This post is by My’Kah Knowlin, 13, of Lincoln, Neb., founder of Boxes of Love. The organization provides care packages to people in need, including disaster victims and military members serving overseas. My’Kah inspires other young people to get involved in volunteer service as a generationOn Hasbro Community Action Hero.
My’Kah Knowlin makes a care package delivery.
I am a 13-year-old, soon-to-be eighth grader from Lincoln, Neb. In 2011 I started my own foundation called Boxes Of Love, after hearing about the Joplin, Mo., tornado. I was 10 years old and thought that this would be a one-time service event.
I am proud to say that since that time three years ago I have had Operation Afghanistan, Operation Sandy Hook and Operation Moore, Oklahoma, and I am currently working on Operation Tanzania. I have been honored to be able to help so many people in this past three years.
On my birthday in March, I learned that I was chosen as a Hasbro Community Action Hero. What a shock – I never expected to receive such an honor. I was flown to New York City to meet with the amazing people at generationOn and Hasbro. I got to attend an event that would honor not only myself but many other amazing people, adults and kids alike who also give back to their communities.
I look forward to what my year as a national award winner has in store. I plan on hosting numerous service events and I hope to be able to travel back to NYC and across the USA to speak to youth about the importance of giving back. You can see what we’ve been up to lately by visiting my website www.boxesoflove.net.
One my favorite projects was Operation Afghanistan. I had just finished packing boxes for Joplin, Mo., when I learned from a family friend, whose grandson was in Afghanistan, that our soldiers do not always have dry or warm socks, toiletry, hygiene items or things to keep them busy and their minds off of home. I was surprised and humbled to realize that the men and women who serve our country do not always have support from home.
It made me want to do everything I could to make their time in Afghanistan easier. I started by asking for donated items to fill boxes – word games, dog toys, socks, cards, snacks and items that would remind them of home or that they could use while on or off duty. After filling the boxes with these items I shipped them with the help of donations that were given to my cause. I hope that the Marines enjoyed their little surprises from home.
I challenge everyone that reads this to grab a box and some friends this Memorial Day and fill the box with items you know you would want if you were away from home. You can take the box to a military base near you and ask that it be given to a family that may be struggling or a Veterans’ hospital.
If we all fill just one box we could be the difference in many military lives, after all, they have all worked hard to make a difference in our lives. It’s a small way to show our appreciation for all they do or have done. Remember they are our true heroes!
When Frustrations Melt Away, Uncovering the Good
This post is by Dani Nispel, an AmeriCorps VISTA member at Community Schools Collaboration, a nonprofit organization that provides after-school tutoring and more in Seattle-area schools. Nispel is serving through Corps18, a Points of Light program that supports VISTA members addressing chronic absenteeism across the country.
I work directly in two elementary schools, places I haven’t spent a significant amount of time in since I was actually in elementary school myself. I’ve been helping to coordinate the after-school programs. But mostly, I’ve found I’ve been doing a lot of listening.
I’m listening to the counselors and what they think their kids and parents need. I’m listening to the family liaisons and what struggles they face. I’m listening to the PTA moms who want to support their schools as best they can. I’m listening to the kids who know that their parents work too many hours as it is.
I’ve worked with after-school programs before back on the East Coast, but those were with middle school students. I think elementary age kids are different, at least for me. I think it’s hard because for kids this age, a lot of things are out of their control.
They don’t always get to choose if they’ll be walking home from the after-school program, even if it’s dark out by early November. They don’t always get to control if they’ll get to school on time or get picked up on time. There are also some pieces that fall under the “ignorance is bliss” category.
At this age, the kids don’t always recognize that they’re getting their dinner here at school because there won’t be food at home; it’s just fun to have pizza and yogurt after school. They don’t always understand that it’s a disadvantage to go home and have parents who can’t help with homework because they don’t speak English; it’s just a pain that they have to do their homework with us.
I get frustrated a lot, either because I feel like I don’t have enough to do during the days or because I feel like there are way too many avenues to start a project. But in the end, when the kids come in at 3:10 every day and tell me about their days, those frustrations don’t really matter anymore.
It’s worth it when a third grader comes in the next day excited because they remember how we did their long division homework together. Or when the parents reach out to me because they want to put together an MLK Day of Service at our schools.
