ALAN DONN & DOROTHY HOLLE AND FAMILY

Alan Donn, his wife Dorothy, and his parents Ruth and Ray, are the organizers of a combined team of AT&T and IBM’ers in Tampa, Florida, for the annual Florida Coastal Cleanup. The Florida Coastal Cleanup is part of the International Coastal Cleanup held worldwide on the same day. The goal is to rid shorelines and oceans of trash and debris. Starting with 25 volunteers in 1993, the Donn Family has increased the participation to 97 volunteers in 2001. Through their efforts land that was previously a dumping ground has been transformed into a pristine area which the Southwest Florida Water Management District is developing into a new Tampa Park to be enjoyed by everyone this year. Dorothy Holle-Donn, Ray and Ruth Donn work with Al to get both groups the necessary materials, such as posters, gloves, trash bags, forms for items collected, t-shirts, etc. to the two sites. The annual event planning includes many AT&T and IBM families. An itemized list of what was collected is kept by each volunteer group. These lists have been used to get valuable legislation enacted. Unwanted beach debris is a constant concern especially since with Florida’s long coastline. This is a problem for the wildlife and the public. Tourism is one of Florida’s main industries. The Donn family and their volunteers are assisting with the local economy to keep Florida beautiful. Local storms that leave behind debris to wash up on Florida’s shores as well as people not disposing of their trash properly, cause health and safety hazards to both humans and wildlife, such as fish, birds, turtles, etc. In 2001, AT&T employees chose this project as one of five “AT&T Champions of the Environment” program winners. With this award came $1000, which was donated to Keep Hillsborough County Beautiful, a not-for-profit organization. Application for an AT&T CARES grant has been made. The Donn family has seen many children over the years become ecologically involved. These children were introduced, at an early age, to beach cleanup through this annual event. Through their school years, they continued to volunteer to help in preserving our environment. It has also been a wonderful opportunity for families to work together and teach public responsibility. Al and his wife volunteer their time with children, even though they do not have children of their won, at the National Teach-In, and work also with disabled children. Al and Dorothy also work with the local Sierra Club. The local AT&T Poineers Club of Tampa continues to support the Annual Florida Coastal Cleanup because of Al Donn and his family. We know it is a very worthwhile project.

ARMELLA BARNES

Settled in 1857, South Jordan was primarily a rural farming community when it became incorporated as a town in 1935. In 1960, the population was 1,354, and by 1970 the population had more than doubled to 2,942. Housing gradually started to replace farmland as the population once again more than doubled by 1980. South Jordan's exponential growth since the early 1970s has brought all the challenges and opportunities of growth. The current population is estimated to be 33,010. Armella Barnes has been involved as a volunteer in South Jordan since 1996. She initially began serving on the Public Safety Committee as an alternate Board Member. She has been an integral member of the Public Safety Committee since then. Their collective responsibilities include how to coordinate and distribute resources subsequent to a disaster, how to best address fire and police budgetary requirements, graffiti removal, city clean-up tasks, street sidewalk, and other structure safety, as well as civilian education through various city, state and federal sponsored programs. Barnes is now a Board Member serving as a Liaison to the fire department. In her capacity as a Board Member, Barnes advises the fire department on safety issues facing the community. Barnes has also been instrumental in providing equipment for the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) Incident Command Trailer. In 1998, Barnes accepted the position of CERT Coordinator and oversees all training and CERT volunteer membership. Because of her involvement, emergency training has increased and more citizens and private business employees are now trained in emergency response. Barnes also serves as chairperson for the CERT Committee, which is the fire department’s right hand in the coordination of volunteers in the event of an emergency. In addition, Barnes assists the fire department as an EMT Instructor and CPR Instructor. She has assisted the Fire Prevention Division in the middle schools and helped to instruct more than 1500 students in CPR. Though Armella Barnes has a family and other responsibilities, she takes the time to make her community a better place. She spends many hours of service away from her home to provide South Jordan City with necessary equipment and training needs.

