Since the program started just 10 weeks ago, on Jan. 1, a million people already have volunteered or have committed to volunteer in their communities, according to Disney Parks and HandsOn Network, the nation's largest volunteer network and a facilitator of "Give a Day, Get a Disney Day."
It doesn't matter what age or what walk of life, everybody loves to be pampered. Gloria Owczarski knows that, which is why she's made it her duty to organize and lead “A Day of Beauty” for young adults from Atlanta area high school special education classes and their teachers, many of whom have never been in a salon.
A former salon manager, Gloria dedicates herself to giving one glorious day of makeovers every year to special needs youth and their teachers. She works all year long recruiting stylists to donate their services and a local salon to donate the space. When Gloria started “A Day of Beauty” seven years ago, 20 from the Special Olympics swim team she coaches got makeovers. This year, “A Day of Beauty” will serve over 300 students and teachers at no cost to the participants.
For Gloria, “A Day of Beauty” is about building confidence and helping the participants feel proud of themselves. Gloria shares, “This event is very close to my heart. My sister has Down's syndrome and she is my inspiration. I have been a Special Olympics swim coach for the past 10 years and I do this event for them.” Gloria knows being pampered makes the students and teachers involved feel like someone cares. For Gloria Owczarski, it's personal.
Gloria’s nominators could not say enough about her or “A Day of Beauty,” as Gloria not only serves the program’s participants, their teachers and parents, but she also gives individuals in the beauty industry and the surrounding community an opportunity to give back. One of Gloria’s nominators shared, “Gloria allows many of these students and teachers to experience a day where they are the stars, leaving with confidence in themselves. Not only are the participants treated to such a beautiful day, the volunteers know they have truly made a difference in the lives of these people - how much better can you get?!”
Gloria Owczarski is a beautiful woman who develops confidence in the special needs young adults in her community and mobilizes industry professionals and community partners to pay it forward by making a day of memories and happy smiles for a very special group of kids.
Betsey Beckmann will literally give you the clothes off of her back. In fact, she has. With a smile, she has given a child a coat of hers to keep warm during the brutal winters in the St. Louis, Missouri area. It is with this same wit and passion that Betsey started and organized Coat-A-Kid, an organization that provides coats to underserved families during the winter.
Betsey started the Coat-A-Kid organization single-handedly when she saw children without coats during winter months at her daughters’ school. She started by handing out coats to kids at her daughters’ school and progressively started adding others. Her efforts eventually lead to the birth of the non-profit Coat-A-Kid in 2001. But what makes Betsy’s organization so unique is her hands-on approach to serving kids in her community. She takes the time to shake each child’s hand and makes certain that the coats each child receives is in top-notch condition and fits perfectly. She also personally inscribes each child’s name into their new coat giving them a feeling of ownership.
Her personal efforts have resulted in phenomenal outcomes. In 2008 alone, Coat-A-Kid provided coats, hats and gloves to 900 children in 5 school districts, 3 Head Start programs and 6 foster homes. This year Betsy plans to increase her success by joining forces with the St. Louis Public Schools. This partnership ensures that the number of children impacted by Coat-A-Kid will increase to nearly 3,000 students.
Through her efforts, Betsey Beckmann has provided warmth to children who live without the luxury of a heated home or warm car. By training others, Betsey’s legacy of generosity will continue to provide for those in need through Coat-A-Kid.
Carly and Molly Houlahan have learned how to overcome challenges and use their tribulations to inspire change around the nation. After experiencing the loss of their grandfather to esophageal cancer at 9 and 11 years old, Carly and Molly started Hives for Lives, a honey business, to fundraise for cancer research.
Through their hands on approach (tending the bees and harvesting, spinning, bottling, labeling, and marketing the 12 ounce jars of honey themselves), Carly and Molly have donated more than $160,000 of their profits to find a cure for cancer. Selling their product at local fairs and through franchised grocery markets, approximately 20,000 people have purchased a jar of honey, which has supported about 8 years of cancer research. Through the funds raised, Carly and Molly have given chunks of $15,000-20,000 to fund eight researchers for a year on a new project for cancer research.
The girls’ dedication to change doesn’t stop there. These young entrepreneurs manage 50 kids under the age of 18 years old who volunteer their time to the business. They also maintain corporate relationships with Whole Foods Markets in 9 of 11 regions in support of the local honey market, work weekends and nights to maintain their business operations (selling at fairs and farmer’s markets, answering emails, working on their website and packing orders) while also offering advice at business conferences, bee keeping gatherings, schools, churches and community events. At these events, Carly and Molly promote the importance of bees to the environment, the joy of community service and the power of youth.
