Lunenburg County Democratic Committee Member Virginia Hendrick spent 2017 giving more than 200 residents across the Heart of Virginia — including residents from Lunenburg County who may be elderly or shut in — the resources to register to vote during the summer primaries and the November gubernatorial election.

Her work has been recorded in a book made by her daughter that was presented to Committee President Edward Pennington.

Hendrick said she had traveled as far out as Mecklenburg, to residents and assisted living facilities, for the project.

She said she was inspired to pursue the project because she had known people who would not have the resources to register or vote absentee without someone to help.

“Some individuals have not voted or have not registered because no one took the time to assist them,” Hendrick said.

“It lets people know their votes count,” she said.

She said the process took time and often more than one visit was needed to make sure the voting registration and absentee ballots were in order.

“It’s a process,” Hendrick said. “You don’t register them and forget it. You have to walk them through and check in on them every time that you send in the paperwork.”

With the assistance of her daughter, Armenta Yshral, Hendrick visited people she had helped register to vote, and Armenta, a photographer, took their photos.

Armenta, Hendrick said, compiled the photos and stories of the people registered to vote and put it into a book.

“People do not care how much you know until they know how much you care,” Hendrick said about the book and project. “I said, ‘Let me see if my daughter would come and take pictures of those voters.”

Hendrick said the voters in the book made up only about half of the people she had worked with, noting some were either absent or in the hospital.

Hendrick said she remembers working with a woman who believed she was not able to vote. After working with Hendrick, the woman was able to obtain her voter registration and absentee ballot on the same day, Hendrick said.

“All she wanted to see was her voter registration card,” Hendrick said. “Things like that make me want to be there for them.”

“The people really need someone out assisting them with voting and also voting absentee,” Hendrick said.

Pennington said he was astonished by Hendrick’s work, but in the best way possible.

“That was mighty nice of her,” Pennington said in Hendrick’s decision to present him with the book.

Pennington noted that residents who may be shut in can potentially vote.

“It’s very important,” Pennington said. “A lot of people are forgotten out there, especially if they are in homes … and a lot of times, when people make an effort to come to them, as she did, and get them to register, even though they’re shut in, but they still have the opportunity to vote.”

Pennington said the committee gave Hendrick an award during its September banquet, honoring her for her dedication and hard work.

“She’s a go-getter, and I tell you, she cares about people, and that means a lot,” Pennington said.