Fil-Am runs for Springfield, Virginia supervisor seat
During a recent candidates’ forum, Cora Foley (left), who is running for Springfield District Supervisor, rebuts a point made by School Board Member Elizabeth Schultz, who supports pay raises for district officials. PHOTOS BY JON MELEGRITO
WASHINGTON, D.C. — When Cora Sandoval Foley, 64, retired from her State Department job in 2007, she was looking forward to quietly spending time with her family, writing books and putting a few hours as a volunteer in the Burke/West Springfield, Virginia community where she and her husband, Mike, have lived for more than 30 years.
Running for public office was the last thing on her mind.
But it all changed in May. She announced her candidacy for supervisor of Fairfax County’s Springfield District, where 20 percent of the more than 100,000 residents are Asian American.
“I decided to go for it because the voices of senior taxpayers are being ignored by our elected officials,” says the outspoken activist. “They have been dragging their feet in responding to our proposed solutions to provide a senior center for our residents. Other districts have 17 permanent senior centers. Our district has none.”
Running as an independent with only a thousand dollars of her own money, she has no illusions, however, of replacing the incumbent, Pat Herrity, who has already raised $340,000 to ensure his re-election in November, two months from now.
To Foley, however, it’s not all about winning. “This race is the only way we can
get voters involved so they can put pressure on public officials to act,” she explains. “My campaign is about improving the quality of life especially of our aging residents and their families.”
Citing recent figures from the Department of Health and Human Services, Foley points out that the aging population is growing rapidly. In particular, Asian American and Pacific Islanders over 65 years or older are projected nationally to grow from fewer than one million to 2.5 million by 2020, and 7.6 million by 2050.
Cora Foley (left) engages in a post-candidates forum conversation with members of the League of Women Voters, from right, Leslie Vandivere, Sherry Zachry and Dianne Blais.
“Resources for senior citizens should be just as important as funding for libraries, youth centers and homeless shelters,” she argues. “But to call attention to the inequitable treatment of our seniors, I have become convinced that election debates on a policy issue would be very helpful.”
A personal mission
Foley’s passionate advocacy for senior services began shortly after she retired eight years ago from her job as an intelligence and economic analyst. A grandmother of two children, Foley found herself on weekends driving some of her elderly neighbors and friends, mostly in their 80s, several miles away to the closest senior center.
“Every time I pick them up after mass on Sundays,” she recalls, “they’d say ‘Oh, Cora, why do we have to go all the way over there? Why can’t we have something nearer here?’ That got me thinking.”
Soon after, Foley started inquiring from County officials about a permanent center for seniors. She was told there was neither money nor staff for the program. Undeterred, she came up with an idea: find convenient locations nearby where seniors can go for fitness classes.
Her dogged determination paid off. Churches and private organizations donated facilities, with the county providing liability coverage and administrative support without hiring new staff.
And that’s how the “Burke/West Springfield Senior Center Without Walls” (BWSSCWoW), started as a public-private partnership. “It’s a complex name for a simple idea,” says Amber Sultane,” associate director for the Virginia Chapter of AARP, of which Foley is a member. “It’s a senior center that moves from place to place as needed in the northern Virginia community where she lives. That’s always going to be Cora’s legacy.”
In 2009, the center started with a pilot program of line dancing with 70 seniors. It rapidly expanded, and it has been expanding ever since. This year, it has more than 1,400 registered members, with a waiting list of people who want to sign up.
Pablo and Flor Celebrado (front right) listen to Cora Foley during a candidates’ forum attended by more 60 residents of Springfield, Virginia.
Among the popular activities are tai chi, ballroom and line dancing, yoga, zumba, Hawaiian hula, self-defense lessons, book history, genealogy and field trips. Each class costs $5 for an eight-week session, which covers instructor fees. Volunteer monitors help keep the costs down.
“I’m proud of the many opportunities the center offers,” Foley says. “We provide them with physical fitness, intellectual fitness and social fitness, to give them life.”
She wishes these services had been available years earlier so her mother, who passed away last year at 96, and her father who died in 2004, would have benefited.
