Windy Hill, Making a Difference for 40 Years

Windy Hill, Making a Difference for 40 Years

By Leonard Shapiro

Windy Hill’s Virginia Lane complex is along the western end of Middleburg, along route 50.

Photo courtesy

Judy Washburn had been volunteering to acquire donations for an upcoming Hill School auction back in the early 1980s when she stopped by the Zulla Road home of her friend, the late Middleburg author Jane McClary.

“She said, ‘I’ll give you something for the auction, but I want to ask you to do something important for me,’” Judy recalled. Soon, she was meeting with Jane McClary’s friend, Windy Hill Foundation founder Irene “Rene” Llewellyn. “We just hit it off right away, and she asked me to come on board.”

Judy and her late husband, Lang, joined the board and became heavily involved with the Middleburg-based nonprofit celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. It provides decent, affordable housing for lower income families and senior citizens in Loudoun and Fauquier counties, along with countless resident services.

Judy remains involved, and had no hesitation initially joining the effort. Not long after her family moved here in 1977, she helped organize a Girl Scout troop that included her daughter Serena, as well as several girls who lived at Windy Hill. Back then, it was an area of rundown, ramshackle dwellings with no running water or indoor plumbing.

“After the meetings, I often would drive the girls home,” Judy said. “There was a fence that hid the houses from view. When you went back there, you could see the conditions were not good. I knew there was definitely a need to do something.

“I felt very strongly about it. How could that exist in this community? Most people were not aware of it and no one was doing anything about it. People need decent housing. If you have a nice place to live, it will lead to so much more— jobs, education, good health. And that’s what Windy Hill has done.”

Over the last 40 years, the foundation, initially allvolunteer, has provided more than 1,200 citizens with safe, affordable housing in Middleburg, Marshall and The Plains. There also are 194 residences in eastern Loudoun in Brambleton and Sterling. In the Middleburg, Marshall and The Plains residences, 16 percent are seniors, and 37 percent are children. Windy Hill has provided 16 percent of the housing in Middleburg, 7 percent in Marshall and 20 percent The Plains.

Kim Hart, who began on the board in the early 1990s, also had a stint as executive director. In 2005, he discovered the foundation could make use of tax credits to get a far bigger bang for its donor dollars, leading to more housing in Middleburg and beyond.

“Windy Hill really shows what a community can do when it wants to,” he said. “If you just explain the need, clearly you can do anything around Middleburg

It’s remarkable how this community came together. It showed the community commitment is like no other in the U.S.”

Bob Dale, also a long-time board member who retired in October after six years as executive director, summed up Windy Hill’s value.

“The services Windy Hill provides, affordable housing and resident services, are critical to fulfilling some of the basic needs and opportunities of individuals, families and older adults who lack the financial resources to obtain these essentials themselves,” he said. “These services enable many of these folks to continue to live in the area where they were raised or work.”

His successor, Eloise Repeczky, knows full well about the need for affordable housing and other services. “It’s not going away,” she said. “From a survey we did, 70 to 75 percent of our residents need some form of assistance, whether it’s going back to school for more job training, for food, rent, utilities, college tuition for the kids.”

All of this takes funding. The 2021 budget was $1.3 million, with 70 percent coming from individual gifts, endowment earnings, corporate and other grants, 24 percent from rents and six percent from other sources. One of the organization’s major fundraisers will be a celebration, “Windy Hill at 40!” at Salamander Resort & Spa, on May 4 from 6 to 8 p.m.

“A big reason it’s been so successful is that we’ve had people here who have supported it for many years, either financially or as volunteers and often both,” Eloise said. “What I’m learning is that we’re a neighborhood, community organization. I’ve been working with volunteer partner organizations, town offices, churches, so many people who care about what we’re doing. And they know how complex the needs are.”

Judy Washburn knew from the start. She recalled her husband, Lang, asking her to take his place in meeting with a potential donor because he was out of town on business.

“That’s not what I’m good at and I was extremely nervous,” Judy said. Clearly, she was plenty good enough, because the donor told her he was going to give Windy Hill $750,000.

“When I heard that,” she said, “I just burst out crying and couldn’t stop.”

Tears of joy, for sure, for wonderful Windy Hill.