The day-to-day work isn’t what’s hard. It’s hard because no one tells you what to do. You have to listen and understand and be a part of the community before you can make any kind of difference. But I’m glad I’m here. There are a lot of good ideas floating around. A lot of people who want to make positive changes at our schools. I’m glad I get to be a part of that.
Presidents, celebrities, nonprofit leaders, business pioneers and more have been involved with the Conference on Volunteering and Service through the years. See why.
We’re now offering one- and two-day rates. Review these special offers and register today for the experience that fits your schedule and interests.
Join change-makers and leaders in nonprofit, business, government, education and the arts who are creating meaningful change through service. Depending on which day or days you pick (June 16 – 18), you’ll hear from Chelsea Clinton, Tyler Perry, Bernice King, Sugarland’s Kristian Bush and many more.
Don’t miss out on our most robust day of programming – Tuesday, June 17 – with three workshop blocks, a special interest forum block, and special events including:
Creating a Bright Future for Our Kids Forum (SID 4949) Sponsored by Target
Every kid deserves a bright future and should have the opportunity to reach his or her potential. Join Target to focus on how to engage caring adults through volunteerism to support teachers – the most valuable classroom resources. Learn more about Target’s partnership with Major League Baseball and People magazine to recognize “All-Star Teachers.” Hear from those on the front lines and get inspired with some special guests.
Prepared Is Protected: Global Forum on Disaster Preparedness and Recovery (SID 4951) Sponsored by UPS
From hurricanes to wildfires, from New York City to the Philippines – disasters can strike anywhere, anytime. Cities have historically called on citizen volunteers to respond in emergencies. In this panel discussion, mayors from across the United States will share how their cities are leveraging the power of volunteers to better prepare for disasters.
A HandsOn Network Innovation and Social Impact Forum (SID 4950) Sponsored by JPMorgan Chase & Co.
This interactive forum is a celebration of the One America campaign and the new, innovative program models that HandsOn Network affiliates and their nonprofit partners are adopting to address critical community needs. We’ll focus on sharing replicable, sustainable examples, as the sector seeks to understand what’s next in 21st Century volunteering and how to align impact with sustainability. Attendees will observe media, subject matter experts and other notable judges evaluate “pitches” and award grants which will be provided by Points of Light with funding made possible by JPMorgan Chase & Co. HandsOn Network affiliates whose efforts sustain or enhance local economic vitality are eligible to win the grants.
National Service Town Hall With Wendy Spencer (SID 4862)
National service continues to gain momentum because leaders from all levels of government and the private sector increasingly see it as a means to achieve results. This session will shine a spotlight on some of the most innovative ways national service programs are strengthening communities and improving lives. Join Wendy Spencer, CEO of the Corporation for National and Community Service; project directors; national service members; and volunteers to celebrate, be inspired, and promote the impact of service.
One-day Conference registration rates for June 16 through 18 are now available for new registrants – register now!
Five Lessons Volunteering Taught My Family
This post, which originally ran on SaportaReport, is by Ronit Walker, a judge in the Georgia Office of State Administrative Hearings in Atlanta. To explore ways you can volunteer with your family, check out these resources from generationOn.
Ronit Walker
When my daughter was very young, we visited my grandmother on Fridays. After my grandmother passed away, Fridays felt lonely to us so we spent time delivering Meals on Wheels to residents of a senior living facility. The residents beamed when my daughter would toddle to their front doors, clutching a meal in her tiny hands.
But I soon realized that as much as the residents delighted in visiting with a toddler each week, it was my daughter who was really having a good time. She loved the attention she received and her feeling of accomplishment after we completed our route.
Now I have two more children, and my toddler is on the verge of obtaining a driver’s license. As my children have grown, I recognize that many of our most memorable experiences have been the times we have spent volunteering in our community. Our commitment to engaging in philanthropy, whether through service or charitable donations, has strengthened us as a family. I would like to share five lessons I have learned.
1. Volunteering has helped me to know and understand my children better. My daughter loves to be with younger kids. If volunteering involves entertaining a roomful of preschoolers, she can’t wait to participate. Another one of my children is shy around large groups of people. Packaging food at Project Open Hand, and being able to see the meals that he has helped to prepare stacked and ready for delivery, provides him with a tangible way to measure his achievement.
