The Dedicated Young Leader Bringing Kindness to Crisis

Meet Daily Point of Light Award honoree Brody Landes. Read his story, and nominate an outstanding volunteer or family as a Daily Point of Light.

Brody Landes has seen firsthand how deep empathy and focused action can transform lives and communities. As the leader of the Take Care Initiative, a youth-led project powered by SaLT (Service and Learning Together), Brody has channeled his passion into a powerful force for comfort and support. The initiative is designed to reach those facing the toughest times—whether from natural disasters, economic hardship or local tragedies—with intentional acts of kindness. Brody’s role involves everything from collecting essential donations to organizing the assembly and distribution of care packages and support items, a commitment that sees him devoting around 30 hours a month to service.

Under Brody’s guidance, the Take Care Initiative has sent over 2,000 care packages to Los Angeles firefighters, a gesture of gratitude and support for those on the front lines. Beyond first responders, Brody has also focused on those facing personal battles, delivering hundreds of birthday cards to children through Make-A-Wish, bringing a moment of joy into difficult health journeys. And, after devastating floods, he mobilized the initiative to send more than 400 cards and support bracelets to girls and families at Camp Mystic in the Texas Hill Country, offering encouragement and a reminder that they were not forgotten.

Brody’s hands-on leadership style ensures that these initiatives are more than just distribution services—they’re community-building efforts. He not only encourages volunteers to get involved but also actively leads during events, organizing, coordinating and making sure everyone feels included and has a meaningful role. This approach has created a sense of collective purpose toward providing tangible relief, hope and human connection. This young leader is not simply overseeing a project; he is actively weaving a stronger, kinder safety net for his community, and showing others how they, too, can step up and make a difference.

Tell us about your volunteer role.

I work with SaLT, which stands for Service and Learning Together. We’re a local community-based organization, right here in Highland Park, which is where I go to school. At Highland Park High School, we have about 20 interns, and there is also a student board; I’m on that board.

With SaLT, we have different branches. There’s Shop and Drop, which helps local families fight food insecurity. We have Love to Learn, which is a local tutoring program at the library nearby. And then we have Take Care Packages, which helps communities in crisis. We started with migrants coming through the area and then shifted when we saw other communities in crisis. For example, when the L.A. wildfires were going on, we made care packages for the firefighters in L.A. During the New Orleans shooting, we sent care packages to students and teachers in the New Orleans area. And with the floods at Camp Mystic this past summer, we sent care packages and notes to the girl campers.

My role is a lot of getting other younger students involved. I’m a senior at my high school. We have students from nearby schools, like Lake Forest, which is a neighboring town, as well as Highland Park High School students, who come in and volunteer with us. I’m a very social person, so I’m really able to get everyone connected when we’re doing our service work. We meet twice a month for Shop and Drop, and I feel like I’m a very big advocate of making the culture of SaLT a big impact. I try to connect people who maybe don’t know each other—they’re from different high schools—and I find that that makes the service a lot more fun and more meaningful.

It’s just a really great community that I’m able to help cultivate at SaLT because of that social aspect. I’m also a hard worker, and I really understand what the goal is and why service work is so important. Especially with what we do, so many families locally are facing food insecurity or so many communities are in need of help. We’re sending these care packages, and I really feel like I have a deep understanding of what’s needed and why. Little by little, what we do is so helpful to these communities.

Which part of the program are you most passionate about?

Definitely Take Care Packages. I was one of the founders of that initiative. As a Highland Park student in 2021, we had a Fourth of July shooting during a parade, and we were given so much support during that time. It really helped me see and feel what these other communities are going through. Even if it’s not directly the same thing, just knowing there are other towns and other people out there supporting you is what makes me want to keep going with all the service that I give to my community, and to other communities around me. I think that’s why Take Care is such a big part of my life and why I love doing it so much.

What inspired you to get started with this initiative?

