Meet the Aguirre Family: The First-Ever Disney and Points of Light Volunteer Family of the Year!
The Aguirre family from McAllen, Texas, were announced today on Good Morning America as the first-ever Disney and Points of Light Volunteer Family of the Year!
The Aguirres were surprised live on-air with a special visit from Mickey Mouse and GMA’s Will Reeve, who invited them to a week-long vacation at Walt Disney World Resort, where they will be the guests of honor at a super celebration for Family Volunteer Day. Plus, they received $10,000 for the organization that nominated them, San Juan Diego Catholic Regional High School — and a surprise additional $10,000 for their own nonprofit, Emily’s Meals.
The Aguirres, parents Coni and Rick and daughters Emily and Erica, started their volunteer journey four years ago when a then 6-year-old Emily saw a homeless person for the first time and asked her parents how they could help. That question prompted the family to create Emily’s Meals,
which now provides food to 40 homeless people every day. Learn more about the
, were featured on Good Morning America ahead on an online vote to find the winner.
Today the other finalist families were surprised with the news that Chairman of Disney Parks, Experiences and Products Bob Chapek — so impressed with their volunteer work — is inviting them all to Walt Disney World Resort, too! In addition, Disney will give each of the families’ organizations $5,000 to continue their important work.
All five families will join Points of Light and Disney parks and resorts around the world in celebrating
on Nov. 18 for more information on Family Volunteer Day global celebrations and how you can join in, and tune into Good Morning America on Friday, Nov. 29, to catch up on all the excitement of the families’ trip to Walt Disney World.
If you and your family would like to get involved with family volunteering, you can
and earn Disney Parks tickets by hosting volunteer family events.
Meet the Bell-Wallaces: Finalists for the Disney and Points of Light Volunteer Family of the Year!
The Bell-Wallace family from Pickerington, Ohio, were announced this week on Good Morning America as one of the five finalists in the running to be named the Disney and Points of Light Volunteer Family of the Year!
The Bell-Wallace family’s volunteer story began 17 years ago when Kevin and Carey Wallace approached
to ask if they could offer a therapeutic horse program for their 4-year-old daughter Morgan, who had been diagnosed with autism. Kevin and Carey were so impressed with Morgan’s progress, they have been dedicated to supporting the program ever since. Morgan’s grandparents, Darlene and George Bell, also joined as volunteers, with Darlene going on to create a new program to help support veterans experiencing PTSD. Now, every event at Dreams on Horseback features the volunteering efforts of all three generations of the Bell-Wallace family!
The Bell-Wallaces were one of thousands of families across the country nominated for the
featured on GMA this week, sharing the stories of their incredible volunteer work, followed by a nationwide online vote starting on Oct. 11 where you will be able to vote for your favorite family!
The winning family will be announced on GMA on Nov. 1 and will receive a dream vacation to
on Nov. 23. The nonprofit or school that nominated the family will also receive $10,000 to continue their important work in the community.
Make sure to tune into every day this week to meet the rest of the incredible Top 5 families, and stay tuned for more updates on the competition and details on how you can vote!
If you and your family would like to get involved with family volunteering, you can
and earn Disney Parks tickets by hosting volunteer family events.
Meet the Nepolas: Finalists for the Disney and Points of Light Volunteer Family of the Year!
The Nepola family from Pembroke Pine, Florida, were announced this week on Good Morning America as one of the five finalists in the running to be named the Disney and Points of Light Volunteer Family of the Year!
The Nepolas have volunteered with
since 2015. Parents Justin and Jackie, with daughters Mia and Ava, work tirelessly for the projects they volunteer for, whether they’re building gardens, distributing school supplies or packing meals for families in need. Recently, the family took on two big events as project leaders, Night On The Streets and the Florida AIDS Walk. Due to inclement weather, the two events were rescheduled to the same day and, without hesitation, the Nepolas kept their word to handle both, despite the extra work this would require. This example, and many more like it, shows the family’s dedication to serving their community and making the world a better place!
