THERE’S SPACE FOR A COMMUNITY UNDER THIS VOLUNTEER’S UMBRELLA

Meet Daily Point of Light Award honoree Christina Cheng-Patel. Read her story, and nominate an outstanding volunteer or family as a Daily Point of Light.

Christina Cheng-Patel isn’t getting much sleep these days. But she wouldn’t have it any other way.

A single mom of two sons, Christina works as a pediatric researcher. But when she’s not at work or caring for her kids, she’s creating opportunities for them to help others. A lifelong volunteer, Christina wanted to find an opportunity that would allow her to volunteer alongside her boys. However, when they were younger, she struggled to find opportunities that permitted that. Eager to bridge the gap in her community, Christina formed Under My Umbrella, a grassroots organization that focuses on mindful, direct outreach that serves people with dignity. By creating an opportunity to volunteer with her sons, Christina forged a path to get her entire community involved.

Under My Umbrella seeks to help community members who tend to fall through the cracks. Their Neighbor Outreach program feeds and clothes 100 unhoused community members weekly, while the Rainy Day Fund helps bridge the gaps, like providing an individual with a bus pass or emergency car repairs. She Leads, the newest initiative, empowers women to build confidence and expand their skills through free workshops while highlighting women-owned businesses. Whether it’s a free cookie decorating workshop or CPR training, the community is always welcome at no cost.

Entirely powered by volunteers, Under My Umbrella doesn’t have the hefty operating budget of many larger organizations. However, what it does have is dedication. Christina dedicates 12 to 36 hours per week to the organization, on top of her full-time career and child rearing. As a result of her devotion, the organization upcycles 1,200 articles of clothing and 200 grocery bags every month. Whether they’re distributing hygiene essentials or bottles of water on a hot day, Under My Umbrella steps in where the need is. Christina’s dedication shows just how far one person’s passion for helping others can go in a community.

What inspired you to get started with this initiative?

I’ve volunteered ever since high school. When I had my children, I wanted to give them that same type of volunteer spirit, but we had trouble finding volunteer opportunities that would fit our schedule. There were not a lot of volunteer opportunities for me with my kids, as young as they were. Just like people said, I thought, if there’s no seat for me at the table, I’d have to make my own. That’s exactly what I did. There are a lot of benefits that can be achieved at the grassroots level. Our larger systems and larger organizations do a wonderful job of serving the majority of the people who are in need, but some people fall through the cracks.

Tell us about your volunteer role with Under My Umbrella.

We don’t have any staff, and we don’t keep any overhead. All of our supplies are in our living room and garage. Everyone’s doing everything on their time, on their dime. We just do a little bit of everything. My boys help, as far as our stocking, inventory and social media. My youngest one created our website. We all do pretty much all the roles. We do the public relations, social media, on-site coordinating of volunteers, grant writing and everything else.

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

We have gotten such great support from our community, and the goal is to grow and expand our reach. I think the long-term goal for me would be to see another community do the same thing that we did with their community, because each city and each community is going to have different needs. I think that if you take the model that we’ve established with Under My Umbrella, and you take that model and duplicate it, I think this is something that could work. That, to me, would be the ultimate goal – to see those concepts in a different city or area, and see how they can fill in the gaps for their community, whether it’s Dallas, or somewhere else.

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

The human interaction is the most rewarding part. Not only from the people that we serve, but also seeing that spark light up in our volunteers, whether they’re 7 years old or 70 years old. To see that spark and to have them know that they can make a difference, I think that’s the most rewarding thing. When we feel like we can’t make any impact, we’re not so likely to take action. But if we can harness that from everyone in the community, you’re talking a lot of money, time and resources. I think seeing somebody understand the impact that they can make is the most rewarding thing for me.

What have you learned through your experiences as a volunteer?

You have to be okay with rejection, and you have to be adaptable and be able to pivot. Because we run operations the way we do from our house, and because we are so small, we don’t qualify for a lot of the big grants that require you to have a $100,000 operating budget. We’ve had to learn to adapt to still get the job done. I think our stats show that you don’t need a large margin or a big overhead. If you collaborate with the members in your community and like-minded people, then you can get those metrics.

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

I’m super excited about one coming up on Saturday. We just started a new program called She Leads. It’s personally exciting for me because it’s all about women collaborating and empowering other women in our community and supporting women-owned businesses. I do workshops within the community for women to come and attend and learn for free. We did a self-defense workshop, and we did a super popular decorating workshop. We did an art workshop. This one coming up, we’re doing community CPR, and we’re letting the gentleman in on it, because I think education is very important. CPR is a skill that we all need to know. It gives our community a chance to learn or do something new.

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

To have compassion and be empathetic. It’s really hard to do that on paper. It’s one of those things that requires actual contact. You get that through experience. You also need education. I think it’s important for us to make that part of our daily routine, because if everybody were to just give one hour out of their week to help somebody or to do something, the impact would be massive.

What do you want people to learn from your story?

I want people to learn that if you want to make a difference, you need to set your mind to it. You need to put one foot in front of the other and get it done. The result may not look like what you thought you were going to get. I never thought that my kids and our little ideas would end up with us having this nonprofit, but here we are. I’m extremely grateful to the community support that we’ve garnered, and happy to see our community come together. For a nonprofit like ours, that’s the only way we’re going to be able to make an impact – with the support from our community.

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