Chad Pregracke
Chad Pregracke worked on the Mississippi river during his summer breaks from high school and college primarily as a commercial shell diver for the cultured pearl industry, but also as a commercial fisherman and barge hand. Typically working miles away from home, he camped on the islands and shorelines of the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers to save money and fuel. It was during this time that Chad began to realize how neglected the rivers were, with the unsightly and toxic accumulation of trash along their banks. At the age of 17, he started making calls to government agencies to notify them of the problem, assuming someone would take care of it. Year after year passed by and the problem only worsened. In 1997 Chad decided that, if no one else was going to clean up the river, he would; one river, one piece of garbage at a time.
In 1998 at age 23 Chad founded Living Lands and Waters, a non-profit environmental and educational organization, http://www.livinglandsandwaters.org/ and received his first grant to clean the riverbanks of the Mississippi of trash and debris from Alcoa Davenport. He started small with the grant from Alcoa in 1997, but his enthusiasm caught on quickly.
Today, the organization has grown to include 10 full-time employees and a fleet of 4 barges, a towboat, 6 workboats, 2 skid steers, 5 work trucks and a large box truck. With this equipment, the crew is able to travel and work in an average of 9 states a year along the Mississippi, Illinois, Ohio, Missouri, and Potomac Rivers, as well as many of their tributaries. Since the project’s inception, Chad, his crew, and over 60,000 volunteers have collected over 6 million pounds of debris from our nation’s greatest rivers. Chad has thousands of followers who volunteer to clean alongside Chad and his crew in their own communities. Most recently, Chad expanded the mission of the organization to include Big River Educational Outreach, The MillionTrees Project, and the Adopt-a-River Mile programs.
He’s a Jefferson award winner for volunteerism and has even been featured on Discovery Channel with his own television show. Alcoa Davenport has been there with Chad every step of the way with foundation grants, Action grants and/or volunteer support.
Gianni Lopergolo
Zach Maurin
Ingelis Jenson
Whether it is the Special Olympics, the Disney VoluntEARS program, or the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Ingelis Jenson is deeply involved and following that philosophy. In 2009 alone, she spent the equivalent of 18 weekends of the year volunteering.
Ingelis paid her own expenses to attend the Special Olympics World Winter Games, spending her vacation there to volunteer for seven days in a row, eight hours a day, in freezing temperatures with duties which included shoveling snow. She truly embodies the passion and indomitable spirit of the late Eunice Kennedy Shriver, who founded the Special Olympics in the 1960s.
Ingelis leads volunteer projects and helps promote and recruit volunteers for the Disney VoluntEARS program, with which she has been involved for 17 years. She began when the program was launched in Los Angeles.
As a wish-granter and an escort, she interacts directly with the seriously ill children and their families visiting Disney parks through the Make-A-Wish Foundation. With the utmost professionalism, respect, and compassion, Ingelis ensures that each child has the time of their life. She personifies both the joy and impact of serving others; she never stops doing her part to change the world for the better.
Sarena Meyer
IBM employee Sarena Meyer strongly believes that it is “cool for girls to be geek”. That’s why for seven years she has been involved with Girls Go TechKnow, a week-long camp at IBM’s T.J. Watson Research Lab in Westchester County, NY. Thanks to the support of nearly 100 IBMers who volunteer their time and expertise to the camp, students are introduced to robotics, engineering, kitchen chemistry, and hone their presentation skills.
Girls in middle school are “at a crucial age, when they stop raising their hands first when they know the answer and become more concerned with what other people think of them. It’s important that they see that they can use their own abilities in math and science to do good things, that it’s not uncool,” says Sarena. “This program is a great way to help girls see the many opportunities available for females in technology and science. It opens their eyes to sciences at the college level which is particularly important as most are first-generation college-bound students,” says Martha Rodriquez, a teacher whose students have participated in the camp.
Sarena is doing her part to ensure the success of Girls Go TechKnow.
Gianni Lopergolo-2
Turning common objects into magic – that was Gianni Lopergolo’s gift. Using only a bit of grass, a piece of broken asphalt, or a trinket from his desk, Gianni could transform a simple photo of a toy into a Hollywood shot worthy of an action thriller. All his colleagues at Hasbro looked forward to what he and his camera would create next.
When Gianni was diagnosed at the age of 37 with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) his Hasbro colleagues set out to make a meaningful difference for his family and for other sufferers of this incurable disease.
With the support of Hasbro, they have created a foundation in his name, hosted a fundraising concert that raised more than $15,000, created a fundraising walk that raised $10,000 in 2010, and published a collection of his photography. The proceeds from the book help support the Rhode Island chapter of the National ALS Association and the Lopergolo Foundation, which benefits Gianni’s two young sons.