The Nepolas were one of thousands of families across the country nominated for the
featured on GMA this week, sharing the stories of their incredible volunteer work, followed by a nationwide online vote starting on Oct. 11 where you will be able to vote for your favorite family!
The winning family will be announced on GMA on Nov. 1 and will receive a dream vacation to
on Nov. 23. The nonprofit or school that nominated the family will also receive $10,000 to continue their important work in the community.
Make sure to tune into every day this week to meet the rest of the incredible Top 5 families, and stay tuned for more updates on the competition and details on how you can vote!
If you and your family would like to get involved with family volunteering, you can
and earn Disney Parks tickets by hosting volunteer family events.
Meet the Jeevanayagams: Finalists for the Disney and Points of Light Volunteer Family of the Year!
The Jeevanayagam family from Suwanee, Georgia, were announced today on Good Morning America as one of the five finalists in the running to be named the Disney and Points of Light Volunteer Family of the Year!
The Jeevanayagams have been volunteering with
for more than six years. Parents Nicky and Jacob, along with twins Luke and Hannah, exemplify what it means to give back and are always the first to show up whenever there is a need in their community. Including their son, who has autism, in their volunteering work not only provides him with valuable experience, it also helps others see that everyone has the power to make a difference, regardless of ability. The Jeevanayagam family’s volunteer work includes fundraising, organizing events, recruiting new volunteers and leading the way by inspiring others in their community with their commitment to service.
The Jeevanayagams were one of thousands of families across the country nominated for the
featured on GMA this week, sharing the stories of their incredible volunteer work, followed by a nationwide online vote starting on Oct. 11 where you will be able to vote for your favorite family!
The winning family will be announced on GMA on Nov. 1 and will receive a dream vacation to
on Nov. 23. The nonprofit or school that nominated the family will also receive $10,000 to continue their important work in the community.
Make sure to tune into every day this week to meet the rest of the incredible Top 5 families, and stay tuned for more updates on the competition and details on how you can vote!
If you and your family would like to get involved with family volunteering, you can
and earn Disney Parks tickets by hosting volunteer family events.
Meet the Aguirres: Finalists for the Disney and Points of Light Volunteer Family of the Year!
The Aguirre family from McAllen, Texas, were announced today on Good Morning America as one of the five finalists in the running to be named the Disney and Points of Light Volunteer Family of the Year!
The Aguirre family’s journey to volunteering began almost five years ago, when daughter Emily noticed a homeless person for the first time outside their local grocery store. Emily had lots of questions about the man and, after her father, Rick, explained that he did not have a home and lived on the streets, she asked if they could give him some food because he looked hungry.
That week, the Aguirres decided that instead of giving up something for Lent, they would instead feed a homeless person every day for the following 40 days … and they have not stopped yet! Today, the
team feeds 40 people every day, rain or shine. They also link individuals experiencing homelessness to numerous local health services, social service agencies, and even help coordinate pet care.
The Aguirres were one of thousands of families across the country nominated for the
.
Now five amazing finalist families will be featured on GMA each day this week sharing the stories of their incredible volunteer work, followed by a nationwide online vote starting on Oct. 11 where you will be able to vote for your favorite family!
The winning family will be announced on GMA on Nov. 1 and will receive a dream vacation to
on Nov. 23. The nonprofit or school that nominated the family will also receive $10,000 to continue their important work in the community.
Make sure to tune into GMA every day this week to meet the rest of the incredible Top 5 families, and stay tuned for more updates on the competition and details on how you can vote!
If you and your family would like to get involved with family volunteering, you can
and earn Disney Parks tickets by hosting volunteer family events.
Meet the Orlandos: Finalists for the Disney and Points of Light Volunteer Family of the Year!
The Orlando family from Castro Valley, California were announced today on Good Morning America as one of the five finalists in the running to be named the Disney and Points of Light Volunteer Family of the Year!
