Andrew Appleby

When Andrew Appleby was 15-years-old he started Make A Spash in his community of Akron, Ohio. Make A Splash is a USA Swimming program started by Cullen Jones, the country’s first African-American national record holder and Olympic gold medalist. Ironically, when Cullen was just 5-years-old he almost drowned.

Andrew’s Make A Splash program provides free swimming lessons to at-risk, inner-city, economically disadvantaged kids, most of whom are minorities. The participants are between the ages of 8 and 12-years old. Each child gets a suit, cap, goggles, t-shirt, eight 45-minute lessons by certified YMCA instructors and high school varsity swimmers, snacks, and transportation to and from the pool, if needed.

According to the Center for Disease Control, approximately 10 people die from unintentional drowning each day. Drowning is the sixth leading cause of unintentional injury death for people of all ages, and the second leading cause of death for children under 14-years-old. Minority children are 3.2 times more likely to drown than Caucasian children.

Thanks to Andrew and Make A Spash, children are learning to swim who might have otherwise gone their entire lives without mastering this life-saving skill. Since the program’s inception 48 children have completed the program and an additional 100 are expected to complete lessons by June 2012.

In addition to providing swim lessons, Andrew’s program helps bridge the gap in his community between minority participants and the predominantly Caucasian volunteers, while providing the volunteers with an opportunity to share their love of swimming and give back to the community.

Andrew’s dedication to his community and devotion to spread awareness on the importance of water safety is what makes him a Daily Point of Light.

Cathy Glasheen

The RSVP Vision Screening Team of Milwaukee, Wis. has dedicated countless hours to screening preschool children throughout the community. The local office of Prevent Blindness closed due to lack of funding. The RSVP Vision Screening Team has stepped in to play an important role. The team has made five referrals for children to seek further evaluation at Prevent Blindness Wisconsin. Of those five children, three needed vision correction. Without this program these corrections might have gone undetected for several years.

Team member, Cathy Glasheen is responsible for calling local daycares, scheduling screenings and mobilizing members to give screenings. More than 12 million school-age children have some form of vision impairment. The RSVP Vision Screening Team provides a basic screening at no charge to help combat these issues at an earlier age. This is what makes Cathy and the RSVP Vision Screening Team Daily Points of Light.

Kids Care Club of the Armed Services YMCA Twentynine Palms

Kids Care Club of the Armed Services YMCA (ASYMCA) Twentynine Palms of California did incredible things in 2011. The children donated and decorated boxes for deployed Marines in Afghanistan and created cards, thanking them for their service to our country.

This year they also made pillows for Loma Linda Children’s Cancer center and took a trip to the local ASYMCA to help clean the playground. The club adopted grandparents from a local nursing home, where the children exchanged cards with the residents and did art projects. During Easter, the children made 24 Easter baskets for local children to help spread cheer.

The children are always asking what else they can do to help their community. This is what makes them all Daily Points of Light.

Disabled American Veterans Arizona Chapter 8

The Disabled American Veterans Arizona Chapter 8 is an organization that provides an open office five days a week to assist veterans and their families with their available benefits. They provide a community breakfast with faith-based groups on the fourth Saturday of every month. This brings the community together to raise awareness on these heroes who were injured defending our freedoms.

This organization recognizes and encourages youth for their service and involvement and keeps veterans up-to-date with legislative matters. Their devotion to our country continues long after their active duty time. This is what makes them Daily Points of Light.

Jamie Hobson and Eloise Lynton

Jamie Hobson and Eloise Lynton of Los Angeles, Calif., have worked for more than a year to create The Book in a Bag program at Westside Children’s Center, a local head start that provides a wide-range of services to more than 100 low-income families. The program was designed to address the literacy gap in this disadvantaged community by fostering fine and gross motor control, social awareness, sequencing skills, visual perception, beginning math, color and shape recognition, speech and auditory skills, letter recognition and dramatic play all in a fun environment.

The Book in a Bag program trains each of their volunteers to be teachers using specialized reading packets that include a book, lesson plan and an extension activity based on age-appropriate developmental goals. Additionally, the program provides a vital opportunity for the volunteers to build a one-on-one relationship with a child at the center.

Jamie and Eloise’s program addresses a critical national issue. Research shows that children who enter kindergarten behind their peers will most likely never catch up and are three to four times more likely to drop out in later years. Low literacy in children is associated with school failure, teenage pregnancy, juvenile delinquency and poverty. This program is one that can be duplicated in any community, and these high school juniors plan to create a Book in a Bag website to enable easy access to their lesson plans and activity resources. Such a grass roots effort could make a substantial difference in America’s literacy rate.

Their devotion to their community and the larger movement of improving literacy in our next generation is what makes them Daily Points of Light.