2. Volunteering creates rituals and traditions for our family. We have committed to providing birthday cakes for homeless children on certain months of the year, and preparing and serving food at shelters on designated Sundays. Although the holidays can be a wonderful time to volunteer in the community, we know that we have dates throughout the year that we will spend time working together as a family – and away from the screens that can isolate us from one another.
3. Being philanthropic generates important and passionate discussions. During the holiday season, we decide as a family that we will pool and donate a portion of our holiday gifts to charity. Each child gets to advocate for a charity that they feel is most in need of the donation. At the end of the discussion, we vote on the winner. Not everyone is always satisfied with the result, but learning that sometimes one has to make difficult choices with limited resources is also a valuable lesson.
4. Volunteering gives my children a perspective on how much they already have. My daughter has been working at a summer program for homeless children for the past three years. Last summer, she was so excited when some of the children remembered her and gave her big hugs – until she realized that this meant that their families had not secured permanent housing. She is reminded how fortunate she is to have a home to return to at the end of the day.
5. Volunteering doesn’t have to be formal. Opportunities to perform even small acts of kindness, such as helping an elderly person with his or her groceries, donating to a local charity or visiting a sick friend, are available to our families almost every day. Moreover, it gives us the opportunity to gently remind our children not only of how much others may need, but that they have the ability to make things better.
With new approaches, the 14 startups participating in the spring 2014 Points of Light Civic Accelerator are addressing some of society’s greatest challenges, including homelessness, hunger and access to education.
Nzinga West, standing, of Project SYNCERE shares the venture’s challenges and opportunities with the Starbucks Digital and Foundation Teams in Seattle.
Points of Light recently gathered the budding enterprises, both nonprofit and for-profit, to kick off the fourth Civic Accelerator – an intensive, 12-week startup boot camp that includes mentoring, entrepreneur education, peer support and networking. Points of Light will offer two of the most promising ventures – as selected by the entrepreneurs themselves – a $50,000 investment after the program wraps up in Atlanta in June.
In late April, we held the first session of the spring program at
Accountability Lab (Washington, D.C., nonprofit) The Accountability Lab empowers citizens to fight corruption and promote accountability though media and innovation in the developing world.
Catalysts by Design (St. Louis, nonprofit) Catalysts by Design is a network of social design organizations that partner with communities and organizations to resolve critical social challenges.
City Pioneers (Atlanta, hybrid) City Pioneers strengthens cities by connecting local public organizations with hometown talent to solve city challenges and to create an ecosystem of public entrepreneurs.
Code2040 (San Francisco, nonprofit) CODE2040 creates pathways to success for blacks and Latino/as in the innovation economy, with a focus on the critical transition from learning to earning.
eatiply (Minneapolis, hybrid) Eatiply is a cause marketing platform that sustainably fights hunger while providing businesses and nonprofits a valuable marketing solution.
Edgeflip (Chicago, for-profit) Edgeflip uses technology and analytics to accelerate the influence of nonprofits, advocacy groups and other social good organizations.
Food Recovery Network (College Park, Md., nonprofit) Food Recovery Network empowers students to recover food from colleges that would otherwise be wasted and donate it to hungry Americans.
Piggybackr (San Francisco, for-profit) Piggybackr teaches teams of all ages and experience levels how to crowdfund.
Project SYNCERE (Chicago, nonprofit) Project SYNCERE is a STEM enrichment program for underrepresented students in grades four through 12.
SEMADevelopment (Atlanta, hybrid) SEMADevelopment sells community-created mobile app games to raise money for nonprofit organizations.
tinyGive (Washington, D.C., for-profit) tinyGive is a micro-philanthropy platform that enables individuals to support causes and social good organizations through simple, social and meaningful actions.
UrbnEarth (San Francisco, for-profit) UrbnEarth makes guided gardening kits that empower everyone to experience the health benefits of homegrown food.
WorkReadyGrad (Atlanta, for-profit) WorkReadyGrad enables students to proactively acquire the right skills, experiences and mentors to reach their career potential.
Zealous Good (Chicago, for-profit) Zealous Good connects people and companies with excess items to local charities with matching needs.