The Orlandos volunteer together at
where they organize a clothing closet for children and teenagers entering the foster care system. All of Rendy and Don Orlando’s children were adopted and at one point received a bag of clothing similar to the ones they now help prepare for other children in need. Every one of the Orlando children help in the clothing closet, from the 18-year-old college student who volunteers on her school breaks to the 6-year-old who comes along to help her mom pack the bags. Together the Orlando family truly embodies the spirit of giving back to their community!
The Orlandos were one of thousands of families across the country nominated for the
.
Now five amazing finalist families will be featured on GMA each day this week sharing the stories of their incredible volunteer work, followed by a nationwide online vote starting on Oct. 11 where you will be able to vote for your favorite family!
The winning family will be announced on GMA on Nov. 1 and will receive a dream vacation to
on Nov. 23. The nonprofit or school that nominated the family will also receive $10,000 to continue their important work in the community.
Make sure to tune into GMA every day this week to meet the rest of the incredible Top 5 families, and stay tuned for more updates on the competition and details on how you can vote!
If you and your family would like to get involved with family volunteering, you can
and earn Disney Parks tickets by hosting volunteer family events.
Be a Role Model for Civic Engagement
It’s hard to believe that summer is already drawing to a close and it’s back-to-school season. After working in the education sector for more than a decade, it’s a time of year for me that offers space for planning, reflection and thought.
As we think about the new school year and all that our young people will learn and experience, especially with what has been
my mind turns to how they will be taught about the importance of improving community and civic engagement.
Certainly, teachers improve community by committing to a profession that’s all about giving of themselves, in the education of others to make the world a better place. And many families are deeply rooted in actions and traditions that improve community. But where else will our young people see this type of engagement, in a way that is organic and natural in every ecosystem? Where will they learn to celebrate it? To value it? To look for ways to get involved?
Young, old; rich, poor; no matter where we live in the world, we all have the same amount of time in a day. And what a privilege it is to be able to share any amount of time supporting issues that matter most to you, for the benefit of others.
Civic engagement, particularly in support of improving conditions for humanity, is not something that should be forced. It’s not an act or series of actions to categorized as a checked box, or had-to-do-it-for-credit thing. Emotions – be it passion, or empathy, or a determination for a better world –
that’s
what fuels willingness to get involved.
And youth are getting more and more involved. Young people are building the world we want to see tomorrow and they’re also impacting the world we see today. As we heard from Lindsay Peoples Wagner, editor-in-chief at Teen Vogue, at our Points of Light Conference in June, “young people are not the future, they are the NOW.”
The foster system, women’s health, hunger, the environment – at our conference, we heard from young people who are taking on these issues (and more), fueled by their passion and by the knowledge that they’re making a difference.
Where does that passion and commitment come from? How did they learn it?
It comes from all of us; from the role models who showed them that engagement matters, that it’s everyone’s job to be engaged, that even though they are young they can make change, and that together, we can create a better world.
Let’s model engagement for others, so we can keep building the Civic Century – making it impossible to stand on the sidelines. Let’s create pathways to make getting involved easier and part of our daily lives. Let’s recognize and celebrate all efforts of community involvement and inspire each other in ways that accelerate impact.
So, on the eve of a new school year, I ask: What will you do to encourage the young people in your life to get involved in their community and become civically engaged? How will you be a role model? Or, better yet, what can you do
together
in support of your neighbors, your community and others?
If you need help finding volunteer opportunities,
and other resources right here on the Points of Light website.
We’ll be glad you did. And the young people in your life may remember it for their lifetime.
Natalye Paquin was the president and chief executive officer of Points of Light from 2017–2022.
She is a visionary and results-oriented leader, with more than 20 years of experience providing strategic, operations and fiscal leadership in the nonprofit and public sectors.
What Will You Do This Summer?