Alf Nelson

Alf Nelson is a native of New Orleans and a pastor at the NOLA Church Plant who has almost single-handedly revitalized an entire neighborhood. Alf and his family returned to New Orleans after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina to focus on rebuilding and revitalizing the community. NOLA Church Plant is focused on building a presence in the community and committed to getting people back in their homes and back to their normal rhythm of life.

Since his return to New Orleans the church has bought and repaired a damaged home and moved into the neighborhood to stay. The NOLA Church Plant was one of the first permanent structures built in the Gentilly neighborhood since Katrina. Gentilly is one of the fastest-growing post-Katrina neighborhoods in the city with 30,000 residents and expected growth of 50 percent in the next five years. When Alf and his family settled into the community in 2009 it was still recovering from the devastation Hurricane Katrina left behind. In particular Alf noticed there was no place for kids and families to play and build relationships. Understanding the need for the neighborhood children to play Alf contacted KaBOOM!, a nonprofit organization dedicated to building playspaces across the United States.

As a result of this collaborative effort the community came together to build a playground on December 18, 2010. As Alf said “our playground, and build day, accomplished everything we thought it might – kids and adults are both meeting their neighbors and building relationships – it’s truly incredible.”

In addition to building a great place to play for the children of New Orleans, Alf continued to focus on bringing joy and happiness to children by securing a grant for a set of a new kind of playground equipment called Imagination Playground in a Box. Imagination Playground in a Box is a set of loose parts that can be transported to multiple locations across the city.

Alf’s dedication to a community in need is an inspiration and this is what makes him a Daily Point of Light.

Kathy Deady

Tiffani Webb

Tiffani Webb of Culloden, W.Va., first became involved in service with Girl Scouts by raising awareness for a bullet proof vest for local canine police. Eventually, she started helping with an established outreach mission serving the homeless by collecting coats and blankets. Her outreach resulted in engaging more volunteers from churches, local medical students, friends and family members.

What started as one visit to help a friend who was a member of the Christian Motorcycle Association (CMA) grew into something much larger. Every Saturday morning the CMA bikers feed a hot breakfast to 75 to 125 homeless at Harris Riverfront Park, distribute hygiene packs, and witness to them God’s love. Tiffani’s passion for this cause led her to reach out to friends and families to collect more coats, hats and gloves to distribute each month. Overtime the project has expanded to include Christmas gift bags filled with essentials, summer cookouts and even on-site medical care by volunteer medical students. Thanks to her outreach there are sometimes more volunteers than homeless on Saturday morning.

In addition to Girl Scouts, Tiffani volunteers as a coach with Upward Cheerleading, a junior counselor at Camp Cowen and is actively involved in her church and the local hospital. One of her projects at the hospital includes collecting books, movies, and games from the community as well as constructing shelving to house the new items, and co-hosting three celebration events focused on the patients.

Tiffani’s devotion and compassion to her community is what makes her a Daily Point of Light.

Vivian Greentree

Vivian Greentree is a Navy veteran, military spouse and mother of two little boys. She helped start Blue Star Families, the national military-support organization. She volunteered with Blue Star Families for more than 20 hours a week for two years while her husband was deployed.

As membership director she helped build an interactive network of more than 20 volunteer-based chapters across the country. Now she serves as director of research and policy where she is responsible for all aspects of their research and policy agenda.

In her community, Greentree routinely gives input into issues like military spouse employment, effects of deployment on children, and the stress related to operational tempo of our forces. She created a program called Operation Appreciation, where civilian members of communities can send letters of support to military families.

The Operation Appreciation program lived in her spare bedroom for a year before they raised enough money to become more stable. In addition, Greentree will soon receive her PhD in public administration. At her school she spearheaded the effort to start a military alliance and also helped to create a public service minor within her department.

As part of the public service minor promotion, she helps with Public Service Week; last year she organized a “Women in Public Service Roundtable.” She also organized the Veteran’s Day service event where they packed more than 400 care packages for military families. Her devotion to her community, specifically members of our military and their families is what makes Greentree a Daily Point of Light.

John Cox

John Cox of Augusta, Kan., knows how important it is for families, friends and brothers in arms to reconnect with their loved ones at their final resting place. It’s there where they pay homage, honor the fallen soldiers with decoration and label their plots as servicemen, allowing all that visit the cemetery the ability to pay their respects for their service to our country. John’s devotion and long hours shows he is dedicated to making a positive impact in the lives of those he will most likely never even meet.

At the cemetery, John maps and documents burial plots so that families and friends can easily find their loved ones. Families are able to place flags and plaques to honor their soldier’s honorable service.

In addition to his work at the cemetery, John delivers meals and books to homebound seniors in the rural area, installs smoke detectors for community members in need, helps unload food trucks for the local commodities program and serves on the board of the Augusta Senior Center.

John’s selfless, caring and patriotic service to veterans and his community is what makes him a Daily Point of Light.