Princess Clark, the owner of accounting and tax agency Jasmine Rose Financial, is now among 41 Comcast RISE award recipients in Virginia.

The Comcast RISE program was launched in 2020 and is part of a $100 million initiative to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion. RISE, which stands for Representation, Investment, Strength, and Empowerment, was developed to support, strengthen and empower black, indigenous, and people of color small businesses.

Award recipients receive one or a combination of technology makeovers, consulting, media, or production services from Comcast. Clark was awarded a technology makeover for her business.

Jasmine Rose Financial was established in Woodbridge in 2012, but Clark started working in the financial industry in 2002. Clark began her career in Chicago where she attended the University of Chicago. She said that she set out to help women take control of their finances, which led her to the Virginia region. In 2015, she formally opened up her office and started to expand her services and customer base.

“We help small business owners and now some nonprofits, along with their family and employees. We do tax planning, tax resolution, payroll support, account management, and bookkeeping,” said Clark.

Clark said that her firm works with their clients to manage their cash so that they can reach their financial goals with a plan to get there.

Clark said many of the individuals that she worked with didn’t have an accountant or a formal process to manage their cash flow. She said they were using services like Turbo Tax while driving much of their business using their personal income.

One of the ways Clark invests back into the community is through education.

“I’ve been educating, coaching, and developing people along with providing a valuable, much-needed service,” said Clark, “A lot of people are practicing more in their craft and not their work.”

Clark said her investment in working with her clients to reach their financial goals has helped some of them move from being home-based businesses to open their own offices.

Clark said the pandemic has presented its share of challenges over the last year. One of her most significant adjustments was getting used to virtual appointments.

“My business is very personal. When you talk about someone’s money or even taxes, there’s a bit of insecurity,” said Clark. “Switching over to a virtual environment and still showing that it’s financially sound because we still have to meet the regulations of the IRS and other government agencies, has been a challenge for me.”

Clark said transitioning to a virtual environment where she was doing everything through Zoom was not only difficult for her but also her clients because she had to educate them on this new process.

Clark has been able to help her clients apply for grants and funding throughout the pandemic as their businesses struggled.

“It makes me feel good that just having your books in order prepares you for a pandemic or even what’s next,” she said.

Receiving support from the Comcast RISE program has helped Clark navigate through the pandemic and address business needs that she would not have been able to invest in otherwise.

“What I realized is that we have more documents on servers. We have more people accessing our database, and it was lagging and everything was really suffering. And then I heard about Comcast working with African Americans to help them with technology, and the way people feel about money, finances, and taxes is how I felt about technology. I didn’t know exactly what I needed, but I knew I needed something,” said Clark.

Clark said Comcast updated their internet, educated her on what she needed, put cybersecurity in place, and their technology is now faster and more efficient for them to serve their clients the way they need to.

Clark said the Comcast RISE program has helped bridge the gap in offering support and mentorship to the African American community.

“You’re out there trying to put a puzzle together, and you know what the puzzle should look like, but you don’t know where the piece goes. You don’t even know if you might be missing a piece,” Clark said, “But if you have a mentor or a support network who has pieces of information that you lack, you can put the puzzle together.”

Area residents will have to find somewhere else to exercise, as the Prince William Medical Center is closing its onsite fitness center.

“It wasn’t a decision we came to easily,” said Dr. Stephen Smith, President of Novant/UVA Health System for Prince William and Haymarket Medical Centers. “We want to be able to provide resources to the community. We’ve been struggling relative to other alternatives people have with other fitness centers. Post COVID-19, we had to re-evaluate whether the resources we were continuing to put into the gym were able to balance out the greater needs of other services we provide at the hospital that you cannot get elsewhere.”

The closure of the gym in Manassas is due to the hospital’s focus on treating the coronavirus, according to Smith, who emphasized the need for the hospital to be able to provide appropriate levels of acute care services.

“We want to make sure the hospital is prepared and continued readiness during the pandemic is our front of mind issue,” said Smith.

It is unknown if the fitness center will ever reopen to the public, but programs such as occupational therapy, physical therapy, and cardiac therapy will continue to keep it in use. 

