SUMMER SANCHEZ

Volunteering is just as much a part of Summer Sanchez’s life as going to school. Her service activities are very numerous and support various organizations and programs in the Danville, Alabama area. She is a very active teenager with the responsibilities and desires of most youth her age; however, she knows that giving back to her community is also important.

Summer teaches Sunday school and Vacation Bible School at Friendship Baptist Church. There she also serves as a nursery administrator. Summer is a leader at her church and a role model for other youth.

She attends Danville High School where she directed the Red Cross Blood Drive. Summer was responsible for making sure all the necessary staff and supplies were there. She also coordinated the student and staff sign-ups and ensured that all who attended were comfortable. Summer has also participated in the Alabama Paint Fest and collected cans for the school can food drive. Through Danville High School she has also volunteer with Supper with Santa and the Powder Puff Football game. In addition, Summer has served as Parliamentarian at Danville High School for the past two years.

Summer serves as a tutor for elementary students. She takes the time to help them with regards to their schoolwork and listen to their concerns. She organized the Baked Foods and Handicrafts at the Morgan County 4-H Round-Up in the spring. Summer is also a teen editor for The Decatur Daily and writes articles for the periodical. She was selected to serve on the committee for Citizenship Washington Focus, which was a seven-day tour to Washington, DC.

Summer is one of the few high school 4-H members in the Danville area. Though the meetings are after school, she still attends and works to recruit other teens to be a part of the great program. She works with her 4-H sponsor to be sure that others know the time and places of the meetings. Summer prepares materials and information for any members who cannot attend. She also works with the 4-H Mid-Winter Teen Retreat, which is a leadership camp at the Alabama 4-H Center. She has represented 4-H on a national level and brings that experience to her local chapter.

CHILDREN OF THE RAINBOW

In 1991, a social worker helped Gale Walker find her vision after years of struggling on welfare and mourning her mother’s death. She has been providing the same inspiration to her community ever since, creating hope for families in one of San Diego’s low-income neighborhoods.

Walker founded and runs Children of the Rainbow, a child-care organization that goes far beyond “babysitting” to nurturing about 200 children and strengthening their families. To accommodate the many shift workers in her area, Walker opens her two centers at 5 a.m. and closes them at 1 a.m. She accepts youngsters ranging in age from newborn to 14 so siblings can stay together. She hires the children’s older brothers and sisters after school to keep them off the streets and to build their self-esteem. And the children’s mothers and neighbors comprise half of the center’s 52 employees.

In 1985, Walker left her job as a U.S. postal worker in Dallas to return to her dying mother in San Diego. Depressed after her mother’s death, she turned to the welfare system to support herself and her two young sons until the government nudged her to find a job. She tried to find childcare but soon discovered only one son qualified for Head Start and the other would need to go into home-based care. “I didn’t want to separate my kids,” she says. “I told my social worker, and the next week she came back with the information I needed to start my own home-based child care.” Looking at the devastated neighborhood surrounding Walker’s home, a licensing agent made a comment that led Walker to begin surveying her neighbors and clients about what they needed, giving form to the community-based philosophy that has guided her mission ever since.

Walker has focused her centers on two key components: creativity through the arts and encouraging healthy lifestyles through nutrition. A neighborhood artist has graced the walls with murals, “Mr. Earl” plays lullabies on his saxophone, and teachers have wide latitude to use their imaginations. Two cooks work full time at the centers, fixing breakfast, lunch, dinner, and two snacks each day. And a large garden at her smaller center, a Victorian house where she and her sons also live, offers children lessons in nature, along with the fresh vegetables so difficult to find in the urban neighborhoods.

As she prepared to open two more centers before the end of 2001, Walker continued to listen to her neighbors’ needs beyond child care – lack of jobs, good grocery stores, reliable transportation, and decent housing. Walker and her neighbors developed a plan to establish the Bronze Triangle Community Development Corporation. The structure of a CDC will help the community draw employers and new services to three neighborhoods where the poverty level hovers at 50 percent.

Children of the Rainbow is a 2002 Honoree of Families Count, the national honors program that recognizes organizations that are making a difference in the lives of families struggling to survive in tough neighborhoods.

THE HEYMAN FAMILY

The Heyman family is committed to raising the awareness of fragile X syndrome. Scott Heyman was diagnosed with fragile X syndrome at the age of four, so the family had to learn as much as they could about the disorder. Fragile X syndrome is the leading cause of inherited mental retardation. Stephen Warren at Emory University identified the fragile X gene in 1991. The syndrome is caused by a change in the code of a particular gene on the X chromosome. The gene does not produce the protein it normally makes. Messages that must be sent and received for proper brain development and functioning are disrupted when this protein is missing. The syndrome causes any or all of a cluster of autistic-like characteristics like repetitive speech patterns, hand clapping, difficulty with eye contact and learning difficulties.

