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Churches of Upperville: Help Wanted, Spectacular Help Found
Churches of Upperville: Help Wanted, Spectacular Help Found
By Leonard Shapiro
Cyndi and Duane Ellis, the owners of Middleburg’s popular Common Grounds coffee shop, have always believed in giving back to the communities where they lived and worked. They’ve devoted time, energy and money, quietly and with little fanfare.
And so, when Cyndi read a story in Country ZEST’s summer edition that the Churches of Upperville Outreach Program (CUOP) to supply food baskets to needy area families was looking for new leadership, she was immediately intrigued. And then she called a dear friend and mentor, long-time Upperville resident Dorothy Gow, who had volunteered in the program for many years.
“The first thing out of her mouth was ‘you’d be perfect,’” recalled Cyndi. “And then she said, ‘you know, it’s a lot of work.’ Well, I thought about it, thought about it, prayed about it and then I talked to Duane about what it would involve. He said, ‘are you sure about this?’ and I thought about it some more. I’d been looking for something for a while, but there really wasn’t anything that really touched me.”
The CUOP handles a four-time distribution of food baskets at Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentine’s Day and Easter to 26 local families, a total of 98 recipients, including 55 children.
This did.
She soon contacted Peter Nicoll, who has headed the CUOP program with his wife, Patty, for the last 24 years. They’re now ready to pass the baton, and they agreed to meet Cyndi and Duane, who have lived in Middleburg since 2013, the following week at the home of Judy Washburn, another long-time volunteer.
Over the next two hours, the more they learned about the program, the more Cyndi was convinced this was exactly what she’d been searching for. “It takes care of people right here in this area,” she said. “It just seemed so right to me.”
“You don’t have to go very far outside this community to find people who need assistance,” added Duane. “We want to help where we can be most effective.”
The Churches of Upperville include Mount Pisgah Baptist, Trinity Episcopal, Upperville Methodist and Upperville Baptist. Volunteers from those churches and elsewhere participate. The CUOP handles a four-time distribution of food baskets at Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentine’s Day and Easter to 26 local families, a total of 98 recipients, including 55 children.
Families are chosen through recommendations from all four Upperville churches, as well as administrators at Banneker Elementary in Middleburg, Claude Thompson Elementary in Rectortown an W.G. Coleman in Marshall.
Last year, about $16,000 in food went to those families. The funds and the food are all donated by individuals, local businesses and organizations. And the Nicolls believe that Cyndi and Duane Ellis represent a perfect fit.
“They are both wonderful people,” Peter said. “Everyone we speak to gives them glowing reports. We couldn’t be happier.”
Added Patty, “they are very much a team. We could see the way they listened to each other, and it really does take two people. We feel very comfortable transitioning it over to them.”
That process will begin at CUOP’s crab feast fundraiser on August 16 at Slater Run Vineyard, and the Nicolls, Upperville residents for 40 years, will be there side by side with Cyndi and Duane.
“We’re not going anywhere,” Peter said. “We’ll be here to help them if they need us. That won’t change.”