Their unique business has combined community service, entrepreneurism and environmentalism. While providing financial support for a cure to cancer, Carly and Molly also dedicate their time to educating the public on the important roles bees have on the environment. Honey is used to flavor food around the world yet over half of the domestic bee population has been lost to Colony Collapse Disorder. Through Hives of Lives, Carly and Molly make it their mission to inform the public of this phenomenon and to educate others on the impact bees have the world’s ecology and economy.
The extraordinary thing about Hives for Lives is not that the founders are now 17 and 15 years old. It is not that the girls have elected to base their business on something relatively uncommon and often misunderstood – honeybees. It is not that they have achieved scale and sustainability in such a relatively short period of time. Carly and Molly are remarkable young philanthropists and entrepreneurs who have affected change in their immediate world and in the larger world of business. They are shining examples of how one can turn his or her loss into a benefit for others.
Alyssa Hersey is a perfect example that change can start with anyone, anywhere at anytime. A young teen that excels at her school work, Alyssa has used her passion for change to inspire her peers through her organization USE IT! U can Serve Everywhere, Involve your Talent.
Alyssa has been taught the importance of giving back since the young age of 8. As she recalls on her website, “My parents have always demonstrated giving back and have shown me and my siblings that volunteering starts at home and there are no efforts too small.” It is with this same spirit of “starting at home” that Alyssa has formed an organization called USE IT! to encourage youth to utilize their existing talents to impact their community and improve lives through service and volunteering.
After lending her vocal talents for the United Way, American Cancer Society and Habitat for Humanity, Alyssa has decided to motivate others in using their own strengths to provoke change. She has lead others in volunteering with Alpha Omega Miracle Home, raising money for the Ronald McDonald House, and partnering with Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library to provide books to underserved students.
At 14 years old, Alyssa Hersey has used her talents and passion for volunteering to mobilize her friends and encouraged them to use their talents to serve the community. Alyssa’s efforts through USE IT! lead others to join her in bringing about change.
George Saidah reminds us that passion overcomes obstacles. The successful entrepreneur, father of two grown children, and avid sailor has turned a favorite pastime into a program where children with special needs, specifically those with the conditions of autism and Down Syndrome, can learn the power of sailing the open waters. Hearts of Sailing offers sailing trips to special needs children free of cost to their families.
George discovered that children with autism and other special needs have constructive responses to water, team work, and sailing. As a result, Hearts of Sailing has provided a safe and creative haven for those with special needs by allowing them to participate in activities which they wouldn’t normally do. These children get chances to participate in sailing a boat and doing other things thought impossible by others for children with special needs.
Through Hearts of Sailing, George has gathered 48 volunteer captains to donate their boats and time to families with children of special needs. Hearts of Sailing has sailed over 700 families. George does such by devoting all of his time and even traveling (with his sail boat in rout) to locations that do not yet have sailors willing to donate their boats. He has 48 locations in the US with international locations in France, Puerto Rico, Canada and other nations.
At the end of each sail, participating children receive a certificate and medal of accomplishment leaving the experience feeling peaceful, empowered and part of a team. Through George Saidah’s innovation and passion for sailing, Hearts of Sailing has created a unique opportunity to benefit children with special needs.
In 2004, three youth, all under 9 years old, decided that they were going to help the United Nations meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). They founded the non-profit Lil’ MDGs and began working to educate, engage, inspire, and empower other youth to help meet the Goals and rallying together to make the world a better place by 2015.
By leveraging the power of the Internet, digital, and social media, Lil’ MDGs has grown from a group of three friends to a network of over 20,000 children in 40 countries worldwide. Youth volunteers range in age from 4 - 19 and they all play an active role in service activities. To date, the organization has rallied youth from around the world to raise more than $780,000 for tsunami relief and over $10 million for hurricane relief. In addition, Lil’ MDGs has mobilized youth to raise funds and resources to build schools, dorms, libraries, playgrounds, community gardens, and more in several countries.
Lil' MDGs hold awareness, educational, and service events throughout the world to educate and engage children in helping meet the MDGs. Together, they have made a tangible difference in the lives of over 1 million individuals worldwide! What began as a project for a group of friends has become the mission of a generation.
