KYLE RASMUSSEN

Kyle Rasmussen has been volunteering in the Utah community since his youth. He grew up in Sandy, Utah and served as a volunteer for Sandy Parks and Recreation organizing umpires and referees for little league baseball and basketball games as a teenager.

Having graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy, 24-year-old Rasmussen, now a 1LT, USAF, volunteers with the Salt Lake City Chapter of the American Cancer Society. He has also served on the Gala and Relay for Life committees. Currently, he serves as chair of the Relay for Life Committee and the Salt Lake City Volunteer Division Leadership Chair for the American Cancer Society. Rasmussen is also working on a leadership tool aimed at increasing cancer awareness in northern Utah. He believes this will be invaluable in enhancing community involvement in the fight against cancer and will hopefully improve participation in cancer relays throughout the state.

On the weekends, Rasmussen makes the time to volunteer in LDS Hospital’s Shock and Trauma Intensive Care Unit. On average, he devotes in excess of fifty hours a month to volunteering in some capacity. At a time when so many demands are being placed on our military servicemen, Rasmussen, in addition to his service to this nation, still finds time to contribute to his community.

ANDREW BELL

Andrew Bell, 12, a sixth-grader at Sussex Academy of Arts and Sciences in Georgetown, organized a drive to collect shoes, socks and shoelaces for needy orphans. Looking for a service project to do for one of his classes, Andrew and his mother found information on the Internet about conducting a shoe drive, and sent away for instructions and an informational video.

“I always knew some orphanages were poor,” Andrew explained, “but I never knew they sometimes had to choose between food, or clothing and shoes.”

He wrote letters to four elementary school principals in his town and got permission to collect donations in their schools. He then wrote articles for his school newsletter, created a handout explaining his project, decorated collection boxes for each school, and solicited donations from local department stores. Andrew ended up collecting 213 pairs of usable shoes, 83 pairs of socks, and 15 sets of shoelaces. His teacher helped him pick up donations, which Andrew tied together, recorded and boxed for shipment to destinations throughout the world.

FRANK H. BRETZ

Frank Bretz is a visionary. He is one who recognizes a need and expands the need to fit the masses of many. His volunteer work began over 50 years ago. Where he was or is he continues to make the world a little better, one day at a time.

Recognizing a need at Hospice of Palm Beach County for horticulture therapy, plant day began. Bretz thought about who else might benefit from plants. An organization for disabled children became the recipients of many starter plants. An organization housing families of chronically ill children now has a lovely garden.

Holiday time five years ago, Bretz and a few volunteers baked cookies for families of terminally ill patients. These cookies were personally delivered giving them a touch of happiness during a difficult time. This year over 15,000 cookies will be baked for Hospice of Palm Beach County families. Bretz is now affectionately known as the Cookie Monster. The tears and letter of thanks are worth it all. He still oversees this operation, with more love and dedication than you can imagine.

During Bretz’s tenure with Café Joshua, an organization that serves meals to the homeless in a restaurant environment complete with waiters, he saw a need. The homeless really had no one to talk to. Table companions consisting of volunteers who dines with the homeless is now a tradition. Sometimes the smallest gesture means the most. Bretz’s perception, drive and completion of these efforts are shown in the number of hours served each week. At Hospice of Palm Beach County alone, he spends 20 hours per week. Frank Bretz is 80 years old.

He has been instrumental in patient care, spending numerous hours doing what most patients relish, listening. He takes special assignments to deal with difficult patients. His volunteer efforts are also instrumental in helping those employees who may be stressed, knowing that making their lives a little easier will ultimately have that positive effect on patients and their families. In his spare time he makes cross-stitch gifts for departments of Hospice, recognizing them for what they do.

For 16 weeks, in an effort to reach the community as a whole, Bretz wrote and moderated a local television program aimed at senior citizen issues.

Frank Bretz volunteers his time, his love, his compassion, and his knowledge. He is paving the road for the future of volunteerism, recognizing that somewhere, at sometime, each of us might need a person like him, who recognizes the need for the extraordinary as well as ordinary.

READING RANGERS

A Reading Ranger program was developed to bring awareness to students and teachers of the opportunities for learning through the National Park Service (NPS). It involved Volunteer Senior Rangers and staff members reading to K-6th grade students in a 100-mile radius of Beatrice. Books were age appropriate and connected the students to the themes of Homestead National Monument of America. The 25 readers read to 36 classrooms for a total of 825 students over 7 days.