Gail Heyman is the Director of the Fragile X Association of Georgia. She founded this organization in 1992 with her sister. Her husband, Lyons Heyman, is an active Board Member who participates in the program and activities. In addition, Jared, Scott and Carly Heyman are each involved in the Association by serving as role models and speaking about sibling advocacy.

While demonstrating their love for their brother with special needs in a supportive way, the Heyman family has had a positive impact in their neighborhood, school and community by increasing awareness of fragile X syndrome. Carly, Scott and Jared have been interviewed by the newspapers, television and radio talk shows.

Carly was also inspired by her high school teacher to write about her experiences, hoping this will inspire other families and increase awareness and raise money for research. My extra Special Brother, How to Love, Understand and Celebrate a Sibling with Special Needs is written with complete candor. Carly entertains and teaches the reader about many of her experiences with her brother. She shares honestly her struggles, frustrations and finally her exhilaration as she learns the skills to cope with her brother’s limitations. She hopes that her journey from accepting to rejoicing in her brother’s individuality will be embraced by other siblings of children with special needs to inspire a closer relationship between them.

The book encourages family members to share in the joy and the challenges of having a child with special needs. Proceeds from the sale of this book will benefit children and families with fragile X syndrome through the Fragile X Association of Georgia.

Johnetta B. Cole, Ph. D., President of Bennett College, believes that Carly offers priceless counsel to anyone who has a sibling with special needs and what she shares about life with Scott is powerful advice for creating a positive relationship with any sibling. The Executive Director of the Georgia Special Olympics, Georgia Milton-Sheats, states that the book teaches wonderful life lessons, and that we should accept a person for the individual they are and that we all have challenges to address and overcome.

SOUPER BOWL OF CARING

A simple prayer inspired youth at a church in Columbia, SC to stand at church exits with soup pots, asking members to donate $1 each as they left worship on Super Bowl Sunday. That was 1990. Since becoming a national event in 1993, Souper Bowl of Caring has generated $20 million for the hungry and hurting across America.

Souper Bowl of Caring has become a growing and dynamic youth-led ministry. This grassroots, faith-based crusade against hunger is a simple movement filled with love. Every penny collected is sent directly to the soup kitchen, food bank, or other charity of each participating group’s choice. None of the money collected from the Souper Bowl offering comes to Souper Bowl Headquarters. Funds to cover administrative, printing and mailing costs are raised by Souper Bowl organizers through donations from businesses, charitable trusts, churches and individuals.

The Saturday before the big game, young people across the country are also asked to serve in their local communities as part of a national Service Blitz that is teaching youth and impacting lives around the world. Last year more than 10,000 young people put the Lord’s love in action and made a difference in their respective communities by serving in food banks, soup kitchens and other charities across the country.

The Souper Bowl began in a Senior High Youth Fellowship, and it continues to enable young people to see that, by the grace of a Higher Power, they can make a difference in the world. With the Souper Bowl, young people are involved in collecting donations and deciding where the proceeds will be sent.

In an age when division and dissension tear at the fabric of our society, Souper Bowl of Caring illustrates the wonderful possibilities that exist when we move beyond ourselves and work together in partnership with others. To manifest this partnership, Souper Bowl organizers ask participants to report their collection on game day. Totals are determined and announced to the media, on the Web site and in a follow-up newsletter.

Organizers firmly believe that this simple but significant movement is a gift from God. The Souper Bowl is fundamentally a faith initiative, as the idea was born of a prayer. However, schools, businesses, and other people of good will are encouraged to participate. All are welcome to join young people in this partnership of caring.

The Souper Bowl asks for only a dollar and, if participants wish, one non-perishable item. People may choose to give more, but organizers only ask for a dollar to illustrate the miraculous results when enough people give just a little. Simple though it is, this youth-led movement has the potential to transform Super Bowl weekend into a time of unprecedented caring, compassion and unity.

INSTITUTE FOR SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Brandi Stone-Miller never had a permanent home as a child. When she wasn’t living with her mother on public assistance, she was bouncing from one foster home to another. After leaving high school, she and her children lived in low-rent apartments while she eked out a living in menial jobs she hated. She knew she could do better, for herself and her children. After earning her GED, she struggled through five years of college and then set her sights on another goal — owning her own home. She realized her dream in less than a year with help from the Institute for Social and Economic Development.

Family stability is also important to the Institute for Social and Economic Development (ISED). For 15 years, ISED has worked to help 8,000 low-income Iowa families become economically self-sufficient by starting their own small businesses and saving for the future. John F. Else founded ISED after spending two years in Zimbabwe, helping development agencies establish microenterprises in rural areas. He learned firsthand the power of microenterprises as an avenue that families could take to increase their financial security. He returned to Iowa, committed to testing microenterprise development in the United States, and won a state contract to use the same techniques to work with welfare recipients from 12 of the state’s 99 counties. His success led Iowa to become the first state to obtain waivers from federal laws that made it difficult for welfare recipients to start small businesses.