BRIAN & JO ANN BARRETT

Brian and Jo Ann Barrett volunteer their time, talents, and money to Girl Scouts of Othaki Council, Mississipi Valley Therapeutic Horsemanship, and to area school systems such as Notre Dame High School and St. Vincent de Paul School. The Barrett’s are enormous assets for the Girl Scouts, working at both the troop and council levels. They have served as committee members of troops 25 and 45 for 18 years, accumulating nearly 900 hours of work; and as Brownie leaders of troop 45 for one year, they have accumulated 60 hours. Being troop leader and committee member involves planning and implementing programs at troop meetings, ensuring the safety of the girls, transporting girls to events, and communicating with parents. At the council level, the Barretts served as coordinators of “Third Grade Brownie Holiday” for the past three years and “Goblin Getaway” last year. These programs include organizing and planning activities for the Girl Scout Council, which includes eleven counties in Missouri and Illinois. They have served as wranglers and head wranglers for the council’s horseback riding program for six years, which involves teaching girls of all ages to ride horses as well as providing them with information regarding saddles and equipment, horse care, and horse temperament. When girls are taught horseback riding, they build confidence and self-esteem. Additionally, the Barretts have served on the Camping Service Operating Unit for three years and helped with the Cherokee Ridge Work Day for five years. Furthermore, the Barretts donate their time to raise money for two local school systems. For the past ten years, they have helped with the St. Vincent de Paul Grade School Dinner Auction and have also been volunteering with the Notre Dame High School Bingo weekly for four years. The Barretts have given 75 hours of service to the Mississippi Valley Therapeutic Horsemanship program that benefits children with physical and developmental disabilities involving muscles. They lead horses, aid as side walkers, and assist the therapists and children in therapy on the horses. It would be impossible to count the number of people the Barretts have served or helped to serve. They go above and beyond the call of duty working tirelessly to make a difference in the lives of children of all ages, disabilities, and backgrounds. Without people like them, many of these activities would not be available because the organizations rely heavily on volunteers in order to exist. Brian and Jo Ann are for the betterment of society no matter what the temperature is, how much time it takes, or what challenges are brought before them.

CAROL MOORE

Perspectives Family Center and RESTART program share a unique partnership to assist homeless women. The Institute of Real Estate Management (IREM) realized that there is a great need to help women who have been on drugs, involved with domestic violence or institutions by training them to become self-sufficient. They became concerned that spiraling housing costs, combined with welfare reform would put many more families on the street.

They work together and provide job training, job placements with competitive wages, future advancement and residency that accompanies the job placement. This partnership gives homeless women the change to obtain a respectful and affordable living situation for their families and a way to support their families on their own. The real estate industry gains well-trained and motivated employees and the women gain self- respect, a good paying job with a future and affordable housing.

Kathleen McKenna-Harmon has been the driving force behind this partnership. She has taken this mission on almost single handedly to promote this program within her industry and community. But most importantly, she has been an invaluable role model, support and cheerleader for the women participating. She has successfully convinced they women that they are worth this opportunity if they want to work for it, and she will be there in any capacity to support them as long as they are doing they part.

McKenna-Harmon has worked passionately on behalf of the women in the RESTART program. These women have very few job skills, but she has developed, recruited, trained and even found employers who will hire the women as resident managers. Because of this, the residents of Perspectives Family Center can move out of transitional housing and into permanent housing with benefits. The women are happy with the time and the “gift” of being able to obtain employment opportunities; however, they are most happy that they can become contributing members to society and have their dignity. For the first time, many of these women are excited about their own potential.

McKenna-Harmon takes a group of women who have failed by society’s standards and works with them to realize their potential and become professional women with a sense of self-esteem and self-worth. The women learn every aspect of the property management business and have the opportunity to go further once they graduate. IREM and McKenna-Harmon will then work with them so they can attain their real estate licenses. McKenna-Harmon is not about a lot of words; she is a woman of action. Her actions have affected many women and their children and resulted in a better Eden Prairie community.