This project was launched with the Governor and First Lady of Nebraska reading to Beatrice children. It ties directly to the First Lady of Nebraska’s “Read to Your Children” campaign. Family bonds were emphasized by many volunteers who read to their grandchildren while building a connection to the park. One grandfather traveled 300 miles in order to read to his grandchildren’s classrooms. The teachers enjoyed having the interaction and learning associated with the chosen books, and curriculum-based education programs explained. The older students were encouraged to read more and the value of a college education emphasized.

Volunteers developed enhancements to their own programs. While reading the book “Seaman, the Captain’s Dog” which is about Lewis and Clark’s Newfoundland dog, one volunteer read the book and another joined at the end with his Newfoundland dog. The project brought greater awareness to the National Park Service, Homestead National Monument of America and the Web Ranger program. This project coincided with the launching of the Web Ranger program, so students and teachers were given copies of the Web ranger rackcard which shows them how to access other learning opportunities through the National Park Service over the Internet.

The Reading Ranger program connects rural populations with free educational activities. The community has many low-income and at risk children that take information home to their parents. The activities of Homestead National Monument of America are free to anyone. This program encourages senior citizens to work with the day care centers and schools to develop a love of reading. Many of the volunteers requested and assisted in working with their own grandchildren’s classrooms, which encouraged an intergenerational connection in the schools.

The curriculum-based education programs at Homestead National Monument of America are growing to more than 14,000 students participating each year as more teachers learn about the program. Taking the coordination of education resources found in the NPS directly to teachers is an innovative approach. Using senior citizen volunteers, especially when going to their own grandchildren’s classroom, also makes this program possible, since the staff could not provide all the programs requested.

TIMOTHY A. MILLER

The Texas EquuSearch Mounted Search and recovery Team (TES) was founded by Mr. Timothy (Tim) A. Miller in August 2000 with the purpose to provide volunteer horse mounted search and recovery resources for the search of lost and missing persons.

The TES was started in North Galveston County, Texas because of the high incidence of missing persons in this largely undeveloped area. TES is dedicated to the memory of Laura Miller, a young woman abducted and murdered in 1984 and the daughter of Tim Miller. TES is composed of volunteers of various talents, including experienced horse owners. TES has recruited more than 250+ members over the years, conducting searches locally, statewide, and nationally. TES is a nonprofit and funded solely by donations from team members and the surrounding communities. Mr. Miller receives, infrequently, a small stipend that helps to defray some of his personal TES expenses as its director.

The TES organization is compassionate and dedicated. TES’s fundamental belief is that we can better ourselves by working together to help the community and people in need. Many TES members are trained in various rescue and life saving skills such as CPR, advanced lifesaving skills, aircraft search operations. Members come from all walks of life…business owners, medics, firefighters, housewives, electricians, pilots, and students. Resources range from horse and rider teams to foot searchers, water (divers, boats) air (planes, helicopters), dog teams (air scent, cadaver, and tracking) and ATVs. TES is a professional organization that takes notification of, and the search for, a missing person very seriously.

Much thought was given by Tim Miller to the idea of forming TES. The following words are Tim Miller’s own, and the spirit of the TES mission:

“…I know how important a search and rescue team can be. My daughter, Laura Miller was abducted in September of 1984. I went to the police department to report her missing and file a missing persons report. Five months prior to Laura’s disappearance the remains of a young lady named Heidi Villareal Fye, were found on some property at an abandoned oil field on Calder Road in League City, Texas. I told the police officer taking the report of my concerns, and would they please check the area where she had been found, or tell me where it was located so that I might check myself. Of course they said Laura is sixteen, she ran away and will be coming back home…I found out that Heidi had only lived 4 blocks from our house. So I went back to the police station to tell them my new worries about the close location of our houses and could they go and check the field where Heidi was or please take me to where it was located. Again they said Laura was sixteen and she had run away so we should go home and wait by the phone for her to call. The days turned into weeks, weeks into months…still no Laura. Seventeen months later, kids were riding dirt bikes on Calder Road when they smelled foul odor…it was in fact the remains of a female who had been there approximately two months. The police were called out to investigate, and during the investigation stumbled across the remains of yet another female some sixty feet from the other. These remains of the other girl found were those of my daughter, Laura Miller…These were by far the most frustrating and lonely seventeen months of my life and there was some feeling of relief when Laura was found, at least now we know. I often think of what would have changed back in 1984 when Laura disappeared, if there has been a Texas EquuSearch. Would Laura have been found alive?…Would Jane Doe have been murdered?…We could stay in the what ifs-what if we has search that field, what if we had had a rescue team, but we can also grow from these unfortunate (to say the least) events. Let’s grow way beyond the surrounding communities in helping to change the way we handle missing persons. …Our goal is to grow many times over and serve more and more communities so no family has to experience the feeling of hopelessness and loneliness if a loved one should ever disappear.” – Tim Miller

Law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, have credited TES with having perhaps the highest ‘find rate’ (about 70% -with nearly 85% of these found alive) of any search and rescue organization in our nation.

