  Small
Things with Great Love
Sona Virdi came to the metro area with visions of broad public service and fell in love with a neighborhood.
By Monica Cardenas
We’re not sure how Sona Virdi pays her rent, but we do know she cares about
the world and Clarendon’s place in it more than that sort of mundane detail.
Founder and CEO of Radio
Clarendon, an Internet-only community radio station, Sona spends her working
hours gathering station sponsors and her “downtime” raising funds for needy
organizations. Take, for example, recent fundraisers for the
ENDependence Center of Northern
Virginia, a resource and advocacy center for the disabled, and the
Psychiatric Service Dog
Society, which promotes the use of service dogs to assist those disabled by
severe mental illness. Then there’s her continued advocacy on behalf of the
Clarendon Dog Park. And this year she’ll spend the holidays spearheading New
Year for Darfur, a New Year’s Eve fund-raiser that aims to collect $20,000
for the International Medical Corps to treat victims of the conflict in western
Sudan’s Darfur region. Virdi’s big heart and bright smile are fast becoming a
common, and welcome, presence on the local fundraising scene.
|
New Year for Darfur
Fund-raiser for victims of
conflict in western Sudan’s
Darfur region
New Year’s Eve, 2006
Tickets: $125, available at
Mexicali Blues
Contact:
Sona Virdi via email
|
The 34-year-old
grew up alongside her half brother and sister in New York City. While Sona’s
love for her adoptive hometown of Clarendon was acquired, her drive seems to
have been inherited. Her father is a mining engineer and business entrepreneur.
Following high school, Virdi chose to pursue a career in federal domestic
policy. She earned a bachelor’s degree in public policy from Hamilton College,
then a master’s in public administration from the Maxwell School of Syracuse
University. Metro D.C. seemed the natural place to stoke her passion for public
service. Finding an apartment in Arlington, Virdi threw herself into work as a
legislative assistant for defense and women’s issues under U.S. Rep. Jesse
Jackson Jr., son of the civil rights leader and presidential candidate. During
what she calls an amazing time in both the country’s and her personal history,
Virdi was on the Hill during President George W. Bush’s first election through
the 9/11 attacks. It was her work with members of Rep. Jackson’s constituency in
Chicago, however, that moved Virdi to establish closer ties to her own
community. She left Jackson’s office to become executive director of the
Clarendon Alliance, a public-private partnership that serves as a community
advocate and forum. “The alliance was a great opportunity to give back,” says
Virdi. Her two-and-a-half-year stint with the alliance also reinforced Sona’s
belief in the importance of a central clearinghouse for community information. “There is no real single source for finding out what events are happening in one
space,” says Virdi. “If something is going on, or someone is holding a
fundraiser, others don’t always know about it. There was no real information
gathering source.”
 Out of this need, Radio Clarendon was born. Accessible anytime, from anywhere in
the world, the station serves as a forum, community bulletin board and local
music station in one. And as fewer restrictions govern Internet radio versus
broadcast radio, Virdi has opted to stay online. “When people find out Radio Clarendon exists, they get so excited,” says Virdi.
“They’re so happy to hear that there’s not only an outlet for local music, but
that there’s something that is community-based, and not commercial-based.” Through a partnership with Arlington-based FARC Recording Studios, Sona
and her eight volunteers expect to bring more local, unique music to the
Arlington market. While content focuses largely on Clarendon, the station claims
listeners as far away as India, Iraq and Afghanistan. “There are so many options for things to do in Clarendon, but there is so much
happening in this world,” explains Virdi of her dual focus on public service.
“If you can have fun and make a difference, that’s a great combination.”
Other FACES articles:
|
New Page 1
|