Manuel L. Valente

Plymouth County’s 27 communities in southeastern Massachusetts have no volunteer center nor any other regional organization or mechanism for encouraging voluntary citizen participation. Manny Valente worked with local citizens to create a new, non-profit corporation, Mayflower RSVP, Inc., to fill the gap. Incorporated on December 14, 1999, Mayflower RSVP initiates projects and programs that mobilize volunteer service activities to bring about the changes people need in their lives. He was an organizing member of the board for Mayflower RSVP, Inc., and now holds the office of Treasurer.

During RSVP’s first year, he volunteered for special events of the fledgling organization to engage others to serve. His personal efforts brought new visitors to Evanswood Center for Older Adults on Make a Difference Day last October, hosted volunteers from all walks of service at an open house during National Volunteer Week in April, and provide ongoing administrative support to the staff of RSVP—besides signing all the checks twice each month.

Mr. Valente’s personal commitment to citizen volunteering is not new to his role with Mayflower RSVP. He has served more than 50 years as a citizen volunteer. He designed budgets for the Town of Plymouth on their Finance Committee in the early 1950s. As a member of the local Kiwanis Club, he’s worked on countless fundraisers for them since 1960, delivered Meals-on-Wheels with them to local shut-ins, and has been the Kiwanis Secretary for the past decade. Even when he was working full-time in his florist ship, he displayed the kind of caring that earned him the nickname “Mr. Goodbar.” He worked long hours after the shop closed up for the night—often during the holidays, because, as he told his children, “someone always needs flowers.” He’s built his life around seeing what someone needs—and then delivering it himself.

The creation of Mayflower RSVP, Inc. has resulted in the Senior Corps’ RSVP program serving Plymouth County this past year and providing for people 55 and older, and has provided the means to organize volunteer services that allow change to ameliorate people’s lives. Last April, Mayflower RSVP, Inc. made a targeted outreach to the Town of Plymouth for National Volunteer Week’s “Red V Campaign.” All 400 residents of Plymouth who serve on Councils, Committees, Commissions or Task Forces for the town, or who provided direct services to residents at the public library, recycling center or the Senior Center, received a “Red V” in their thank-you letter from America’s Home Town.

Jackie Santos

Jackie Santos is a mentor with the PATs Program through the Volunteer Center of Bergen County, Inc. Time is the most precious gift a person can give, and though it is free; it is sometimes the most hardest gift to part with. Santos is the mother of three young children and holds a management position with a large bank. However, she makes the time to be a part of 18 year-old Lucy’s life and Lucy’s 15 month old son.

Santos completed the PAT’s fifteen-hour training in the Fall of 2001. She was then matched with “Lucy,” a seventeen year old teen mom. Lucy’s parents are deceased, and she has been an open DYFS case for most of her life. She has lived a live replete with abuse, betrayal and loss. However, the saddest dimension of her and her baby’s life was that they had virtually no adult support or encourangement.

At the time of their meeting, she was living in a group home, not working and not attending GED prep classes on a regular basis. Santos and Lucy formed an almost immediate bonds which continues to grow. With Santos’ caring support and encouragement, Lucy’s situation has changed for the better. Lucy is now in school, working and living in a stable home for the first time in many years.

Her relationship with Santos has caused her to think about choices before she makes them and realize the affects of what she does. She is more confident in herself as a young woman and is realizing her potential more and more each day. Santos makes herself available to help Lucy with every aspect of her life and she rejoices with Lucy after each new obstacle has been overcome.

In addition to being a caring support person in Lucy’;s life, Santos has been a determined advocate for her mentee within the system. She has also provided practical partening and life skills. Clearly her most important contribution has been that she is always there for Lucy. At present, Lucy and the baby are doing well and hopeful about their future.

