Trudy and Willie Rinehart will celebrate their 63rd wedding anniversary in less than a month; this year they are also celebrating their 36th year volunteering with the Arc of Williamsburg, which they helped to create.
The couple moved to Williamsburg in 1977 with their daughter, who is intellectually disabled. There wasn’t community support available for a young woman in her early 20s with such a disability, the Rineharts found, so they ended up taking her to a program at Eastern State Hospital.
“At that time, there wasn’t so much here for people with disabilities,” Trudy recalls. She started taking her daughter to Eastern State, a program that developed into a new group for people with disabilities. “Not long after we started there the Arc was created, and we have volunteered there ever since.”
The Arc began as The Association of Retarded Citizens (ARC), with Willie and Trudy as co-founders. Over the years, “we have all learned that we are people of many shapes, sizes, colors, and abilities – not labels,” says Arc Executive Director Jennifer Stout. In an effort to take away labels and stereotypes, the acronym was retired and the group became simply “Arc.” The Arc is a national group with hundreds of local chapters across the country that offers support services to people with disabilities.
The Rineharts have been a part of the Arc of Williamsburg since the beginning, and the organization recently honored them for their service by giving Trudy the 2012 Arc Angel Volunteer of the Year award, and by starting a new award: The Rinehart Award for Volunteer of the Year.
“Trudy and Willie Rinehart are parents, volunteers, donors, Board members, founding members of The Arc and true Arc Angels,” says Stout. “They have dedicated much of their lives to our mission, even before The Arc was The Arc.
“Trudy and Willie always live life to its fullest, give back to the utmost, and inspire us all to do the same.”
The Rineharts are donors and always help raise funds for the Arc, according to Stout. The two are regular volunteers at Arc activities and events including the annual Day at Busch Gardens with The Arc and the William & Mary Arc Carnival. They are Ambassadors for the Arc and represent the Board at community events, and Trudy has served on the Board for many years.
The Arc wasn’t always the large and diverse group that people know it as now, with all its current community outreach and programs, the Rineharts recall. As two of the founding members of the group, the couple has had a chance to experience how the organization and community perception have changed for the better over the decades.
“When we started, there were maybe 30 people,” Willie says of the first Arc clients. The couple would cook dinners for the group sometimes, and they helped organize an annual Christmas party.
“Yes, we were just starting then,” Trudy chimes in. “We had only paining classes, and some art. But it got better every few years.”
There wasn’t as much interaction with the community in the groups earliest years, but “now they’re coming around, in the public,” Willie says. “Arc members get more accustomed to and exposure to the community, and the community has been very nice.”
The programs and clients have grown, slowly but steadily, since the early days.
In recent years, the Arc of Williamsburg has blossomed to a program with a hundred-plus clients of all ages who get to experience recreational and exercise activities, trips, guest speakers and a wide range of classes and activities. Clients are active in the community and many community members volunteer to help with various Arc activities.
“It is a tremendous organization,” says Trudy. The volunteers and staff “act like these are their own children, the way they treat them. They are so kind.”
“And they all get along so good together,” Wilie says of the clients. “They’re all friends.”
The Rineharts have become such a part of the Arc family that “they call us ‘Grandma’ and ‘Grandpa,’” Trudy says. “We get to know the families and the clients over the years; they get us gifts sometimes.
“One year, I got a cup with the word ‘grandma’ on it, it was so wonderful.”
The couple has helped with the annual Christmas dinner every year for over 30 years, and they also collect gifts and make gift bags every year for all the clients to receive at the holiday dinner and dance.
Trudy paints the outside of the bags with holiday pictures, while Willie collects items for inside it. This has become quite a task for the couple now that the Arc has grown in size.
They start the process in October. “Some nights, I fall asleep painting, with my head falling right on the bags!” Trudy says, laughing.
Their special-needs daughter is 57 now, and lives in an assisted living facility. She doesn’t attend many Arc events or classes anymore, and Trudy and Willie have had their own health issues in recent years, but they are still Grandma and Grandpa to the Arc.
The couple bought 400 hotdogs for the upcoming 14th annual William & Mary Arc Carnival that will be held on March 16 in the Sunken Gardens, and the Rineharts will be cooking them up and serving them to folks who attend, just like they does every year.
They are happy with how things are going at the Arc, after years of watching it grow and change. “Jennifer [Stout], she is tremendous,” Trudy says. “She does a phenomenal job. Everything is like an open book with her. They’re on top of everything there.”
The Rineharts are “highly respected, admired, and loved,” Stout says. “Not just by clients, but by the entire Arc Family (the staff, Board, other family members, caregivers, and volunteers).
“The sun shines when we see Trudy and Willie!”
Learn more about the Arc of Williamsburg, including ways to volunteer or contribute, by visiting its website.
This Year’s Arc volunteer award winners are:
- Trudy Rinehart – Arc Angel Volunteer of the Year
- Katie Hill – Rinehart Award Volunteer of the Year
- Lizzy Mothershead – Youth Volunteer of the Year
- Rich Circeo – Adapted Wellness Volunteer of the Year
- Marilyn Olimpi – Arc & the Arts Volunteer of the Year
- Nick Vrettos – Self-Advocacy Volunteer of the Year
- W&M Greek Life – Volunteer Group of the Year
- Harold Mason – Heart of The Arc Award
- Andy Switzer – Knock Our Socks Off Award
