much as they'd like!

Read all the Village news and programs for January right here.

— Frank Finamore, Executive Director