“If we have the appropriate amount of resources, we can revisit the gym reopening, but I don’t see it in the short run. I think COVID-19 is going to be with us for quite some time. The new norm is yet to be established,” said Smith

As we move beyond the pandemic, Smith said Novant plans to develop outreach programs around healthy habits along with education on dietary needs and lifestyle modification to keep people in top health conditions.

“If we have the appropriate amount of resources, we can revisit the gym reopening, but I don’t see it in the short run. I think COVID-19 is going to be with us for quite some time. The new norm is yet to be established,” said Smith

Smith said community members have voiced their concerns over the gym closure, but overall, have been very supportive.

“The painful thing is asking the community to be understanding because we want to be able to provide that service. It’s not a lack of desire but rather a lack of feasibility to do it in an efficient manner while we have competing interests of making sure other service lines are robust enough to address the needs of our community,” said Smith. 

While the gym is closed, Novant is open for patients, despite any anxiety people may feel about entering a hospital during the current global pandemic. One option Smith recommends for those that feel anxious about in-person care is telemedicine.

“I fear people have this anxiety about COVID-19 and it’s making them reluctant to seek medical needs. We’re finding that people are coming to the hospital but they’ve delayed seeking care and their conditions are getting worse,” said Smith.

“If you have reservations about coming to the hospital, you can still interface with a provider in the health system. Telemedicine doesn’t address all needs. Sometimes you will need to be seen,” said Smith

Novant Health/UVA Health System Prince William Medical Center is located at 8700 Sudley Road in Manassas.

The Unity Church, at 14747 Arizona Avenue in Woodbridge, hosted a surprise ceremony and homecoming parade to honor its high school seniors on Saturday, June 6.

Senior Pastor Dr. Nelson K. Williams and his wife, First Lady Lillian Williams, chose to host this event for their high school seniors because they were not able to have a traditional graduation ceremony due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Unity Church has high school seniors from high schools in Fairfax, Prince William and, Stafford county public schools. Lilian Williams said the entire event was hosted through their youth ministry.

“We contacted each of the seniors’ parents and got the names of their favorite restaurants and things they liked so that the congregation could purchase gifts for them,” she said.

The church was able to lure the students to the church by telling them they were having a photoshoot outside the church so that everyone arrived in their cap and gown.

Each student had their own table set up outside of the church where they could host their family for the event.

Pastor Williams said the church hosted a brief ceremony for the seniors prior to the surprise parade.

“During the senior recognition ceremony, the pastor gave remarks and then corded each senior,” said First Lady Williams.

The cords the seniors received resembled an honor cord from high school, except it had the church’s colors of purple and gold. During the ceremony, each student received a certificate from Unity Church in addition to their cord.

“The address was given by Lt. General Leslie Smith, an army Inspector General,” said Pastor Williams.

Eight seniors from Unity Church were honored during this ceremony. After each senior was awarded their certificate and corded, the ceremony concluded in prayer by Pastor Williams.

Immediately following the event, members of the church drove by and gifted each of the seniors.

First Lady Williams said their reaction was amazed, shocked, and thankful. Each student had a bin at their table and all seniors went home with their bins full.

First Lady Williams expressed her gratitude and credited church member, Sabrina Morris, for taking the lead in organizing the event.

About 75 people came to the event to support the eight seniors.

“The atmosphere was celebratory,” said First Lady Williams, “We played inspirational music. It was a joyful time.”

First Lady Williams said the youth-led the parade of cars around the parking lot.

“We wanted to focus our attention on the future and not what was lost,” said Pastor Williams.

Traditionally, Unity Church takes an entire Sunday to honor the seniors in their congregation, allowing them to march in on ceremonial music in their robes while they are presented with scholarships.

Pastor Williams said the church is holding virtual services due to the coronavirus but they are working on a process to bring their congregation together in smaller groups in the near future.

Pastor Williams and First Lady Williams said the event was a great success.

“One graduate’s mother is in Afghanistan and she was able to video call during the entire ceremony which was special,” said Pastor Williams, “We didn’t want them to feel left out due to the circumstances of COVID.”

Pastor Williams was pleased with the feedback he received from the seniors who attended.

“One of the seniors told me that it was better than a traditional ceremony,” he said, “It was more personalized and the focus was directly on them.”

Schools across Virginia closed their doors in mid-March, at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, by order of Gov. Ralph Northam, to stop the spread of the virus.