The Points of Light
Civic Accelerator was launched in 2012, in partnership with Village Capital, and receives generous support from PwC Charitable Foundation and Starbucks Foundation, both founding partners, and from the Blackstone Charitable Foundation, SAP and the accelerator’s official hotel sponsor, Hilton Worldwide.
Everyone Wins in This Workers’ Competition
This post is by Jackie Norris, executive director, and Sarah Boison, marketing manager, of the Points of Light Corporate Institute. It is part four in a seven-part blogCSRWireseries exploring the community engagement practices of winning companies in The Civic 50, an initiative launched in 2012 by Points of Light, the National Conference on Citizenship and Bloomberg. The Civic 50 identifies the top 50 community-minded S&P 500 corporations that best use their time, talent and resources to improve the quality of life in the communities where they do business.
Aetna employees volunteered for four days to bring health screenings to more than 1,500 athletes competing in the Arizona Special Olympics summer games last year.
At more than 1.4 million free health screening clinics in 120 countries, the Special Olympics Healthy Athletes program offers health services and information to athletes in need – making the Special Olympics the largest global public health organization dedicated to serving people with intellectual disabilities.
Volunteers make this work possible. In Arizona, a group of Aetna employees made it their mission to help the Special Olympics screen athletes in their own community – demonstrating a longtime company commitment to help all people live healthy lives.
Competing for Impact
Aetna’s culture encourages employees to give back to the community. To make it easier for employees to volunteer, Aetna created an intranet site called Aetna’s Employees Reaching Out (AERO). The site allows 54 Aetna Volunteer Councils in 46 cities around the world – run by employees – to post local volunteer opportunities. Aetna employees can also find opportunities and log in their volunteer hours through AERO. Employees frequently work with their managers and co-workers to help find time to volunteer at organizations of their choice.
If an Aetna employee volunteers 20 or more hours, he or she is eligible to apply for a grant to benefit a nonprofit organization through Aetna’s Dollars for Doers Program. The program donates $300 cash grants to qualified nonprofit organizations based on level of employee involvement, usually as volunteers or board members. Last year Aetna employees logged in 401,000 volunteer hours, the highest number of hours in one year since AERO launched in 2003.
AERO also serves as the hub for Aetna’s team volunteering competitions. Every year, five to 15 volunteer teams are selected by the Community Relations and Urban Marketing area as top projects, and employees get to vote for their favorite. The most recent winner was from a volunteer project where more than 225 employees from Aetna and Mercy Care Plan (for which Aetna provides administrative services) served for four days to bring health screenings to more than 1,500 athletes competing in the Arizona Special Olympics summer games. At the Arizona Special Olympics Healthy Athlete Village on site, the employees helped register participants, escorted athletes around the festival area and then served as clinical assistants in the village – a fun and upbeat environment for athletes, sponsors and families.
“Athletes participating at the event were taken to various stations including hearing, vision and dental and received a T-shirt upon completing all six stations,” said Karen Krell, an Aetna employee who volunteered during the event. “The athletes were eager to race through the event and Aetna employees were excited to serve.”
Aetna and Mercy Care Plan employees also submitted their story on the AERO site and won the competition with 993 votes from employees. Each vote was worth $5, which gave the team a total of $4,965 in Aetna grant money that was donated to the Arizona Special Olympics.
The Arizona Special Olympics is often the only place where athletes with intellectual disabilities in the state have an opportunity to participate together in their communities. For the athletes, Special Olympics sports events provide a gateway to empowerment, acceptance and joy. The health screenings and checkups become an important added benefit.
“Aetna is committed to improving the quality of health care for everyone by helping to build healthy communities,” said Floyd W. Green III, Aetna’s vice president of Community Relations and Urban Marketing. “Every day, our approximately 47,500 employees help empower people to live healthier lives. However, they also go above and beyond their daily efforts with extensive charitable donations and volunteering in the communities where they live and work. Their commitment to their communities is a major aspect of the outstanding culture that Aetna employees have established for our company.”
Changing Lives, Enriching the Workplace
The event at the Arizona Special Olympics is just one of the thousands of volunteer events in which Aetna employees participate around the country and around the world. From organizing companywide volunteer competitions to holding annual service events that include top executives, the company fosters a culture of service and promotes workplace teamwork. Last year, thousands of Aetna employees participated in volunteering and giving programs.
