by Heather Lustig-Curran

In 2015, DoAnne “Annie” Dodd and her husband Douglas founded All Blessings Flow (ABF), a nonprofit that provides free medical equipment to people in Charlottesville, Albemarle, and surrounding counties. And now every Thursday, from 10 a.m. until noon, a trailer filled with donated medical supplies arrives in Louisa and sets up in The Point Church’s parking lot so volunteers can distribute needed and requested materials.

“In 2022, we piloted a few sites, and then in 2023, we completely launched our mobile site,” Community Engagement Director Christine Alley said. “We go to five different counties each day of the week, and Thursday is our Louisa day. Since 2023, we’ve been full-force serving Louisa County.”

Background and history

For ten years, Dodd – an occupational therapist – drew on her experience as she cared for both of her parents. In 2015, after her mother passed away, Dodd was surrounded by used medical equipment that was in perfect condition. Not wanting to send the material to a landfill, Dodd contacted local social workers.

“We were trying to find homes for all of her equipment,” she recalled. “And that kind of got the ball rolling. When we started in 2015, we had a 20-foot utility building, and after our first donation drive, we only had 13 items.” 

Over the years, donations and requests for assistance kept coming in. So in 2018, ABF moved into a 10,000-square-foot warehouse behind the UVA Primary Care Riverside Clinic in Charlottesville. The facility is open Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays to receive or distribute donations.

“It’s kind of like a one-stop shop,” Dodd said. “People will need everything from pull-ups to a hospital bed. They’ll come in, and we can give them all of that and help them bring home to their loved one. And it just means so much to them.”

So long as used equipment is in good repair, nothing is turned away. When donations are brought to the facility, they undergo a rigorous inspection and sanitization process. From there, trained volunteers make repairs as necessary. Yet even equipment that can not be redistributed still serves a function. Per the ABF website, since 2015, more than“1.5 million pounds of material [has been] reused and repurposed.”

“It’s not just that we’re keeping it out of the landfills,” Dodd said. “We’re recycling. And the number keeps growing each year.”

Once repairs are made, the equipment moves into a holding area. Long rows of wheelchairs, rollators, walkers, crutches, and braces wait for the next person with mobility concerns. Hospital beds, shower chairs, and lifters await patients or people caring for loved ones. Then there are shelves of donated (and unused) incontinence pads, gauze bandages, or disposable medical supplies that will provide quality of life and independence to future recipients.

“People will get out of the hospital with a handful of wound care supplies, and some of that stuff is like 12 dollars for one bandage,” Dodd said. “All of this is brand new and still sealed, so people will give us their wound care supplies.  And the wound care supplies can help keep people from having to go to the hospital again.”

Children are also beneficiaries of All Blessings Flow. In a separate section of the facility, child-sized wheelchairs, specialty strollers, and soft-helmets are ready to be sent to families in need.

“[Families] are able to afford food or rent,”  Dodd said. “We’re helping people save money because they don’t have to go out and purchase these items on their own.”

Statistics on the website echo Dodd’s comment. Since the non-profit’s founding 11 years ago, “47,000 families have been served” with a total savings of $12.8 million.

Once items are received, the compassion does not end. On the organization’s website are videos that instruct recipients on how to use the donated equipment, whether it’s assembling hospital beds or learning how to walk with a cane. Finally, ABF hopes to have volunteers who will call recipients to ensure people’s needs are being met.

Impact on the local community

In the warehouse are five bays where equipment for specific counties are stored. To see what is available, people can view a 30-page catalogue of adult medical supplies on the ABF website and then call the organization with their requests.  

“We have had people from Greene and people that come all the way from Richmond,” Alley said. “No questions are asked on where you live.” 

If the equipment is available, volunteers deliver the requested equipment to a specific site on specified days (the list is on the homepage). Otherwise, the recipient’s information is placed on a waitlist, and their needs will be met as soon as possible.  

“We give out over a hundred wheelchairs a month,” Dodd said.  

Initially, ABF worked with St. James Episcopal Church on the corner of Ellisville Avenue in Louisa. But as the demand grew, the organization needed to shift their base of operations.