High demand
The classes now have become so popular that they’re becoming more and more difficult to get into. Increasing wait lists and last year’s budget surplus finally prompted Foley to approach Springfield district officials. Her goal: establish a permanent activity center for seniors in Burke and West Springfield.
In November last year, Foley and Pacita Aguas, a 90-year-old Filipino American who helped form the center, met with the District Supervisor to request his leadership in moving forward with a permanent facility.
Armed with specific proposals for “creative recreation solutions,” they recommended adding an adult fitness station to a regional library building that’s being renovated. “We were simply asking for dedicated space for senior citizens to hold the classes currently offered by the Center,” said Aguas. “I thought it’s only fair, since we are taxpayers too.”
Although the District Supervisor assured them that “expanding use of existing facilities makes all the sense in the world to me,” Foley says their numerous requests since then for follow-up meetings have been ignored.
Foley then initiated a “Petition to Support Redress of the Unfairness Toward Springfield Senior Taxpayers and Families.” On weekends, she and other volunteers would set up tables in shopping malls and libraries, engage people about the issue and gather signatures. So far, more than a thousand have signed.
Members and volunteers of the Burke/West Springfield Senior Center Without Walls show up in full force at the candidates’ forum to show their support for Cora Foley.
With tireless energy, she uses her writing skills to bombard the media with letters and hands out information flyers anywhere she goes. And now that she is a candidate, she takes advantage of public gatherings to highlight her cause
‘Meet and greet’
In a recent “Meet and Greet Candidates Night” sponsored by the League of Women Voters of the Fairfax Area (LWVFA), Foley was poised and articulate in answering questions posed to her by the more than 60 residents who attended.
In addition to pushing for senior services, she expounded on putting more tax dollars into classrooms, notably in Special Education, cutting back salaries of elected officials, alleviating traffic congestion and creating more bike-friendly roads.
Foley, who belongs to the Green Party, believes that healthy environments and spaces for wellness improve the community’s quality of life.
“I’m glad she’s running,” says Flor Celebrado, 66, of Burke, Virginia., who was in the audience that evening. “I just retired after 25 years and I know senior services are sorely needed. Line dancing and other fitness exercises get me out of the house.” Husband Pablo, 65, couldn’t agree more. He also recently retired from a very stressful job at the Hilton Hotel. “It’s good to have a place to work out and relax,” he says. “That’s why I will campaign hard for Cora.” The couple admits “we are not political, but we definitely want to help her win this race.”
Also in the crowd of citizens eager to hear the candidates was Edwin Henderson, an African American historian and community activist: “What Cora is doing is an inspiring example of civic engagement, especially among minorities. By getting Asian Americans involved in the political process, she’s already a winner in my book. Like she said, campaigning is fun and highly recommended to seniors who are looking for an adventure in making our democracy work better.”
‘A busy volunteer’
Foley, who describes herself as “a fiscal conservative with a commitment to social justice,” believes she’s well qualified to replace the incumbent. She has an MBA in finance and retired from the State Department after 30 years of service with a rank equivalent to a lieutenant colonel.
In 2008 she founded the Fairfax County Asian American History Project (FCAAHP) to document the history, heritage and experiences of the Asian American community that has been the largest minority group in Fairfax County since 1990.
Cora Foley founded the “Center Without Walls” in 2007 to serve senior citizens in her community. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO (photo courtesy of Cora Foley)
She has published three books: The Fairfax County Asian American History Project (2010); VALOR: Asian American Soldiers, Police and Firefighters Protecting Fairfax County and Our Nation (2013); and Second Generation Vietnamese Americans: A Comparative Perspective (2014). She’s currently working on a fourth book in the series, on Asian American diplomats.
“I am a senior who looks back at life with a lot of gratitude for the blessings that I have received,” she says in a recent interview with a local newspaper.
“And I am grateful for having been born in the Philippines and later becoming an American who was honored to represent the US as a diplomat. I look at the future with great optimism because our grandchildren have provided us with so much joy. It’s those next generations that keeps me working as a busy volunteer.”
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