It’s graduation season. School’s out for summer. And all around us, young people are setting off on exciting paths – heading to college, to graduate school, or starting their careers. At graduations, we recognize and celebrate accomplishments, and the promise of what’s to come.
Natalye Paquin, President & CEO, Points of Light
I read an article recently about a high school in Minnesota where students can letter in service, just like they can letter in sports or academics. How incredible is that? This school, and others like it, are recognizing service as an achievement and signaling to the entire student body that it’s worthy of celebration. At graduation, their service is lauded as an accomplishment.
This week, one of my colleagues shared with me that this summer her kids are attending a summer service camp. Using their time to serve others – and finding outlets for that service in their communities – is so important. Increasingly, young people are being celebrated for their service, and seeing role models and peers around them celebrating service, too.
The Civic Century we talk about so often at Points of Light depends on a generation of young people for whom service is second nature, and who understand it impact. It’s up to us to show them.
Next month, we’ll be in St. Paul for our annual
. We’ve got a number of partners coming to the conference who will share what they’re doing to increase service and participation in their communities. While we’re there, we’ll also spend an afternoon outdoors, partnering in a service project with the
, an organization focused on helping the city’s Mississippi River Recreation Area. We’ll join volunteers in planting native species, removing invasive ones and cleaning up the river area. I’m really looking forward to it being just one of the ways I’ll give back this season.
So, my question to you is: What will you do this summer? Will you take one day, one excursion, one weekend to give back? The same joy, the same sense of peace, the same feel-good feeling we find in traditional summer things, like a vacation or a trip to the beach, can be found in service. And the impact lasts a long, long time.
Tell us what you’re doing using #summerservice and tag @PointsofLight on social media.
The Power of Youth: Making Their Mark on the World Through Volunteer Service
International Youth Day on Aug. 12 is the perfect opportunity to celebrate the importance of youth service and the ability of kids and teens to create meaningful change through volunteerism. As today’s youth continue to grow in our modern technological world, it is important to remember the power of uniting together in service. generationOn, our youth division, creates spaces and resources to empower youth to come together with fellow changemakers, share ideas and inspire their communities.
Earlier this summer, more than 50 youth came together in Atlanta for the second annual Points of Light Youth Summit at the Service Unites 2018 conference, demonstrating the power and dedication of kids and teens to make the world a better place. Participants, aged 11 to 18 years old, spent a full day in workshops that included important skills such as community mapping, how to budget, and how to pitch your ideas to funders. Finally, the groups pitched their community improvement projects to a panel of judges, including actress and activist Eden Duncan-Smith, artist and youth activist De’Andre Kind, and Hsuan Shen, district manager for Starbucks.
The kids and teens who participated in this year’s Youth Summit are inspiring examples of the power of youth to create meaningful change in their community. Here are a few highlights and key takeaways from the participants:
The Floating Island Project
Brooke Sullivan, 17, and her team, based in Greenville/Pitt County, North Carolina, pitched The Floating Island Project. She shares:
“This project will fill a void and provide a natural filtration system to the existing lake water sites at our city’s flagship park and nature center.
The Points of Light Youth Summit provided us with the opportunity to learn the important aspects of a speech, and how to enhance or change your pitch according to different factors such as audience members. This knowledge will allow us to enhance future grant funding pitches. The money enables us to purchase non-recyclables needed in the project’s construction, zip ties, spray foam, and additional native wetland plants, plus marketing and promotional materials, and water quality and habitat survey supplies.
My original initiative with this project was to raise awareness about the lack of recycling in our local school cafeterias and ensure plastic bottles are repurposed, kept out of our landfills, or recycled. Through this project, we are utilizing recycled materials to reduce landfill waste, preserving native species, increasing plant and animal habitats, creating awareness of our environment and water sources, and helping others understand the importance of youth service.”
