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Venus Baucom drove slowly through an upscale neighborhood in Washington, D.C., looking for homeless people, places to park and gaps in fences so she could reach them. In the back of her green SUV were six sleeping bags designed for cold temperatures.

Outside were six homeless people who would receive the bags—and, she knew, many more who would not.

"If the bags help them, that's good," said Baucom, 48, of Upper Marlboro around 9 a.m. Dec. 29. "But I should be doing more."

Within an hour, she had given out most of the bags, marking the end of the first day of the second annual Covered With Love drive. Baucom started the program last year, but she has been working for the poor since the 1980s.

"She dedicates her life to helping others," said Dolores Paige, an Upper Marlboro resident who volunteers with Baucom at Largo Community Church. "She'll give her last without giving it a second thought."

Baucom said she got the idea for the program two years ago as she was driving through D.C. on her way to work in Herndon, Va. She saw homeless people on the drive every day, she said, and she became more and more disgusted.

"In the nation's capital, you have people sleeping at the foot of the greatest monuments in the world, in the dead of winter," she said.

So she started drumming up contributions for the sleeping bags, which are designed for temperatures as low as 20 degrees. She got contributions from her church, her bible study group, Women of Worship, and from her relatives and co-workers. Dick's Sporting Goods gives her a 20 percent discount when she buys six or more sleeping bags, but she still winds up paying for half of the expenses from her own pocket, she said.

Baucom said she collected 20 sleeping bags by January 2008 and hopes to give out more in 2009.

After a few minutes of driving she found someone—a man in a parka, his nose red with the morning cold, sitting on a bench with his belongings in a couple of boxes beside him.

"Would you like a sleeping bag today, sir?" Baucom said.

"That's very nice of you!" said the man, who did not want to give his name, with a smile. He and Baucom chatted for a while before she walked back to her car.

"God loves you!" she said as she left.

Baucom started volunteering in the late 1980s. Shocked by the AIDS epidemic, and disappointed by the lack of support the disease's victims were receiving, she joined a group called Food and Friends that delivers food to victims of AIDS and other deadly diseases.

Later, in the mid-1990s, she joined another group, Washington-based nonprofit Martha's Table, which provides food and other services to the homeless. In 2005 she joined that group's McKenna's Wagon program, where she drives around the city in a van, bringing food to the homeless.

She said she tries to volunteer at least two days each week. Baucom, a senior business analyst for Fannie May, estimates she spends a full day out of most weeks doing some sort of volunteer work.

Baucom said the inspiration from her work came from her grandmother, Luerinda Baucom, whom she spent time with during her childhood in Washington's Chinatown neighborhood.

Once a month, Luerinda, a missionary, would fill a shopping cart with muffins donated by her church's mission and push it down the neighborhood's streets, distributing it to the homeless with Venus and her brother.

The homeless people appreciated the help and looked out for Luerinda in return, Baucom said. When her grandmother was mugged, homeless men walked her home and tried to find her assailant, she said.

When asked why she does so much volunteer work, Baucom didn't hesitate.

"I'm a Christian," she said. "Being a Christian means doing unto others as you would have others do unto you."

"It's the way I was raised," she added.

E-mail Greg Holzheimer at gholzheimer@gazette.net.