Enhancing Life in Eastern Montgomery County
Opportunity and Empowerment
Since 1982, the vision for the Eastmont Community Foundation has been to provide opportunities for eastern Montgomery County, Virginia, residents.
The Eastmont Community Foundation (founded in 1982 as the Mountain Valley Charitable Foundation) is committed to providing services and opportunities for eastern Montgomery County residents. The foundation is a private, nonprofit organization and currently operates the Meadowbrook Community Center, the Waldron Fitness Center, the Eastmont Thrift Shop and the Old Town Fields athletic complex at Shawsville Middle School. ECF also supports LINC in publishing the quarterly LINC Letter to help keep the community connected. Our outreach programs and activities are aimed at improving health, well-being and education in our community.
The foundation does not receive operational support from any governmental organization. It depends on charitable contributions to make its programs possible. All donations to the Eastmont Community Foundation stay right here — in eastern Montgomery County. Every dollar raised is directly invested back into our community. Whether through volunteerism or donations, your ongoing support is greatly appreciated.
Mission Statement
To support and enhance the quality of life in eastern Montgomery County connecting others in the community.
How We Serve Our Community
Meadowbrook
Community Center
The Meadowbrook Community Center features the Meadowbrook Public Library, the Waldron Fitness Center, the Meadowbrook Museum, and the George Gray Gallery. The facility features community rooms and a courtyard.
➥ Meadowbrook Page
Waldron
Fitness Center
The Waldron Fitness Center focuses on community health. More than 25 classes are offered each week, including yoga, kickboxing and Zumba. Free weights, weight-training machines and cardio equipment are also available.
➥ Waldron Page
Eastmont
Thrift Store
The Eastmont Thrift Store serves eastern Montgomery County residents. The store accepts and sells gently used clothing, household items, clothing, furniture, working appliances and various other items.
➥ Thrift Store Page
Old Town
Fields
Old Town Fields offers a variety of facilities for sports and festivals, including a baseball field, an athletic field, a track, bleachers, tennis courts, a stage, a dance floor, a multipurpose field and ticket building on site.
➥ Old Town Fields Page
LINC Letter
Newsletter
LINC Letter is a community-focused newsletter that is published quarterly. LINC Letter is an indispensable resource for the residents and businesses throughout Montgomery County.
➥ LINC Letter Page
Calendar of
Upcoming Events
Each year, the Eastmont Community Foundation holds a number of events, including Casino Night, the Eastmont Tomato Festival, the Oldtown Nights Concert Series and much more!
➥ Events Page
Dr. George R. Smith Jr.
A native of Caswell County, North Carolina, Dr. George Robert “Bob” Smith Jr., first visited Shawsville in 1954 eager to set up a family medicine practice and put his new Medical College of Virginia degree to work.
Dr. George Robert “Bob” Smith Jr. and his wife, Mildred.
Locals welcomed him and his wife, Mildred, with open arms and in 1955 installed the couple in the old “Meadow Brook” home at the corner of U.S. 460 and Alleghany Spring Road. They lived upstairs above the clinic.
The following year he lured his friend, Dr. Clarence Taylor, to Shawsville. Together, from Meadow Brook and later out of a new clinic that Dr. Smith built across U.S. 460 (the current Carilion Family Medicine – Shawsville), they cared for the community for more than 40 years. In an era of no urgent care facilities, you could go to the back door of the clinic, pick up the phone and it would ring into whichever doctor was on call.
They themselves built their own homes next door to one another just a half-mile from the clinic on U.S. 460 on a road now appropriately called Pair O’Docs Lane.
In the 1960s on his old clinic site, Dr. Smith started construction on what would eventually become the region’s biggest employer: the Meadowbrook Nursing Home. In 1982, Dr. Smith founded the Mountain Valley Charitable Foundation, whose mission was to award scholarships to aspiring nurses to work at the nursing home.
After the nursing home closed in 2001, Mountain Valley Charitable Foundation, with Dr. Smith as its president, oversaw the nursing home’s revitalization into what it is today: The Meadowbrook Center that features a branch of the Montgomery-Floyd Regional Library System, Waldron Fitness Center, Meadowbrook Museum, George Gray Gallery and the space that would eventually be named in his honor: the Dr. George R. Smith Jr. Community Center.
Just down the road in Elliston, he led the foundation — today known as the Eastmont Community Foundation — to transform an old fire station into a community food pantry and thrift shop. Through the decades he also helped start the Shawsville Rescue Squad, was a driving force in the Shawsville Ruritan Club, and served on countless regional and statewide medical boards and nonprofits.
In 2008, the foundation established the Dr. George R. Smith Jr., Legacy Fund to provide an ongoing source of financial support to the foundation and its many endeavors.
Dr. Smith died at the age of 96 on Feb. 18, 2023, but the foundation is honored and humbled to sustain the incredible legacy he established in life.
— Written by Michael Hemphill
Blessing Box Donations Needed
The Eastern Montgomery County Blessing Box, located at the Meadowbrook Community Center, needs donations. Please take the time to stop by and leave a few canned goods, toiletry items or something fun. If the Blessing Box is full, drop items off during operating hours at the Waldron Fitness Center front desk. Items will be taken to the pantry as the need arises. Take items from the Blessing Box if needed; our only request is that we all be respectful and take only what we need. Take what you need and leave what you can.