Founded by youth, managed by youth and run by youth, Lil’ MDGs has overcome the stigmata that youth cannot have an impact and is being noticed. The United Nations utilizes Lil’ MDGs as the best practice by youth for engaging youth to meet the MDGs. Lil’ MDGs is an exemplary example for the collective power and potential of youth when they work together for social good.
Linda Prout’s full-fledged devotion of her time, energy and inspiring work ethic directly resulted in thousands of children across the Gulf Coast having something they didn’t before: a great place to play.
In the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the devastation left hundreds of thousands of people without the necessities of life. As support from across the country made its way to the Gulf Coast, one critical aspect was neglected: providing safe places to play for children.
To rectify the dire situation, in 2005 Linda partnered with the national non-profit KaBOOM! on Operation Playground, an initiative to build 100 playgrounds in areas affected by the hurricanes.
Linda has volunteered on 28 playground builds throughout the Gulf Coast providing laughter and fun for more than 14,000 children every year. The playground builds she has worked at will eventually serve more than 200,000 kids throughout the lifetime of the playgrounds. Linda has served as an unbelievable champion for providing children with a great place to play. Since 2005, Linda has spent more than 200 hours building playgrounds for children.
In 2008, Linda took her volunteerism to an entirely different level. After having volunteered at so many playground builds, Linda and her husband, decided to fundraise and build a playground. For months, Linda and Lee tirelessly recruited individuals to donate toward their effort to raise more than $50,000 for the cost of a new playground.
Ultimately, Linda chose to build a playground at Geraldine Boudreaux Elementary School in Terrytown, Louisiana - one of the hardest hit areas of Hurricane Katrina. More than 600 children attended Boudreaux Elementary, yet they had no full-scale playground.
The project kicked off with a Design Day on April 23, 2009 when children from Boudreaux spent time drawing their dream playgrounds. With Linda’s help, those drawings were incorporated into the final design of the new playground. Eight weeks of detailed planning followed with Linda providing inspiration throughout the process. The hard work came to fruition on June 13, when hundreds of volunteers from the community joined with Linda to build the playground at Boudreaux Elementary. Linda was single handedly responsible for immediately providing 600 children with a great place to play. Eventually, the playground will serve nearly 10,000 children.
Linda continues to help build playgrounds. Her service demonstrates that passion overcomes obstacles, which inspires and motivates legions of volunteers throughout the Gulf Coast.
Dayna Hilton is an amazing fire safety advocate.
Hilton, a certified Fire and Life Safety Educator II and Firefighter II, volunteers with Johnson County RFD #1 in Clarksville, Arkansas, on the Arkansas Fire Prevention Commission, is a deputy fire marshal for the State of Arkansas and serves on several national fire service committees. She volunteers as the state educator contact for the National Fire Protection Association for the state of Arkansas and is a member of the Home Safety Council's Expert.
Arkansas is ranked seventh in fire related deaths and injuries. Nationally, the very young have a much greater risk of fire-related deaths than other children. Troubled by these statistics, Dayna set out to help “make a difference” in the state of Arkansas and in the nation. Dayna has worked as a volunteer firefighter since August 2000 and has donated over 3,000 hours each year to help keep children and their caregivers fire safe.
She also established numerous fire safety programs to educate her community and nation. Dayna hosts several fire safety websites, blogs and radio programs geared toward the education of firefighters, children and their caregivers. She serves on committees on the local and national levels, conducts countless fire safety presentations as well as helping share her programming efforts with other fire departments.
Firefighter Dayna is also the author of a children’s fire safety book entitled Sparkles the Fire Safety Dog. To date, the book has been been credited with saving the lives of two adults and seven children. A portion of the book’s proceeds support the Keep Kids Fire Safe Foundation. Dayna’s four-legged companion, Sparkles the Fire Safety Dog, travels with her, taking their fire safety messages all across the United States. Together, the duo has reached millions of children and their caregivers.
Dayna’s efforts have brought about greater awareness of fire safety around the nation. Through innovative fire safety programming, Dayna and her canine companion, Sparkles the Fire Safety Dog, have reached millions of children and their caregivers.
HandsOn Network has more than 250 action centers - find the one nearest you.
Gloria Owczarski
It doesn't matter what age or what walk of life, everybody loves to be pampered. Gloria Owczarski knows that, which is why she's made it her duty to organize and lead “A Day of Beauty” for young adults from Atlanta area high school special education classes and their teachers, many of whom have never been in a salon.
A former salon manager, Gloria...
