FINDING COMMUNITY THROUGH SERVING OTHERS

Meet Daily Point of Light Award honoree Frankie Peterson. Read her story, and nominate an outstanding volunteer or family as a Daily Point of Light.

Frankie Peterson found her community through service. But she may have also found her future career path. Like many other young people, Frankie found herself facing the COVID-19 pandemic during some of her most important formative years. While she is now 17 and a high school student, she previously faced the challenges of anxiety while reintegrating into the school environment after the pandemic shut things down. She found an answer in service work with SaLT, an organization that creates meaningful service-learning experiences that meet the needs of the local community while promoting personal growth and understanding.

Frankie became involved with SaLT’s Love2Learn program, a tutoring service at the local library for children from families who are a part of the organization’s Shop N’ Drop Program, which serves local families challenged by food insecurity. Frankie reads with the children and actively engages with them while serving as a caring mentor they can trust. She provides structured practice and informative feedback, working to adapt to the needs of each child and build a sense of self-confidence within them so they can go forth and find a passion for learning as they continue their academic journey.

In addition to her one-on-one tutoring work, Frankie demonstrates a keen sense of organization that she utilizes to ensure the Love2Learn program’s success. It’s often her responsibility to organize other volunteers, maintain attendance records and organize volunteer materials. On the whole, she commits around 30 hours per month to her volunteer work, which is no simple task considering her heavy workload as a high school student preparing to attend college.

As Frankie gets close to her graduation from high school, the experience she’s had volunteering has greatly informed her future. Through witnessing those struggling with food insecurity, Frankie is inspired to pursue a career in researching the role hunger plays in the risk of developing cancer. Not only has her volunteering experience built a new community around her, but it’s also formed a potential career path for the rest of her life.

What inspired you to get started with this initiative?

SaLT is a program that stands for “service and learning together” that operates across many branches, and one of the areas is offering youth service trips. In 2023, I went on a youth service trip with SaLT to Alaska, and that really jump-started my passion for service. From there, I got super involved through various programs that it offers in the community, like the one that I’m with, which is Love2Learn, a tutoring service for underserved children from families in our other program called Shop N’ Drop, which is a food service program.

Tell us about your volunteer role with Love2Learn, powered by SaLT.

I am primarily at Love2Learn, a tutoring service at the local library, where we tutor children from families who are a part of our Shop N’ Drop Program, which serves local families challenged by food insecurity. Usually, I’m either organizing volunteers or directly tutoring children. I really like working with younger kids, and I usually work on reading. We will pick out a book, and for 30 minutes, we’ll do some reading. After 30 minutes, we reward them for reading by playing some kind of brain game and making sure to play and engage. We’ll do a craft, or sometimes, we’re able to send the families home with a little something, like a plushie. I help organize events and brainstorm ideas for upcoming activities. It’s really fun to be in a supportive learning environment for children.

What are your long-term plans or goals for the organization?

I plan to stay involved. Actually, for college, I’m going to be only 30 minutes away. I want to pursue an MD/PhD and do research in biomedical engineering and genomics, because a lot of the research that I’ve already done about people living with food insecurity says that they have a much higher chance of developing cancer. Especially regarding healthcare inequities, I’m really passionate about developing new clinical therapies through my research and treating patients to address those inequities.

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

I think with kids, seeing them interact with each other. Seeing them after solving a problem or reading a hard word, that’s so meaningful to me. Being able to capture that passion for learning in kids who might not have that support at school is so rewarding for me. I love to see that. I want them to also be passionate about learning. I want them to take it away. I know how it feels to solve a hard problem. It’s so exciting. It’s lovely. I feel so good when they’re able. I see them tick.

What have you learned through your experiences as a volunteer?

I’ve learned how to connect with people from all walks of life, and I think that’s really meaningful. I’ve found pathways of connection with people whom I would never expect to connect with. If there’s a new volunteer, we will work together to help tutor a child, and we partner up so that they can learn how to effectively tutor. When you meet people from different schools or different areas or different interests, it’s really interesting to see how we’re actually very similar, even though we come from different backgrounds and we may seem outwardly different. It’s interesting those conversations with those people, and there’s that same passion.

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

We have seven guiding principles, and one of those that helps us through is “little by little.” You’re placing bricks down, little by little, doing this work. It’s important to remember that, but that’s also why we need it to be a community effort. We cannot do this alone. In order to serve as many families and as many kids as we’re able to serve, it’s got to be a group effort. Now, having been involved in service, I want to encourage my younger brothers to get involved. No matter what people think, there are service opportunities out there. There are service opportunities that need you and that are calling. I think there’s always a need and it’s absolutely important that people get involved.

Any advice for people who want to start volunteering?

Ask questions. Don’t let that passion die down inside you, because even if you think there’s no place for you, there is. You can pave a way. You need to know that, especially for younger people going to high school, you can do service. It’s important to encourage people to get involved and know that there can be a place for you, even if it doesn’t seem like it, and oftentimes, service can be that place.

What do you want people to learn from your story?

It is a community effort. Even if you think that there’s no place for you, you can find a community. You can find a space to walk on the sidewalk. There is a place for you, and I think that’s a really important thing to remember now, especially post-pandemic and feeling a lot of the isolation after that. I definitely had difficulty socially in the beginning of high school, but then I found a meaningful space to do work that has an impact on the community and myself through forming meaningful bonds and community.

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