ISED’s microenterprise classes guide prospective entrepreneurs step by step through writing a business plan, conducting feasibility studies, learning management skills and developing marketing and sales expertise. These entrepreneurs can then turn to ISED for seed money and ongoing advice as their businesses get started. With an unusually high success rate, almost 60 percent of the businesses supported by ISED are still generating family income and pride today.

Founded in 1988, ISED has expanded to five offices in Iowa and one in Omaha, Neb. ISED fans out to reach Iowa families living in rural areas as well. Through its consulting and research division, ISED is also helping government agencies and nonprofit organizations create effective economic and asset development programs in other communities nationwide.

Building on the success of its microenterprise program, ISED’s staff looked for other tools they could offer families to increase their financial assets. Families can now use ISED’s free tax assistance to avoid the high cost of tax preparation and get help claiming the Earned Income Tax Credit. With the income they gain from these financial supports, they can then open an individual development account (IDA). ISED’s Iowans Save! program matches a family’s deposits in an IDA and strengthens participants’ budgeting and other financial skills through program classes. Stone-Miller, who recently married, considered herself financially savvy before starting the classes, but she found herself learning valuable information.

The Institute for Social and Economic Development is a 2003 Honoree of Families Count, the national honors program that recognizes organizations that are making a difference in the lives of families struggling to survive in tough neighborhoods.

THE MASON FAMILY

Steve Mason and his family exemplify outstanding family volunteering. They work year round to improve their community’s awareness of the arts as foundation of higher-level thinking skills. Steve and Kym are advocates of the positive value of diversity and invest time and resources promoting the creative power of the Oklahoma City community.

The Mason family has worked at Arts Council programs such as Winter Tales Storytelling Festival and Opening Night. Steve and Kym are tremendous supporters of the Council’s After School Arts Program, and they have been active volunteers with the Festival of Arts for the past 15 years.

Steve Mason has been a member of the Board of Directors since 1999. He brought his personal and professional resources to the table for the benefit of the Arts Council of Oklahoma City. He has also co-chaired SeptemberFest, the statewide celebration of Oklahoma on the grounds of the Governors Mansion. In addition, he was instrumental in the On The Water Program for underserved youth that is now a program of the YMCA, and he serves on the advisory committee for the Oklahoma City Community Foundation’s After School Option s funding program.

Travis, George and Marie began volunteering with their parents almost from the time they could walk. The young Masons have learned philanthropy first hand and have a fund where nonprofit organizations are invited to submit a project for funding consideration. They go through a very thoughtful process of deciding how the funds will be dispersed with guidance, as opposed to decisions, from Kym and Steve. The Mason family is a volunteer package, and the children are now also involved in the planning, implementation and evaluation process.

Currently, the elder Masons are focusing on making this year’s Arts Festival more educationally enhancing. Travis is a basketball coach to a first grade team for a neighborhood school, and he and George have recently been solicited, considered and provided funds to the Boy Scouts and Oklahoma City Arts Council for specific projects. Travis, George and Marie will continue to organize and staff the booth for the Spring Arts Festival. Travis and George have also completed separate Boy Scout Eagle projects to benefit the community.

DONNA COMO

At one time, Donna Como was a mother who brought her children to Striving To Achieve & Reach Success, Inc. (STARS) youth center so they could participate in various activities. She was so impressed with the operation at STARS after a short period of time and decided she wanted to take a more active role. Como asked how she could contribute to the program, and since then she has become an integral part of the STARS team.

Initially, Como was the moderator for Girl Talk, and for the past few years she has been the Arts & Crafts instructor. Como has also become a role model for the STARS membership as well as for the residents for the community of Howard Beach, New York. STARS is run solely by volunteers and survives on donations, so they are delighted to have Como as a dedicated volunteer.

Every other Saturday, Como meets with a group of young people and helps them turn ordinary items into works of art in the Arts & Crafts program offered at STARS. She helps the youth develop their creativity and imagination as well as providing an outlet for the children to express themselves. They are also improving their listening and cooperation skills while participating in the program. When the projects are completed, the young people feel pride and accomplishment. Their time with Como helps to improve their self-esteem; they see they are capable of being “finishers” and they are able to create.

Como takes it upon herself to pay for all of the materials she uses for the arts class. She has helped STARS tremendously by this donation as it allows the children to continue to have the class when there may be little income or funds available from other sources.