In October of 2002, having been invited by The White House, Tim Miller participated in ‘The White House Conference on Missing, Exploited, and Runaway Children’-conferring with President George W. Bush about Texas EquuSearch’s accomplishments.

PROJECT FOCUS (Families Overcoming Crisis Understanding Strengths)

Project FOCUS truly meets community needs by working with children who are living in alcoholic and other drug addicted environments. Six years ago, several counties collaboratively identified the need to provide prevention activities for children living in high stress situations. These activities include building resiliency skills, recognizing safe people (safe communities), building a sense of self through service, and adopting healthy life habits. Not surprisingly, these activities align with CARE’s most recent appointment as a Metro Detroit Site of Promise.

The collaborative and other local agencies that identified the need for a safe learning environment for some of the most vulnerable populations based their recommendations on facts. The University of Michigan survey provided data specific to Macomb County youth. Sixty-one percent of Macomb County 12th graders reported using alcohol and other drugs during the past month compared to the national average of 51 percent. Twenty-three percent of the nation’s 12th graders had used marijuana within the 30 days prior to the survey while 32% of Macomb County 12th graders reported use. Additionally, Macomb County ranks 62 out of 83 counties in teen suicide while the local child welfare agency reports that approximately 80% of their substituted child abuse and neglect cases involve the parent’s use of alcohol or other drugs.

The collaborative decided that they would offer children an opportunity to learn about alcoholism and other drug addiction, family dynamics along with skills that would help them make healthy choices as they grow older. Project Focus offers two summer programs and two year-round programs that keep children, ages 3-13, and their families engaged. The messages are continually reinforced through hands on activities, mentors, and service learning projects. Both of the programs are offered at faith-based community centers that allow families’ access to other services. This strengthens the family’s ability to develop healthy family characteristics.

Project Focus is innovative in the respect that it offers long-term assistance to those children at high risk for alcoholism and other drug addiction. Most prevention programs are short in duration and offer somewhat of a band-aid approach to hard problems. Project Focus curriculum was developed by Maplegrove’s Children Program, a leader in the field of addiction and treatment. Jerry Moe, M.A., author and director of Children’s Programs at the Betty Ford Clinic says about CARE’s Project Focus, “This unique service provides summer (year round) support for youth who benefit from student assistance services through the school year. The professionalism, passion, and caring of your staff shines through.”

Over 550 families have participated in Project Focus over the past six years. Many of the children who took part as participants have returned as teen volunteers. In part, because CARE offers this program, the local child welfare agency has housed a Family-to-Family Project at a community center. Family to Family increases services to at risk families.

KANSAS CITY NEIGHBORHOOD ALLIANCE

KCNA, whose motto is “because strong cities are built on strong neighborhoods,” will celebrate 25 years of service in the Urban Core of Kansas City. This year it has focused on the low- to moderate-income families. KCNA staff and board are constantly seeking additional ways to fulfill its vision and mission. KCNA’s vision is that Kansas City’s neighborhoods are safe, strong, stable, and attractive places where people are proud to live. This is done by following is mission of strengthening the social, financial, and physical infrastructure of neighborhoods through programming, education, and housing opportunities.

In 2004, KCNA has increased its use of volunteers to help fulfill its vision. A brief summary of some of the volunteer activities that have been coordinated by KCNA to mobilize different segments of the population from the community to improve Kansas City’s neighborhoods follows.

Neighborhood mobilization of resident volunteers has always been encouraged, promoted, taught, and assisted by KCNA. Some of the 2004 volunteer activities that KCNA has partnered in organizing within urban core neighborhoods include the following: neighborhood clean-ups (trash, hazard waste, tree limbs, tires), neighborhood fundraising to meet a specific need within the neighborhood, surveying the housing conditions of the houses within a neighborhood to assist in developing a plan to address the unfavorable housing conditions. KCNA also helped volunteers to organize neighborhood crime patrols, and organize systemic ways to address code violations within neighborhoods.

LEAH SHRUM

Leah Shrum has donated countless hours with the Mississippi Valley Therapeutic Horsemanship organization since its inception four years ago. The main focus of her work is to provide people living with disabilities the opportunity to ride horses. Ms. Shrum meets with riders and instructs them for up to six hours at a time. She also trains the animals, cares for them and coordinates the veterinarian and farrier care.

Through Ms, Shrum’s work, she has touched the lives of countless children and adults who would not have the ability to ride horses without this outstanding program. She has also deeply impacted the lives of the families who commonly cry out in joy when they see what their loved ones can accomplish on horseback.