In addition, in 2013 Aetna and the Aetna Foundation awarded more than $20 million to nonprofit organizations around the U.S. The grant-making focused on improving nutrition and increasing physical activity; promoting equity in health and health care for chronic conditions; building a more diverse generation of health care professionals; and exploring innovative solutions to promote wellness and achieve health equity for low-income and minority communities.
With a commitment to help people around the world live healthy and sustainable lifestyles, Aetna has integrated its employees and philanthropic efforts with its business model centered on healthy living. Through this dedication to help others, Aetna demonstrates why it is a leader in cultivating a civic-minded workplace.
Meet These Heroes, and Create the Next Generation
This post is by Tracy Hoover, president of Points of Light.
Kellon Oldenettel
At age 5, Illinois’ Kellon Oldenettel has already tapped into his power to spark change.
As a 3-year-old, he participated in a neighborhood clean-up project with his family. Last Christmas, when Kellon began to understand that some kids don’t get holiday presents, he asked his mom what else kids are missing.
She talked about kids without homes and enough food to eat. “Does that mean they don’t have socks?” Kellon asked. When he got his answer, Kellon set out to collect and donate socks for children and adults in his community. So far, he’s donated more than 1,200 new pairs to people who need them.
Kellon’s story shows that kids are never too young to serve – and to lead. They bring fresh perspective, new tactics and renewed energy to the world of volunteer service. They create real change, and while they’re at it, they inspire their friends and the rest of us to join them.
Each year, Hasbro and generationOn – Points of Light’s youth service enterprise – gather to honor young people who are making a difference. Last week in New York City, Paula Abdul and Olympic medalists Shannon Bahrke and Billy Demong presented the 2014 Hasbro Community Action Hero award to Kellon and five other change-agents. I hope you’ll take a minute to read their amazing stories here.
When I had the chance to talk to Kellon and the other action heroes, I was struck by how clearly they see the ways that volunteering changes people and changes the world. I think Kellon summed it up best when he said, “When you are nice, other people might be nice back, and then maybe they will do something nice for other people.”
Kellon’s mom helped him turn community observations and an instinct to help into an action plan. Here’s how you can be a partner to the young people in your life:
Find volunteer projects families can do together at All for Good.
Encourage kids to join the hundreds of thousands of other young people who making a mark on the world through generationOn.
I’m inspired by the vision and drive of these young change-makers. They bring their time, talents, families, friends and resources to causes they care about most.
Will You Help Nonprofits Get $5 Billion Worth of This?
This post is by Georgia Gillette, lead catalyst at A Billion + Change, a national campaign – housed at Points of Light – that is inspiring the largest commitment of pro bono service in history.
Georgia Gillette
This year marked the 40th anniversary of National Volunteer Week, which celebrates the importance of recognizing our country’s volunteers for their contributions to the community. Across the nation, individuals, nonprofits and companies alike offered their time and resources to help others in need.
At A Billion + Change, we’re grateful to our community of more than 500 companies that have already pledged skills-based and pro bono service, helping us deliver more than $2 billion worth of skilled service to help nonprofits address critical community needs. To make pro bono the “new norm” for businesses though, we’re eager to continue our effort.
Beginning with a new goal of inspiring 5,000 companies to do skills-based and pro bono service – translated into mobilizing $5 billion worth of pro bono service – by 2015.
When companies take the pledge, commitments are usually made in one of three ways: hours of service pledged, dollar value or service pledged, and pledging to begin a pro bono or skills-based program. But, our companies aren’t simply pledging; they are rolling up their sleeves, sharpening their pencils and turning those commitments into reality.
According to the 2013 Taproot National Data and Financial Dynamics report, 92 percent of U.S. nonprofits report that they do not have enough pro bono support. Many companies are now starting to understand the impact of pro bono service. Now, A Billion + Change plans to collect some of these stories to inspire others to get involved and do the same.
In April 2014, for example, filmanthropos, a Billion + Change pledge company, held their second ProduceAthon. A ProduceAthon is a work-around-the-clock creative blitz to help a Los Angeles-based nonprofit organization tell their story and the impact they are making through a short film produced over a 24-hour period. Last year, filmanthropos created a 60-second motion graphic video for Swipes for the Homeless, a nonprofit that enables college students to donate their excess meal points to buy food for those in need.
