By Heather Michon
Correspondent
This year’s Fluvanna Leadership Development Program (FLDP) members presented their group projects to a packed audience at Fluvanna County High School on Thursday night (April 4).
FLDP is a long-running program that introduces a yearly class to the inner workings of county government and organization. Each class also breaks into small teams to identify an area of county life that could be improved and design a project to improve it.
Class 22, which started in August 2024, tackled projects ranging from recreation to at-risk students.
In the first presentation of the night, one team shared its project to popularize the disc golf course at Pleasant Grove.
“One of our key focuses was just to expand the community’s understanding, getting people introduced to it, getting people to know we have a course,” said Shannon Morton.
Team members Frank Abney, a disc golf enthusiast with experience on many other courses, and John Watermolen, a GIS specialist and map-maker, worked on highlighting and mapping the course and created new literature to support players.
The team also worked with the Fluvanna County Public Library to add disc golf equipment to its “Library of Things,” which the public can check out for free.
The library was also at the heart of another team’s project, designed to create “more robust adult programming,” said Maurice Lange.
Some of the team’s ideas included funding a bookmobile, working with local churches to host expanded programming, and holding pop-up enrichment events.
Librarian Cyndi Hoffman said they were always open to new programming, but staffing was a significant roadblock. Expanding programming would require an additional staff member, and the Board of Supervisors had declined funding for more staffing for at least the past two budget cycles.
A decline in public funding led to another project to help Fluvanna’s high school students take the PSATs and SATs. These standardized tests can help with admissions and financing for the 60 percent of Fluvanna students who plan to attend 2- and 4-year college programs after graduation.
For a decade, Fluvanna County Public Schools had the funding to pay the testing fees of $56 for the SAT and $13 for the PSAT. This removed a barrier for students who might be unable to afford the test themselves.
When funding ended in 2023, the number of students who took the test dropped from 565 to 241.
Team members first worked on getting the county to restore the $26,000 in annual funding, but when that failed, they decided the solution was to “just pay for it,” said Kelsey Cowger.
Rather than set up a separate nonprofit, they partnered with the county parent-teacher organization. Any money collected through donations and grants can be passed to the PTO for distribution,
They set up a donation portal on zeffy.com that has already raised about $3600 of their $30,000 goal.
The team hopes to raise the entire $26,000 and create a self-sustaining process to provide several years of funding.
Student needs were the driving force behind the Fluvanna Laundry Initiative, a project that can meet the needs of children who cannot access basic needs like clean clothing.
The stigma of wearing dirty clothing is a known cause of absenteeism in schools, and absenteeism raises the risk that a student will drop out of school permanently.
Team member Kim Munson shared her own story of being a homeless young mother. “This social isolation, the lifelong emotional trauma, this was my reality over 30 years ago,” she said.
The group has approached the Fluvanna Rotary for $18,000 to facilitate the purchase of four industrial washer-dryer sets that can be strategically located in the areas of highest need. They believe they would need $25,000 for machines, space rentals, supplies, and maintenance.
Rudy Garcia, a member of FLDP’s Executive Committee, said this year’s projects were more means-tested than some in previous years and praised the teams for taking ownership of their initiatives.
Enrollment for Class 23 of the FLDP will begin this summer. For more information on the program, please visit https://www.fluvannaleadership.org/
