By Kathleen McSweeney

If you have attended any event in Lyon Park, you’ve seen Paul and Sharon Showalter. They are involved with nearly every event that delights our neighborhood’s children. In 2020 when the pandemic prevented our annual holiday party and visit from Santa, Paul and Sharon brought Santa to the kids in a sleigh fashioned from their truck. After wending their way through Lyon Park and Ashton Heights, they traversed the neighborhoods along Columbia Pike to spread holiday cheer. It is a newer tradition that will be repeated again this year on December 10th.

Their story began in 1982, when Sharon was a freshman at Dartmouth and met Paul, who was living nearby. They were friends, but after Sharon graduated, she moved away, and they lost touch. In 1995, Sharon moved to Arlington, was recruited to join the Jaycees, and encountered Paul again who had started volunteering with the Jaycees the previous year. Through the Jaycees—a national organization that has been active for more than 100 years and provides young professionals with leadership training through community service—Paul and Sharon learned more about Arlington, made friends at the local, State, and National levels, and found that they had a common purpose in community volunteering. They married in 2000 and Sharon moved into another of Paul’s projects—updating the Lyon Park “fixer-upper” he purchased in 1993. 

Paul chuckled when he noted that he and Sharon have definitely “aged out” of the target demographic for the Jaycees, but they have continued to be involved with the organization. Their support of the families and staff at Carlin Springs Elementary, which began when they reconnected via the Jaycees in 1995, continues to this day. Paul coordinates service opportunities for older Arlington teens and Sharon continues her volunteer work with AHC’s College Readiness program to assist students who live in affordable housing. 

When I asked why they spend so much time volunteering, Paul replied that they share the same belief, that you must “do what you can with the time that you’ve got to make a difference in someone’s life.” Our community has been enriched by their example.