“We created an entire video, from pre-production to post, in 24 hours,” said Jasmine Youssefzadeh, founder of filmanthropos. “Our volunteers pitched in and helped with scripting, storyboarding, shooting, animation, audio production, editing and more.” For Rachel Sumekh, Executive Director of Swipes for the Homeless, the “ProduceAthon” was a huge asset.
“The video helps us communicate the impact of our work, makes our organization look edgier, and has already helped drive more traffic to our website” she said, adding, “We often don’t qualify for services from larger foundations or companies, but with filmanthropos’ focus on smaller nonprofits, we could qualify.”
Morgan Stanley, one of A Billion + Change’s first pledge companies, addresses nonprofits’ need for pro bono support through their Strategy Challenge, the firm’s signature skills-based volunteer program that has provided 61 nonprofits since 2009, with pro bono strategic consulting. The Strategy Challenge pairs each nonprofit with a team of four Morgan Stanley employees for eight weeks to address a mission-critical issue facing each organization.
But Morgan Stanley and filmanthropos are just two of the hundreds of companies – from the largest in the Fortune 100 to the smallest sole proprietorship – using their skills and talents to help nonprofits be more effective in achieving their social missions.
Sharing their pro bono service stories, along with the stories of other companies across the country, will allow us to show what is possible through pro bono.
Introducing Pro Bono Champions: Mobilizing and Equipping Companies to Do More Pro Bono
Pro bono education is such an important part of our movement building that we have decided to lead Pro Bono Champions trainings across the nation, recruiting corporate citizenship leaders to tell their pro bono stories and share their learnings with peers and communities. To do this, we’re empowering and equipping Pro Bono Champions with a Skills-Based Volunteering 101 curriculum and training toolkit.
Congratulations to our first batch of Pro Bono Champions trained during National Volunteer Week! (See them here.) It’s inspiring to see the diversity of this list.
In fact, in our discussions with corporate social responsibility, corporate citizenship and volunteer leaders, we’ve identified corporate volunteering is increasingly shifting away from episodic volunteering to year-round engagement – making skills-based volunteering and pro bono a great way to create sustained, long-term nonprofit partnerships that enable employees to give back all year round.
Get a Jump on Your Career by Helping Others Get a Jump on Theirs
This post is by Melissa Grober-Morrow, senior director of economic opportunity programs at Points of Light.
Here’s your chance to find out what 830,000 AmeriCorps members have already learned: AmeriCorps is a great way to serve others, while learning a lot about yourself and the strengths that can propel you into a meaningful career.
Points of Light is searching for 50 people, who believe in the power of volunteer service to change lives, to serve with us as AmeriCorps VISTA members for one year in one of 10 cities – Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Newark, San Francisco, St. Louis and Washington, D.C.
You’ll be helping us launch ServiceWorks, a new AmeriCorps VISTA program that will engage low-income 16- to 24-year-olds in training and service to increase their employability and prepare them for college and careers. ServiceWorks – powered by the Citi Foundation, AmeriCorps and Points of Light – will deploy 225 national service members over three years. You’ll be getting in on the ground floor!
By serving as an AmeriCorps VISTA member, you’ll learn about the community you serve, make connections to nonprofits and city agencies and see firsthand the resilience and struggles of people trying to succeed. This opportunity isn’t right for everyone, but if you are the type of person who likes to make connections that benefit others, build programs and build capacity within communities to solve problems, I hope you’ll consider a year of VISTA service.
After college, I served as an AmeriCorps VISTA member in a Chicago public elementary school. It was a challenge, running a reading program and serving as a parent coordinator in a school with low parent engagement, but I was given opportunities and responsibilities that few people are given in an entry-level position.
I grew so much during my year as a VISTA and learned a lot about my strengths. And, after completing my service, I received a $5,000 education award that I used to pay off student loans.