It’s race week in Manassas Park, and even during the pandemic, runners from all 50 states have pledged to participate.

This week, one of Manassas Park City Schools’ most successful events — its annual Cougar Literacy Run — is being held remotely in this age of social distancing due to the coronavirus.

From Manassas Park City Schools:

From May 2 – May 10, you get to choose the day, time, and course for your 5K or 1-mile run. No need to record or submit your times, but we do hope you will share your photos with us and participate in our Spirit Week (see below). Our school building might be closed, but it is evident the Cougar Spirit is Strong!

The Literacy Run has been hosted by the BELL Foundation for the last 15 years.

“Last year, BELL hosted our first community expo, inviting the community and local area business,” says Talya Conroy, BELL President, “The event was very successful, so our board decided to partner the two together this year as a result.”

BELL Foundation stands for Business Empowering Lifelong Learners. The organization promotes, aids, and encourages the educational activities and endeavors for Manassas Park City Schools.

“We raise funds for student scholarships, and award teacher grants for innovative or special projects to advocate for Manassas Park City Schools,” says Conroy.

Literacy goals are agreed upon between the teachers and their students.

Every afternoon along Fairview Avenue, past the Manassas Police Department headquarters, and into Downtown, Sandy O’Bannon walks her dog, Indiana while wearing a pink bunny suit.

In the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, O’Bannon said she continued to walk her dog daily. She added the pink bunny suit to bring cheer to passersby.

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The owner of the region’s newest The Goddard School, Rebecca Chen, celebrated the opening of her new school in February with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

While she’s now celebrating, the school opened its doors back in December.

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Don’t toss it. Fix it. That’s the concept for a new “fix-it fair” that could take place this summer in Prince William County.

The idea: have residents bring their slightly damaged or unworking items to the fair, have them repaired, resulting in fewer items being tossed into the county landfill.

Deborah Campbell, with the Prince William County Solid Waste Division, says she’s seen this type of event held in other communities, mostly along the U.S. west coast. In Virginia, Campbell says a similar fair was held recently in Reston. A similar event could be replicated in Prince William County, she adds.

“We thought this was a great thing to do in this area to promote, re-use and repair,” said Campbell. When an item is fixed by one of their fixers, it can be reused by the owner or donated.

Organizers aim to fix broken jewelry, torn clothing, and repair small furniture, small electronics, umbrellas, and eyeglasses at the fair. One caveat, warns Campbell, is not everything can be fixed. “We want to set reasonable expectations,” she told Potomac Local News.

Organizers are still in the early planning stages of this event, and their primary goal right now is finding seven to 12 “fixers” with a wide variety of skills who will perform repairs. Afterward, they’ll identify the types of supplies they’ll need to fix each item at one of about eight workstations that will be set up at the fair.

“In a perfect world, we’ll be able to match a fixer’s expertise with a specific need. For example, a fixer with expertise in fixing clothing would be able to replace a zipper,” said Campbell.

Pope said the accommodations they are considering for this event can hold seven to eight workstations.

No date or venue has been announced for the potential fix-it-fair, although organizers would like to see the event take place this summer. If successful, a fix-it-fair could happen two to three times per year, said Campbell.

Organizers are also seeking sponsors for the event, hoping to net companies that market to the do-it-yourself community. Whether or not the event is free to attend will depend upon whether or not a corporate sponsor is secured.

“We are looking for companies who market to the DIY community,” says Pope, “We would like this event to be free, but that is dependent upon sponsorship.”

The Prince William County Solid Waste Division is working with the nonprofit Keep Prince William Beautiful to organize the event. The division also hosts an annual Recycles Day and paper shredding events.

Spotsylvania Town Center announced the winner of its Small Shop Showdown.

Soapmaker, Lilly Bloom, owned by Margo Frazier and her children Sierra and Dakota Frazier will be the recipients of six months free rent from the shopping mall, starting April 1.

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Spotsylvania Town Center is hosting its first-ever, "Small Shop Showdown."

To encourage creativity and entrepreneurialism, the competition invites new or existing small businesses to submit their ideas for a chance to win a free six-month lease for retail space inside the mall. Applicants can enter the competition through January 20 and the winner will be announced February 3.

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