Reaching Out Now Celebrates Growth, Remembrance, and a $15,000 Investment in Warren County’s Youth

Inside the Student Union, the atmosphere felt less like a formal luncheon and more like a family gathering — educators, law enforcement officers, nonprofit leaders, business owners, volunteers, and students filling the room that has become a cornerstone for youth support in Warren County.

Samantha Barber welcomes guests to the Student Union during a Reaching Out Now community gathering, reflecting on the organization’s journey and vision for supporting Warren County’s youth.

For Samantha Barber, founder of Reaching Out Now, the moment carried deep personal weight.

“This is absolutely a dream come true,” she said as she welcomed the crowd.

Earlier that day, while walking through the building with former Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, Barber had been asked a simple but powerful question: What would her grandmother say if she were there?

That memory transported her back to childhood.

“I remember when my grandmother was, before she retired, she was a maid at a hotel in Antigua,” Barber said. “I used to spend my summers going to the hotel with her… and she was like, ‘You know, I want you to be raised to have a heart to serve.’ Had no idea what she meant then and what she was instilling inside of me.”

Over time, that lesson took root.

“That just grew into a passion of loving,” she said. “And then you begin to find your passion. And like, ‘Oh, okay, all of this makes sense now.’”

From Brokenness to Fire

The journey, Barber acknowledged, has not been without heartbreak.

In 2022, the organization lost a young person connected to its work — a tragedy that reshaped its mission and deepened its commitment to mental health and youth empowerment.

“I didn’t know how dark a place that someone could get when they lose a part of themselves,” Barber said. “And I asked God, why did you let me love this kid so much that it caused me to feel so broken?”

She paused.

“That brokenness turned into a crazy fire.”

That fire now fuels expanded programming — leadership conferences, scholarships, culinary arts training, student mentoring, and partnerships with schools and community organizations across the region.

But Barber was quick to redirect attention away from herself.

“Reaching Out Now is about collaboration. We don’t do this alone,” she said.

“This organization is nothing, is nothing without the people who stand with us to do the work that we do.”

Throughout her remarks, she called out volunteers by name — people who painted walls, donated kitchen equipment, mentored students, funded scholarships, and prayed over the organization from the beginning.

The message was clear: this building stands because a community chose to stand together.

“These Children Are Seen Again”

That sense of shared purpose deepened when Shelly Lynn Cook stepped forward.

Shelly Cook shares her personal story during the Reaching Out Now gathering at the Student Union, reflecting on how the former Youth Center once provided a place where she felt seen and supported as a young student.

A local entrepreneur, Cook, once relied on the very same building, then known as the Youth Center.

“This room that you’re all standing in was the room where I came when I needed help learning,” she said.

As a teenager, Cook navigated life while her mother battled cancer and her father worked grueling hours commuting between Dulles and Charlottesville.

“There weren’t extra clothes, and there weren’t extra for tutors, and there wasn’t time to sit with me and do schoolwork,” she said.

But there was the youth center — a place she could enter for a dollar.

“For those few hours that I paid a dollar to come in… the mother that would sit in the front would always say, ‘I know you don’t have it, so I paid it for you.’”

Emotion filled the room.

“This, to me, is about being seen,” Cook said. “These children are seen again.”

“I would do anything in my power to help this survive because, truly, it helped me survive.”

Her story transformed the afternoon from celebration to affirmation — proof that spaces like this change lives in ways that may not be visible for decades.

“Now Is the Time to Help”

When former Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears took the microphone, her tone was both reflective and direct.

Former Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears addresses attendees at the Reaching Out Now gathering at the Student Union in Front Royal, encouraging community partnership and investment in the next generation.

“Reaching Out Now,” she began. “How appropriate.”

“You’re not waiting to reach out for the future, no. Now is the time to help. Now is the time to put the resources together.”

She praised the roomful of volunteers and donors.

“You’ve said, ‘I will come alongside our youth. I will serve, and I will support.’”

Drawing from a moment that once challenged her personally, she posed a question that lingered over the audience.

“Will it be said of you that the world is better off for you having lived?”

Looking around the Student Union, she offered her own answer.

“I already know that it will be said of you that the world is better off for you having lived.”

She then turned her attention to the pressures facing today’s youth in an era of constant information and digital influence.

“Our children are the future,” she said.

She pointed to the scale of technological change.

“You are carrying in your hand a technology that has more technology than it took man to the moon.”

With information moving at lightning speed and authenticity often blurred, she added, “Just think about the kids, and they don’t know what to believe.”

In that environment, she suggested, steady mentors and safe spaces matter more than ever.

A $15,000 Investment in the Future

The afternoon’s announcement underscored that commitment.

“So today, alongside our board of directors, we are pleased and super excited to share… that the Honorable Winsome Earl Sears has donated $15,000 to Reaching Out Now,” Barber said.

“This funding will go directly into the structural organizational growth of the organization.”

The gift will support hiring the nonprofit’s first dedicated employee focused specifically on Reaching Out Now’s operations and long-term sustainability.

“We are so grateful,” Barber said. “We are so grateful that you have come alongside us in not just believing in us, but in standing here, and for investing in the youth of Warren County.”

Looking Ahead

As the afternoon drew to a close, the message was unmistakable: this work is not symbolic — it is structural, intentional, and growing.

Since its founding, Reaching Out Now has expanded from a mentorship vision into a multi-pillar youth support organization focused on leadership development, mental health advocacy, service engagement, and educational opportunity for Warren County students. What began as a conversation and a calling has evolved into sustained programming and measurable impact. The Student Union now serves as a hub for culinary classes, leadership conferences, mentoring, and a safe gathering space — a place where students are not only welcomed, but equipped.

In a world moving faster than ever — where, as Earle-Sears reminded the audience, young people carry in their hands more technology than once sent a man to the moon — this building stands as something steadier.

A place where they are known.
A place where they are supported.
A place where they are seen.

And as those gathered proved through their presence — and their investment — the future of Warren County’s youth is not being left to chance.

It is being built right now.

Video provided by Toy Box Studios.