“We reached out to The Point and asked if they’d be willing to host us,” Alley said. “They are a lot more visible for people to see. We do have a couple of volunteers that come here that aren’t associated with The Point. And we’d love to see other churches get involved and build the volunteer base so that we can then potentially go to a satellite site.”

Satellite sites, unlike mobile sites, are permanent and housed directly in the county they serve.  Like the ABF satellite site in Fluvanna County, a facility is created where equipment donations can be received, processed, cleaned, housed, and distributed as needed. The Charlottesville site would remain as a hub, sending out tools and materials or providing training as needed.

“We’d love to see that happen in Louisa,” Alley said. “I’ve been working to find someone that would have a building to donate. We would purchase the building if we had a piece of property to set it on and have that same model here in Louisa.”  

Louisa County is ABF’s greatest recipient of supplies. In 2024, more than 800 people received free materials. At this point in 2025, Alley estimates that ABF has served more than 850 individuals in Louisa alone. 

“Wheelchairs are big,” Alley said. “Rollators and canes are big, and the occasional hospital bed.  But the majority of donations are your disposable items that you need on a daily basis: gloves, Depends, wipes, bathing cloths.”

With the Louisa mobile site located in a centralized location, caregivers easily access requested resources. In quick succession, caregivers arrive at The Point, fill out the required waivers, and receive donated materials. Volunteers even help load material into their vehicles.

 “It is so helpful for my patients that I can come weekly and pick up supplies,” Louisa County caregiver Sylvia Waller said. “It’s saving them a lot of money that they can use for other things.”

Local small business owner Jessica Ruleman, who operates Touching Hearts at Home, volunteers at the Louisa ABF mobile site. Through her work with senior citizens, she recognizes the need the non-profit fills.

“I really try to promote All Blessings Flow as much as I can, because I know there’s such a great need,” Ruleman said. “When I hear that people need medical equipment, I tell them to come out to All Blessing Flow.”

Former recipients of ABF’s philanthropy have become volunteers, continuing the outreach and paying the gifts forward. Valerie Roberts, a Louisa County volunteer, used to commute to the Charlottesville location to pick up needed supplies for her ailing husband. After he passed away in 2024, she contacted the organization and became a volunteer.

“The organization helps the community a lot,” Roberts said. “And when I found out that they come to Louisa, that made it even better. It’s just a blessing to me, and I just enjoy it.”

Help from the community

As with any non-profit, challenges abound for ABF. With a recent shift in landlords, lease agreements, and the warehouse expansion, the group is faced with an additional $100,000 in expenses this year. To offset these costs, the organization will host a pickleball tournament this Spring.

“It’s going to be April 11, and we have it out at Greencroft Club in Crozet,” Alley said. “Last year was our first one, and it’s called Blessings in Motion.”  

In the Fall, a match campaign will be held in which people or organizations can match donations up to a specific amount.  Last year, a second campaign was held in December because a donor pledged to help with the hope that other organizations would follow.

“Last year we reached our goal,” Alley said. “We were fortunate enough where we had enough donors that we were able to do a $100,000 match.”  

Other than medical equipment or space, the organization’s biggest need is for volunteers.  Volunteers accept, clean, repair, deliver donations, or drive to donors’ homes to pick up donated equipment. Even the Louisa caregivers who receive donated supplies help.

“Sometimes we come early and we’ll help them set up,” Louisa County caregiver Karen Viney said. “Because we’ve been coming for so long, we will get the clipboards and paperwork set up. I have even helped out a couple of people fill out their paperwork”

Compassion knows no bounds and has no statute of limitations. Caring for others can feel daunting, but ABF strives to ease and provide assistance to those in need, either as the patient or the caregiver. And, weekly, volunteers drive beyond geographic boundaries to deliver compassion and help.  

“This has been the best job in my whole life,” Dodd said. “As we’re talking to our clients and seeing their needs, they’re telling us their worst days, and the stories are so hard. But just knowing that we’re helping them just brings us so much joy every day.”