Unfortunately Gianni lost his battle to ALS in January 2011. This passionate and dedicated group of friends and colleagues has created significant lasting impact for the ALS association and for the family of a treasured colleague.
Lisa Williams
"My own life experience gave me the passion and energy to fight the evil of sex trafficking of children. Although I cannot rescue all the girls, I can stand beside some of them and be a part of their restoration to wholeness. They know that I understand what it's like to be held at gunpoint, to be demeaned and called unprintable names, to be afraid all the time in your own skin, to be repeatedly violated and tortured and then to be blamed for it all.”
The newspaper story and photo haunted Lisa – a shackled 10 year-old girl arrested and charged with prostitution while those who committed the heinous crime against her were free to continue their criminal activity. Lisa knew she had to take action to help save the lives of sexually exploited victimized children. The avenue to do it had already been paved.
For her birthday eight years prior, Lisa had invited a group of women to her home to acknowledge those who had encouraged her as she moved past the trauma of her childhood. They were asked to bring a friend, no gifts for Lisa, but a gift to bless a woman in transition. Circle of Friends Celebrating Life, began as this initial group of 23 women reaching out to others in need.
When Lisa learned Atlanta was a hub for commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC), Circle of Friends launched awareness and fundraising campaigns. Two years later, they opened Living Water for Girls in January 2010. Living Water provides safe refuge and therapeutic and educational services to girls ages 12-17.
Sex trafficking, a multi-billion dollar industry, is second only to drug trafficking. Nearly 300,000 American children are at risk of being victims of sex trafficking.
Lisa inspires a team of 60 volunteers and a staff of 8 as she turned tragedy into triumph. Her stolen childhood is now the catalyst for giving these girls back their lives, their value and their voices. Lisa has established relationships with local and federal law enforcement to build legal cases against those who buy, sell and rape children for profit.
Taking no salary, Lisa spends more than 60 hours a week to ensure the girls are rescued and restored. She has increased awareness in nearly 20,000 people, raised more than $500,000 and logged more than 72,000 miles.
In Lisa's words: “My compensation comes pouring in when I see our girls just being children, when they play hopscotch, when they find joy in planting flowers. My bonus comes every time I hear them giggle, like little girls should do when they don't have a care in the world.”
Zach Maurin-2
Zach Maurin was a restless teenager, hungry to do something different and to put his energy behind a purpose. He knew college was important, but he also knew it had to wait. He found a position with AmeriCorps in Boston, tutoring in an after-school program with far more children who needed academic support than tutors to provide it.
One of his students was Henry, who was trying to graduate from eighth grade. For a year, Zach worked with Henry three times a week, helping to transform his C and D grades into As and Bs. Zach provided homework help, test prep, and whatever else was needed, and Henry succeeded in moving on to high school.
However, Zach was left with a combination of satisfaction and frustration – satisfaction for Henry, but frustration because many students do not have access to the support they need to succeed, support that could be provided by volunteers.
Zach’s experience led him to co-found ServeNext – an organization dedicated to creating powerful grassroots advocacy nationwide that pushes leaders to make service and volunteerism a priority. ServeNext selects, trains, and supports local leaders around the country to mobilize permanent grassroots networks of service supporters and stakeholders. Network members include recipients of service, AmeriCorps alumni, program staff, educators who use service-learning, Senior Corps participants and many others passionate about service.
Richard Goldsmith
Twenty years ago, a modest plumbing supply salesman with an enormous heart read a newspaper article that named Parklane Elementary “the neediest” school in Fulton County, GA. This young salesman, whose name was Richard Goldsmith, decided to drive to the school and meet with the Principal. He asked the Principal what he believed the children needed most. The Principal said that, more than anything, the children needed attention from caring adults.
Richard agreed to return with friends the next Saturday morning; they found an astounding 75 children eagerly waiting for them. He and a friend became School Captains, which were the school principals for Saturday mornings. Two adults per grade became Grade Captains, committed to planning activities and bringing supplies on Saturdays. Soon, more than 150 students were attending Saturday school at Parklane three times a month.
That Saturday school is now The Discovery Program, which has been replicated in many Atlanta schools and communities across the U.S. Some of those who volunteer now on Saturdays were themselves once Parklane students.
Richard still spends his Saturday mornings volunteering at Parklane. Because of him, hundreds of volunteers have contributed to the academic and life success of the students there. He has made a difference in the lives of the students, the school staff, and the volunteers. He has taught all who have served with him a great deal about compassion, commitment and sacrifice.