Kingstowne's Thanksgiving Week Runs Down Castlewellan Drive, and It All Ends Up at Koinonia's New Home
November 5, 2026
November 5, 2026
Between now and Thanksgiving, Kingstowne has three separate chances to give food. The Scouting for Food drive is this Saturday. Holiday baskets are due the Monday before Thanksgiving. The CAN the Bird 5K loops the lake on Thanksgiving morning. Each one has its own organizer, start time and parking lot. All three end at the same pantry, The Koinonia Foundation, and this season the food arrives at a different building from the one Koinonia worked out of for years.
Following the cans shows how the week fits together. The route starts with two neighboring buildings on Castlewellan Drive and ends at a former church on Franconia Road that took most of 2025 to clear for pantry use.
These are the November dates, in order, as of publication:
Two of those four stops are on the same block of Castlewellan Drive. Faith Church Kingstowne is at 5725 Castlewellan Drive and Jefferson Funeral Chapel is at 5775. The Scouting for Food donations are sorted on that block on November 14, and nine days later runners pick up their race packets there.
Koinonia has asked for volunteers on November 14 and split the day into two shifts. The first runs from 9:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at Faith Church Kingstowne and covers checking, sorting and tear-down. The second runs from 11:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and covers sorting and shelving at the new space on Franconia Road. Sign-up is through a form linked from Koinonia's homepage.
So the drive happens in two places. Donations come into the church on Castlewellan Drive and leave on shelves at 6107 Franconia Road on the same afternoon. The volunteers on the later shift are stocking the building where the November 23 baskets will be handed out nine days later.
The Mount Vernon Springfield Chamber of Commerce runs CAN the Bird. Jefferson Funeral Chapel and Federal Realty present it. The Chamber's description of the course is "a run, walk or stroll around Kingstowne and its scenic lake." When the race began in 2021, Patch's preview said the route went around Kingstowne Towne Center and Kingstowne Lake, starting and ending in the Walmart lot. By the following year, Patch was calling it the second annual, which makes 2026 the sixth.
Price goes up with the calendar. Early-bird registration closed October 17, so anyone signing up now is in the standard window.
| Registration window | Adult 5K | Military 5K | 25 & under | 12 & under |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard, Oct. 18 to Nov. 21 | $35 | $30 | $25 | $10 |
| Last chance, Nov. 22 to 26 | $40 | $35 | $30 | $10 |
Registration stays open until race morning, and you can also register late and pick up your packet on race day. Registration runs through the RunSignup page for the race. Each registrant gets a commemorative race t-shirt.
Several awards go to people who aren't racing for time. Besides the top three overall and age-group finishers, the Chamber gives awards to the fastest man and woman running with a dog and the fastest man and woman pushing a stroller. Last year's results list Doggie Duo and Stroller Run winners alongside the open divisions.
If you'd rather volunteer than run, day-of volunteers arrive by 7:00 a.m. and are done by 10:00 a.m. Jobs include course marshal, water stop, food donation collection and "caboose," the person who walks behind the last participant and collects course signs. Volunteer sign-up is linked from the Chamber's CAN the Bird page.
The Chamber explains the choice of charity on its race page. Koinonia supports adults and children in the Franconia, Kingstowne and Rose Hill areas with food, clothing and emergency financial assistance. Fairfax County recognizes it as a provider of both short-term emergency help and self-sufficiency services.
For years Koinonia ran all of that from 6037 Franconia Road. In May 2025, FFXnow reported that the pantry, the clothing closet and the financial aid counseling all operated out of 1,100 square feet. Executive director Judy Davis described the pressure on that space to the outlet:
"We outgrew that space a long time ago. Now the demand is double, even triple, what it was pre-pandemic."
FFXnow reported that the larger building was a short way down the same road. A nearby Episcopal church had merged with another congregation, and in the November before that report, Koinonia signed a lease for 6107 Franconia Road with Saint Martin de Porres Episcopal Church and began moving in.
Signing a lease turned out to be the easy part. Once work on the building started, Koinonia found that past proffers on the property allowed only a church or a related facility. In late April 2025 it filed an application with Fairfax County to amend those proffers so a "club, service organization, or community center" could also operate at the former Olivet Episcopal Church site. The amendment needed approval from both the Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors.
The county's records show the steps. The case was PCA-2005-LE-027. The Planning Commission recommended approval 11–0 on October 8, 2025. The Board of Supervisors approved the amendment at its October 14, 2025 hearing. The vote came about five months after FFXnow reported the delay.
This fall, Koinonia's own posts refer to 6107 Franconia Road as its "NEW space," with an exclamation point on the holiday basket page. The Scouting for Food donations, the November 23 baskets and the cans from the Walmart lot all go to that address.
Koinonia's requests are more specific than a general call for donations, and following them makes a donation more useful.
The basket plan is built around the calendar. Koinonia hands out one large holiday basket just before Thanksgiving. Then in December it adds holiday items and a grocery gift card to each regular food distribution to help with winter holiday meals.
The holiday giving continues after Thanksgiving at a different address. Koinonia's Christmas Wishes program collects unwrapped gifts that clients then choose for their own families. This year it is planned for December 14 through 16 at the new Franconia Government Center, and Koinonia says it will confirm those dates closer to the event. Gifts can be dropped at Koinonia through December 11 or brought straight to the Government Center on December 14 between 9 a.m. and noon. The Christmas Wishes page links a list of suggested toys and gift cards.
The same building houses the Kingstowne Regional Library on its second floor at 7130 Silver Lake Boulevard. Its history is covered in our earlier piece on the Franconia building that replaced six errands with one.
Fairfax County community centers, teen centers and senior centers close for Thanksgiving from Thursday, November 26 through Sunday, November 29.
At Riggs & Co, we follow the details of Kingstowne the way residents do: which buildings changed hands, which ones are finally open, and what it took to get them there. If you're thinking about your own address, whether that means staying, selling or holding the house as a rental, we can show you how this part of Fairfax County is changing. Request a Strategy Consultation and we'll go through it with you.
Stay up to date on the latest real estate trends.
Riggs & Co. has established an award-winning real estate practice with a vision that pays attention to detail and provides extraordinarily intelligent advice.