“Fresh and So Green Green”
Jayden Philpot, 16, from Decatur, Georgia, presented, “Fresh and So Green Green,” his team’s plan for addressing food deserts through urban gardening. He shares:
“Through my experience of preparing for the Youth Summit, attending, presenting and meeting adults and other youth, I learned a great deal about food and nutrition, about other participants and about myself.
Communities that have limited access fresh produce have a higher rate of preventable diseases. I realized that I can make a difference by learning how to grow produce in those communities, teaching others how to start and maintain gardens, and by having community farmers markets.
I am encouraged to know that making change does not have to be some big elaborate plan involving lots of people and groups. I can start making a difference by myself with one person, one group, one neighborhood.
We plan to start a garden near our center and invite speakers to come and talk about gardening, nutrition and healthy food preparation. We will charge a small fee for the classes, sponsor farmers markets where vendors will pay a fee for booths, and we will also sell produce that comes from the gardens that we help start. Eventually we would like to have a mobile farmers market!”
The FLY Life
Ishaa Hope, 15, from College Park, Georgia, and her group pitched an app called the FLY Life. She shares:
“The FLY Life app allows girls to post and answer questions anonymously, and also allows them to direct message mentors. This app was created to give middle and high school girls someone to talk to in their times of need.
Through my experience at the Points of Light Youth Summit, I learned many helpful tips on public speaking, how to make a good pitch, and being confident. I will use what I learned to become a better speaker and to continue the development of the FLY Life app. The grant money we received will help support our work by helping us finish the coding for the app.
It is important for me to make a difference in my community because that is the only way to make a change. If we start making a change now, the world can be a better place in the future.”
Blessing Bags and The Drama Free Campaign
Jadyn Steele, 16, is a long-term member of Diamond In The Rough, a youth development program that creates a variety of activities designed to build self-esteem, character and leadership skills among girls of all ages. Their youth action team attended and pitched two ideas. She shares:
“Our youth action team, which included me and seven of my peers, attended the 2018 Points of Light Youth Summit. The event was very inspirational, and we saw many other youth leaders like us who wanted to see change in their community. My organization presented both the Blessing Bag project and the Drama Free Campaign.
I am very passionate about making a difference in my community. The issues facing our nation and world will have an affect me in one way or another, so helping to offer solutions and help change these issues is very important to me and many of my friends.
I personally learned a lot during the conference, including new presentation tactics, more team-building skills and the importance of participation. These major points that my peers and I learned will help us both in our organization and in our everyday life. Most importantly, these tools will help us in implementing our projects!
7 Ways Your Family Can Make a Difference on Family Volunteer Day
Volunteering with your family can seem like another task to add to your to do list, but it’s easier than you think to fit it into your schedule. More important is the benefit of volunteering together, deepening your bonds with your community and with each other.
Family Volunteer Day is this Saturday, Nov. 18, and it’s a perfect reason to get involved. Now in its 27th year, this global day of service, powered by generationOn, the youth division of Points of Light, and sponsored by The Walt Disney Company, celebrates the power of families who work together to strengthen their communities and build a brighter tomorrow!
If you want to volunteer with your family, but you don’t know where to start, we have 7 ideas that are short on time but make a huge difference:
1. Assemble “Birthday-in-a-Box” kits.
Fill a box with party supplies (think plates, balloons, candles, etc.) for homeless children in domestic violence shelters, motels and other locations that may not have the capacity to put on parties for children in their facilities.
2. Write cards to raise spirits.
Bring a smile to someone’s face by making cards with encouraging messages to patients residing in children’s hospitals, seniors in a nursing home or veterans who have recently returned home.
3. Collect board games for a nursing home.
Playing board games is a great way to stay mentally active. Collect board games and puzzles to donate to a local nursing home. Even better, visit the nursing home and play the games with seniors living there!
Help a food bank sort food donations or a soup kitchen prepare and serve meals. Either way, you can help provide someone in need a healthy meal. You can find different opportunities at www.generationOn.org/fvd.