My science teacher from eighth grade is one of the sponsors of SaLT, as well as my uncle. That’s what really got me into it, but I don’t think I would have come back if I didn’t enjoy it. I remember in eighth grade, I wasn’t as into volunteering, but as high school came, and especially after the tragedy we had locally on the Fourth of July in 2021, I saw how much my community had done, and what other communities gave to us. I saw how that impacted me and how I wanted to impact others.

The people I referenced earlier are kind of what got me started, and then I keep coming back just because all the people around me make it what it is. It’s such a great community, and I love being able to foster that for upcoming young students younger than me. I feel like I’m able to shift it—make it more like a happy, welcoming place—and that’s what I want to do for the SaLT community now.

Tell us about future partnerships, programs or events that you are excited about.

Well, as one of our sponsors for Shop and Drop calls it, we just had our “Super Bowl” this past weekend, which is Day of Giving. We supported 200 local families. That was really what we work toward every year, and it just ended on Saturday. Upcoming, there’s a lot of community work, and we reach out whenever we see those communities in crisis.

What’s been the most rewarding part of your work?

I think it’s the experiences I have and the people I’ve met. With the experiences, I’ve become so much more of a social person because of it; I’ve come out of my shell. I was a little shyer before I got into all my service work. And now, I just have so many stories to tell. I’ve been to places that I wouldn’t have imagined and done things I wouldn’t have imagined. For example, with SaLT, I did a service learning trip to Orlando in February of 2025. We went to Give Kids The World, and I got to work with kids facing illnesses at their facility. It was just an experience I could have never imagined.

The feeling in my heart—that’s what I keep coming back for. That way, I was able to make connections with the students I went on the trip with, but also people from all across the world who just wanted to find happiness at Give Kids The World. I felt like I was able to give that to them, and that was such a great feeling for me.

What have you learned through your experiences volunteering?

SaLT has nine guiding principles that we work by, and I think a lot of those principles are how I approach my service work now. A few examples are “Little by Little,” which means every little thing that you do really makes a difference. No matter what, if you do something little by little, you’re going to be able to get to the goal you’re working towards. I see that with our service work; when we’re filling bags full of food, for instance, little by little, donations and all these small things build up to something way bigger that we’re able to do for our community.

We also have “Respect First, Then Serve.” We always want to make sure we understand what we’re doing before we actually serve. On my SaLT trip, especially, we journaled to make sure we were getting the best experience out of our service work. We didn’t want to just do it because we were there; we wanted to understand what the families were going through, what these kids were going through and make sure we were able to give the best service possible to these groups.

Why is it important for others, especially youth, to get involved with causes they care about?

I think it’s so important for youth to get involved because it fosters such a different mindset than you normally experience in high school or other things. In high school, you’re working so much for yourself—you want to get your best grades, you want to be the most popular. But when I go to my service work, I’m working with a bunch of other students toward a common goal. We’re fostering this amazing community together. Just working toward this common goal is something that you don’t really see in other aspects of your life, especially as a high school student where you’re all trying to be the smartest or trying to get into the best colleges. It’s a completely different way of looking at things.

Any advice for people who want to start volunteering?

Just reach out. If you know anyone that’s involved, really talk to them and they’ll give you a lot of insight. I think everyone who volunteers has a great time doing it, especially around me with SaLT, but I know other people, too, around the country who have the same experiences. It’s just such an amazing group of people. You really don’t find a community that gives as much as volunteer people do. They’re always trying to help and look out for more. And I think it’s just so great to see, especially with youth volunteers, how much time and effort they’re willing to give. It’s truly a step away from the normal life you live.

What do you want people to learn from your story?

Service has kind of been what’s gotten me through high school. I’ve made probably half of my friends through service, which going into high school I would have never expected. It’s become my biggest extracurricular. I was such a big athlete before high school. And I loved sports, but it didn’t feel like that was what I wanted to continue doing. Once I got into SaLT, I realized how much of it really is a part of me now, and it’s become truly what I feel makes me the best version of myself. That’s why I keep coming back, because I see all these friends I’ve made, and I see all these experiences I’ve had, and those things have made me who I am now.

Do you want to make a difference in your community like Brody? Find local volunteer opportunities.