AmeriCorps was a good move for my career, too. I was able to leverage my experience to get a job at New York Cares, New York’s leading volunteer agency. Through the years, I have drawn upon my VISTA experience many times and continue to do so in my current job, creating new economic opportunity programs at Points of Light.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the AmeriCorps program. Since 1994, AmeriCorps members have provided more than 1 billion hours of service addressing critical challenges from poverty and hunger to disasters and the dropout crisis. Sure, AmeriCorps VISTA service is a big commitment to community, but I think it’s one that provides dividends for years to come!
To apply to become a ServiceWorks VISTA, go to https://my.americorps.gov and search for “ServiceWorks”
Superheroes Like You’ve Never Seen
This post is by Daniel Horgan, executive director of generationOn, Points of Light’s youth service enterprise.
Daniel Horgan
Kids love superheroes. Whether it’s the kind they read about in comic books or watch on the big screen, the action figures that they play with or the parents and role models in their life that they emulate, these superheroes inspire kids and activate their imagination. The reality is that from Huntington Beach, Calif., to Lincoln, Neb., to Duluth, Ga., there are kids who are superheroes themselves.
Every day, youth across the U.S. and around the globe are discovering social issues and immediately kicking into superhero mode. They go to the front lines to understand the issue from those directly affected. They partner with nonprofits aligned in mission. And these youth rally their friends, family, and neighbors to take action.
By showcasing the incredible civic engagement of kindergartners to high school students, Hasbro and generationOn seek to inspire all of us to engage in the power of service.
Hasbro Community Action Hero Neha Gupta in India
Our Hasbro Community Action Heroes channel the powerful words of RFK, “Each time a person stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lots of others, or strikes out against injustice, they send forth a tiny ripple of hope.” In times of disaster and resource constraints, the actions of youth who spring into volunteer service can send forth a ripple of hope.
Struck by the devastating tornado that hit Joplin, Mo., in 2011, then 9-year-old My’Kah Knowlin of Lincoln, Neb., launched “Boxes of Love” by mobilizing her friends, family and community businesses to pack 300 boxes with donated toys, snacks and other tangible items for the disaster victims. Fifteen-year-old Ethan Cruikshank of Mechanicsville, Va., has mobilized his friends to provide music lessons to 87 elementary school-aged children since his school’s music education program lost funding five years ago.
Sometimes the youngest of children are reminded of all the ripples of joy that have come their way and they are compelled to practice the childhood lesson of sharing. This is the case with 5-year-old Kellon Oldenettel from Jacksonville, Fla., who realized early on that many kids his age do not have food, a roof over their heads, and toys. So Kellon rallied the support of his family and neighbors to collect 1,256 pairs of socks for local homeless shelters.
Hasbro Community Action Hero Remington Youngblood
Youth are sending ripples of compassion around the globe as well. Thirteen-year-old Remington Youngblood of Duluth, Ga., has galvanized the support of his seventh grade peers to collect items from the wish lists of active duty soldiers and veterans as well as school supplies for children of military families.
Inspired by a visit to India to visit her grandparents, eight years ago, Neha Gupta of Yardley, Pa., now 17, witnessed firsthand the needs of thousands of orphans and disadvantaged children. Upon returning home, Neha founded “Empower Orphans” and has since raised over one million dollars that has impacted the lives of over 25,000 kids in India through an eye and dental camp, the installation of a well and water purification system, and the opening of centers for science and sewing to support workforce development.
The stories of our 2014 Hasbro Community Action Heroes including My’Kah, Ethan, Kellon, Remington and Neha are extraordinary examples of youth taking superhero actions as they mobilize others through volunteer service and raise awareness of the power and impact of one person’s actions.
Our sixth awardee this year, 10-year-old Gabriele Eggerling of Huntington Beach, Calif., believes that all of us have superhero powers which are our brains and hearts. Channeling his superhero abilities, Gabriele launched “Mission:HERO” through which he reads stories aloud to an average of 150 elementary-aged students each month and has donated over 1,500 books to low income kids and. Last year, Gabriele took the stage to deliver a TEDx talk in which he reminded all of us that we each have something special to share that can make a difference to others.
In Gabriele’s words, “It’s ripple time!” It’s time to inspire, equip and mobilize more youth superheroes and celebrate the impact that they are having in communities around the world. Let’s channel our own superhero powers through volunteer service, and let’s send forth ripples of hope, joy, and compassion.
