The Lord and Lady Fairfax Awards Program yearly honors two volunteer leaders from each Magisterial District. The honorees are selected for their outstanding volunteer service in their home districts or for an act of heroism. This year's Lord and Lady are introduced below, and at the bottom of this page is a list of all the honorees from Mount Vernon.

Shirley Short Lady Fairfax 2023 

Shirley Short, or as we call her – our Volunteer Extraordinaire – is an amazing asset to Team MVD and Mount Vernon residents. Shirley is a retired Fairfax County firefighter and played an integral role helping residents during the 2006 Huntington flood. Since then she has worked tirelessly assisting with the many community events, ribbon cuttings, groundbreakings and public meetings we host each year, volunteering thousands of hours.

Shirley is often the first bright, smiling face you see at these events as she runs our information table and greets everyone as they arrive. In 2015, Shirley helped lead the first ever Ides of Bark Dog Festival that continues to be a barking success today, bringing together hundreds of our furry friends and their owners for a day of fun. In addition to leading Ides of Bark again this year, Shirley also single-handedly organized a new addition to our Town Meeting – Taste of Mount Vernon – providing free lunch from local restaurants to the hundreds of attendees at the Town Meeting. Next, she took on the challenge to provide 200 school supply filled backpacks at our first ever Back-to-School event. She is a dynamo!

Shirley also manages an extensive community information station at our office, as well as at the Lorton Community Center. She travels far and wide to gather materials she thinks our residents will want to see and keeps it stocked for everyone, in multiple languages. And, if she wasn’t busy enough with our office, Shirley also volunteers many hours with the Mount Vernon Springfield Chamber and the Mount Vernon Citizens Advisory Committee.

In short, Shirley’s dedication to our community helps us and residents. Her willingness to jump in at all times and her can-do attitude makes a difference for all of us!

Ron Fitzsimmons Lord Fairfax 2023

Ron Fitzsimmons and his sister Laura Fitzsimmons Peters created Alice’s Kids to anonymously help children in need in our community, and across the country. Named in memory of their mother, Ron and Laura understand firsthand how children receiving charity can feel shame and wanted their support to be different. Alice's Kids provides gift cards to teachers and counselors who have identified a child's needs, like soccer cleats, prom tickets or camps. The teacher then gives the gift card to a parent or caregiver who takes the child to buy the needed item, or is able to purchase it and surprise the child.

Alice’s Kids receives the majority of their funding from individual donations and very little comes from grants and corporations. Through recent recognitions and articles, Alice's Kids has received over $1.25 million in donations to continue spreading happiness to children and their families.

Through Alice’s Kids, Ron has helped put smiles on the faces of thousands of children in our community and throughout the country. We have seen firsthand how Ron’s efforts have an impact. This spring we received an urgent plea from a mother trying to pay for her daughter’s summer school classes. We contacted Ron, who worked through his network and within a week the daughter’s tuition payment was made and she was able to stay in school. It is efforts like this and make Ron deserving of this recognition.

Former Mount Vernon District
Lords and Ladies Fairfax