Como has also recruited her mother and sister to volunteer with STARS; it is now a volunteering family affair. They act as her assistants in the Arts & Crafts program. As the program has grown, Como has also enlisted the age of her teenage daughter and pre-teen son. She is teaching them the value of giving back to the community while also giving them the opportunity to grow themselves.

HESTHER RIPPY

Hesther Rippy organizes students needing literacy help and trains tutors to provide necessary services. In the spring of 1998, Rippy came to the Family Literacy Center in Orem to learn how to replicate a literacy center in Lehi. She watched the students and tutors working together and the parental involvement. She saw the students raise their skills by a half grade level each month. Rippy was determined to have this for her city and saw the need to help parents gain skill and values for supporting the literacy efforts.

Rippy attended the Family Literacy tutoring classes. She sought advice from the staff and from the governing and executive boards. She also went to the Mayor and presented her need to have Lehi City’s help. In July of 1998, Rippy was given a small area in the Lehi Arts Building for Family Literacy. Each month, the program grew and after three years of determination and long hours of work; she has gained three large rooms at the Lehi Art Center. She now has satellite programs at Sego and Lehi Elementary along with Lehi Jr. and Sr. High Schools.

Rippy also started an English as a Second Language (ESL) Program at Thanksgiving Point and now at the Lehi Center. She and her staff evaluated students at the local schools and found that many needing help with reading. Currently, the Lehi Literacy Center teaches in excess of 200 students one-on-one.

The Family Literacy Program in Lehi has been very successful under Rippy’s direction. She is making significant differences with each student as they progress to reading on grade level. She has even become skilled at screening students and being able to prescribe for them an individualized program tailored to their needs. She still helps train and work with the tutors, and everyone working with the program has observed continuous progress. The Family Literacy Program is working so well in Lehi, it is a model for other cities and elementary schools. An educator visited from Alabama in July of 2001 and has now started a center in Alabama.

WITNESS JUSTICE

Under the direction of founders Helga West and Randy West, the national organization, Witness Justice was created, launched and has grown into a powerful resource for survivors of violent crime throughout the country. The combined total volunteer hours of the Wests exceed 3,100. During this time, they incorporated the organization and achieved 501(c)(3) designation, developed a sound business plan, delivered various victim programs, recruited a reputable board of directors, applied for and received several grants and have provided direct victim services. In their quest to lessen the disparity in victim services from one community to the next and ensuring that every victim has access to support through the healing and criminal justice processes, they have created an organization that fills a gap in service.

In the United States, citizens have a one in five chance of falling victim to violent crime at some point in their lifetimes. Currently, less than 50% of victims report their crimes, making individuals ineligible for victim services through the state attorney’s office or local governments. In addition, there are many communities without victim support programs. Witness Justice fills these gaps by offering support 24 hours a day, regardless of where, when or how the crime took place. They give all victims equal access to information and support and the empowerment to heal in the process.

Witness Justice promotes connection in a number of ways. They have a virtual community in which victims can connect with one another. They also have a portion on their web site called “Stories Like Yours” where diverse survivor stories are shared so that victims will understand that healing looks and feels differently for everyone and feeling and encounters are more common than one might believe. One of the most requested services is the expert corps of volunteers. Professionals in mental health, security, psychology, relationships, criminal justice and other areas answer specific victim inquiries.

Witness Justice has been in existence for more than two years. They have had an excess of 340,000 visitors to its web site, and hundreds of victims have called their hotline or emailed with requests for direct services or expert volunteer consultation. Their services have become so strong and reputable that referrals now come from law enforcement and state attorney offices. These services have been provided as a result of their committed volunteers as they do not yet have any paid staff.

MARIE MAYEDA TRYON

Marie Tryon has been serving as a volunteer for Ogden City Fire Department in excess of eight years. Annually she volunteers more than 200 hours with the organization. She uses her skills and abilities to help educate the residents of Ogden.

Tryon is instrumental in the writing, music and production of scripts for the public education programs. These programs are geared toward elementary children from kindergarten to 6th grade. The Fire Department visits more than 17 elementary schools. They reach approximately 10,000 to 12,000 children during the school year. Tryon teaches the message of fire and life safety.

Tryon’s involvement in the educational program is directly impacting the community. Because of the fire and safety presentations, the number of juvenile arsons in the Ogden area has been reduced by more than 70% over the past nine years. She has helped develop new ideas to keep the children interested and continue to teach them about safety.

As a result of the time Tryon has volunteered, the Fire Department has received two grants from Kimberly Clark. The $1,000 grant has helped the department obtain a better sound system, props, puppets and clothing for the clowns.

Tryon is an integral part of the Ogden City Fire Department’s public education program. As a result of her volunteering, they are able to produce the quality show they provide because they do not have a budget to pay someone for the amount of time that is spent with this program. During the last eight years, Tryon has donated more than $24,000 of her time.