Ms. Shrum continues to work hard to advance this program even in the face of adversity. There have been two other programs like this that have failed before, but her dedication and hard work have made the Mississippi Valley Therapeutic Horsemanship Organization an amazing success. The program began with only one rider and now has blossomed to 15 with 45 additional students on the waiting list. In light of this, Ms. Shrum is pushing ahead to expand the program to let others with disabilities take advantage of this wonderful program.

While spending an enormous amount of her time with the Mississippi Valley Therapeutic Horsemanship Organization she has also found time to volunteer in countless other programs. Ms. Shrum is currently the President of a School Board, an assistant basketball coach, a minister, a volunteer school nurse and she works with a local junior youth group and helps assists other organizations in writing grants. Her boundless energy and willingness to help the community has been an inspiration to everyone she meets.

SUMTER SENIOR SERVICES

Sumter Senior Services was established in 1968 as a private nonprofit organization to promote the social, mental and physical welfare of elderly citizens in Sumter County, South Carolina. They are a part of a statewide network of service providers for older adults working under the Lieutenant Governor’s Office – Office on Aging.

The Agency’s guiding philosophy is that everyone has an obligation to assist the seniors. These older Americans have spent their working years building our communities and providing programs and services. We would not have what we have today had it not been for the struggles of the seniors. It is time for us to assist them in living a dignified life in a home setting for as long as they can.

Sumter Senior Services provides a variety of services to the senior population. The primary services are home delivered meals, noonday meals at Senior Centers and transportation. The other services include the operation of 7 senior center that provide a congregate meal for seniors as well as activities, computer classes, ceramic classes, arts and crafts and games. The transportation services provide seniors with a way to get to the senior centers, doctor appointments and recreational trips.

In addition, Home Care and Respite Services including light housekeeping and respite care for caregivers are offered. They also offer a Health/Wellness Program, which includes health screenings, health education and fitness training. The seniors receive information on resources and services available within the community and are referred to appropriate agencies if needed. They also offer Public Benefits Counseling and Assistance. These services include information on supplemental insurance policies, housing assistance, living will and health care powers of attorney.

The Agency also sponsors the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP). RSVP has volunteer opportunities that are offered to active and retired seniors residing in Sumter County at a variety of settings located throughout the community.

Last year, the Senior Services provided in excess of 127,000 meals and traveled 114,474 miles to provide senior adult services. They also provide more than 13,000 hours of Homecare and Companion services as well as 4,357 hours of Fitness/Wellness training. The Sumter Senior Services provide seniors with a place to enjoy fellowship, share a meal, activities, and learn new skills and physical fitness programs.

JANE METZLER-POTZ

Jane has served as an important volunteer for the March of Dimes Connecticut chapter through the Willimantic Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies Coalition, since 1990. Windham is an economically distressed municipality and is one of the top 5 poorest towns in the state. As coordinator, Jane organized local health care providers and institutions across racial/ethnic boundaries to address teen pregnancy prevention, provide community baby showers, and trainings for health care providers. For 14 years, in her statewide role as Advisory Committee member, she helped plan and execute both quarterly trainings on significant maternal/child issues and an annual conference on prenatal health, i.e. substance abuse and pregnancy.

In addition, Jane has served on the Willimantic WalkAmerica volunteer committee since 1999, mobilizing diverse community volunteers to enthusiastically raise funds, to disseminate March of Dimes folic acid, prenatal and immunization materials, and to help raise premature prevention awareness.

In 2000, she received a community grant to conduct bilingual outreach to pregnant women, and those planning pregnancies, in public housing projects, achieving 110% of project goals. By calling her initiative, Safe Pregnancy Parties, a word acceptable to community residents, and by conducting trainings in both English and Spanish, she successfully engaged teenagers and Latinas with positive self-care and birth outcome messages. Some of the parties were co-conducted with WIC and community health center staff, thus ensuring health care access for pregnant women who had delayed prenatal care entry and a healthy start for their infants.

In Jane’s professional life, she has been a key staff member for the Windham Regional Community Council, Inc. (WRCC) since 1983 when, in response to a community needs assessment, she was hired as the Director of the agency’s Youth Services Bureau, which provides 24-hour crisis hotline substance abuse prevention, AIDS risk reduction, teen pregnancy prevention, Juvenile Justice Center, and a host program serving over 5,000 youth and families each year in the Town of Windham.

For 11 years, Jane has served as Associate Director of the agency where she has been the key person responsible for the development of an Infant Mortality prevention program, an immunization-tracking program for children, oversight of the Windham AIDS Counseling and Testing, prevention services and a care treatment program. She also led the agency expansion into housing emergency and assistance services, further demonstrating community solution finding and connection building.