KAREN GREER

Karen Ann Greer has a sincere dedication to helping “at-risk” youth through the implementation of several programs, activities and events. She has made invaluable contributions to the Oak Hill Community during her time with the Oak Hill Boys & Girls Club. Her involvement with the community’s youth and her willingness to always go above and beyond her call of volunteering has allowed Karen to become a true role model and mentor to these “at-risk” children. She throws herself wholeheartedly into her work with these children whether it’s playing sports, making up innovative games, talking about resisting drugs, tutoring, or just listening to their problems.

Karen has truly impacted the lives of many children. Though the challenges she has had to face, both personal and as a volunteer, seemed insurmountable, her positive attitude is refreshing and her ability to turn a potentially negative situation into a positive one is a gift. Oak Hill has traditionally had a reputation that its children were unable to be productive citizens. Karen has the ability to reach these children and make them understand that their lives are what they make of them; that no stereotype, no one person, has the right to make them feel inferior.

In early 2001, Karen first participated in the Boys & Girls Club to complete a high school service project. Once she completed the necessary hours, she arranged to meet with the Unit Director to speak about additional volunteer opportunities. She requested permission to create programs to help with the younger children and their anger problems. She believed that allowing them to do various sports activities would help them to learn teamwork and allow an opportunity to vent some of their anger. With some training and self-guidance, Karen adopted several components from the National Sports Programs and put them to work. Some of her programs include; Drug free Rallies, Community Service Youth Group, Fitness Authority Sponsored Athletics Program, Kids Night, and the Peer Tutoring Program.

Karen’s ability to connect with youth in the area has been a blessing to her small town. She has truly been a driving force that has kept many of these kids off the street and in her programs. At the young age of 17, Karen is respected, even by her peers and the many parents of children she works with, for her ability to handle such profound relationships with children of all ages. Her sincere love and dedication for these children has brought the Oak Hill Boys & Girls Club to a new level of awareness; an awareness that has these children believing in themselves once again.

Karen has accumulated approximately 2,000 hours of volunteer service to the Oak Hill Boys & Girls Club and continues to serve. She is an asset to the organization and her colleagues feel eternally grateful for her abilities and talents that she chooses to share with the youth of Oak Hill, the Oak Hill Community, and the Boys & Girls Club of Volusia/Flagler Counties.