Corazon Sandoval Foley Is Principled, Loyal: Patch Community Leaders

BURKE, VA — Without community leaders, Burke wouldn’t hum along nearly as smoothly as it does. We’d miss their contributions in big and small ways.

Patch has partnered with T-Mobile to recognize these often unsung community leaders and celebrate their contributions.

This submission comes from Joshua Daniel Foley, a Burke reader who nominated Corazon Sandoval Foley.

How do you know this community leader?

My mother

What does this community leader do?

Corazon Sandoval Foley has served since 2007 as the Founding Chairman of the Foley Community Center (aka Burke/West Springfield Senior Center Without Walls) that has provided 1,000+ seniors and families with physical, social, and mental programs in our long-underserved Springfield District hometown.

Why do you believe the community leader should be recognized or honored?

Corazon Sandoval Foley is an outstanding community leader who served for some 30 years as an Intelligence Officer with the US State Department and after retirement in 2007 worked to strengthen our long-underserved Springfield District hometown and Fairfax County as a whole by serving as Founding Chairman of the Foley Community Center Project (aka Burke/West Springfield Senior Center Without Walls). Corazon Sandoval Foley was recognized by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors as the First Filipino American Lady Fairfax in 2009 and by the Library of Virginia as the 2017 Virginia Women in History Awardee and by AARP as the 2020 Andrus Community Awardee for Outstanding Community Service and by the Fairfax County Federation of Citizens' Association as Runner-Up in 2012 for Fairfax County Citizen of the Year. Patch would be doing our community a service by joining the prestigious group of organizations that recognized the outstanding community contributions of Corazon Sandoval Foley: Founding Chairman of the Foley Community Center Project (aka Burke/West Springfield Senior Center Without Walls) that organized the innovative public-private partnership that has provided some 1,000 seniors and families much needed physical fitness, social engagement and intellectual programs in our long-underserved Springfield District. Corazon Sandoval Foley initiated and completed the first-ever history of the Fairfax County Asian Americans, the largest minority group since 1990 in our Fairfax County hometown — as part of the 10 books that she has published on local history to improve the understanding of our community, particularly of the youth, of the GOOD Neighbors in our community. Working with the Virginia Department of Historic Resources while mentoring her grandchildren, Corazon Sandoval Foley succeeded in having installed two historical markers honoring the ACCURATE history of Burke's Station in our Burke hometown and honoring the Filipinos in the US Navy, for which her grandchildren Daniel and Ciara received recognition from former Governor Northam. Corazon Sandoval Foley was born in Manila, Philippines, and graduated with a Master’s Degree in Business Administration (Finance) from George Washington University. She and her late husband, my father, served overseas as US diplomats in Haiti, the Philippines and the former Soviet Union and then transferred in 1980 to civil service to give me and my sister a stable life growing up in our wonderful Fairfax County where both have served to strengthen our community for some 44 years. Corazon Sandoval Foley has been a loving and dedicated wife, mother and grandmother and has worked with the late Vietnam Veteran Michael Daniel Foley (who was also a diplomat and Intelligence Officer for some 30 years) in raising a good family with her children graduating honorably from Hunt Valley ES, Irving MS and West Springfield HS and their son (me) from George Mason University and now following in their footsteps in federal public service. In 2023, Corazon Sandoval Foley is working to ensure the strengthening of our long-underserved Springfield District and correct the wrongdoing of the current Supervisor who reneged TWICE in the County agreement to include our center in the 2020 bond referendum that was negotiated by Corazon Sandoval Foley with the Fairfax County led by then Chairman Sharon Bulova. My mother Corazon Sandoval Foley (widowed on April 12, 2022) took on the public service of running as the First Filipino American and First Asian American Candidate for Springfield Supervisor 2023 — Independent Green Candidate who pledged voluntarily, if elected, to donate the pay raise bulldozed by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors to the Foley Community Center Project (aka Burke/West Springfield Senior Center Without Walls). My mother Corazon Sandoval Foley definitely deserves to be recognized by your newspaper (and all the other local newspapers) as an outstanding community leader in our Fairfax County hometown.

What's one thing you want everyone to know about the community hero?

Corazon Sandoval Foley is a wonderful wife, mother and grandmother who is principled, loyal and smart — and loves her family, her Burke hometown and our country of the United States of America that she has served as a public servant for some 30 years and as a community leader after retirement in 2007, along with my late father Vietnam Veteran and Son of the American Revolution Michael Daniel Foley.

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