Philadelphia Young Playwrights

Since 1987, Philadelphia Young Playwrights has provided quality literacy and arts education for the diverse communities in and around the city of Philadelphia. Their mission is to tap into the potential of youth and inspire learning through playwriting.

Young Playwrights? core program is one year long and takes place in the classroom during the school day. Young Playwrights employs professional teaching artists from the Philadelphia community and pairs them with classroom teachers to form Artistic Teams. Together these teams design and implement an intensive curriculum of playwriting in the classroom. Annually, Young Playwrights serves over fifty classrooms in a broad spectrum of city and suburban and public and private schools.

The yearlong program promotes academic skills, literacy, creativity, problem solving, self-esteem, theatre skills and motivation for students of varying backgrounds and academic abilities. Spending twenty-five hours in the classroom and devoting personal attention to each student, artists and teachers partner up to teach students how to tell their stories through playwriting.

Young Playwrights treats all students with respect as writers, and expects and receives high standards and professionalism from the students because they listen to what the students have to say. They transform the lives of young people by engaging them in their own education and retooling the system in which they learn.

At the end of the school year, students who choose to may submit their finished scripts to Young Playwrights Annual Play Festival. This year, nearly 800 students submitted scripts, and each of those students will receive a personal response to their play from Young Playwright’s Literacy Committee. The committee selects winners from the elementary, middle and high school levels. Winning plays are given staged readings and professional productions with Philadelphia community partners, Barnes & Noble Booksellers, Temple University’s Department of Theater, InterAct Theatre Company and Philadelphia Theatre Company.

Young Playwrights program is effective because it begins with one simple truth ?every student has something to say. For many of the students, that is a new way of thinking. They began to value their opinion and think more highly of themselves. They believe their ideas matter, and they become intent on getting them heard.

Daily Bread Christian Service Center

Orlando was a small town about to burst into a metropolis. Tourism, plentiful jobs, and a great climate teamed up to draw thousands to Central Florida. It was the 1970’s and the boom was on. Nobody was ready, however, for the changes the boom would bring.

It was only a matter of time before private and public resources were exhausted, leaving many who had come to share in the success alone and forgotten in the shadows of the community. Everyone joined in—churches, businesses, civic groups, foundations, and individuals—and the Christian Service Center for Central Florida was formed.

Through Daily Bread, meals were served, the hungry were fed, and many were given other assistance such as leads on jobs, overnight housing, medical assistance, transportation assistance, or referrals to other agencies. Twenty-six years later, it’s the new millennium, and yet poverty and hunger still exist in Central Florida. Thankfully the Christian Service Center is still there to help those who are hungry. Daily Bread will feed up to 500 people on any given day. To date, over 2.25 million meals have been served. Many that they serve are chronic homeless and/or mentally ill who eat at Daily Bread every day. They also serve those in the community who are commonly referred to as the “working poor,” those who are striving to make ends meet, and do—barely.

In September 2000, Daily Bread expanded its services once again. In an effort to keep the homeless off the streets of downtown Orlando, the Center opened a Friday night coffee house in the downtown Orlando Daily Bread building. The coffeehouse opens its doors the first and third Friday of each month. The Center provides coffee, refreshments, music and games to all who attend. The evening is co-sponsored by Inner-city Community Church and Barnie’s Coffee.

Daily Bread has allowed the Center to reach out and touch those in need at their most vulnerable time and lead them into a family of service organizations to offer a hand up, not a hand out.

Youth in Action Council

The Youth in Action council group has been working together for almost four years, implementing programs in the community. A result of a national pilot program sponsored by the National 4-H Council, this group has been credited for founding an after-school literacy program for the county.

More than 85% of the K through 5th graders in the community have been served by this organization, and volunteers ranging from ages 12-86 have been responsible for implementing this program. This group has written and received many grants and donation to fund their after-school program.

The city Chamber of Commerce recently recognized four members of the core team as the “Top Community Organization of the Year.” This group has worked very hard throughout the years and deserves to be recognized for their great efforts.”

Rev. C. Edward and Mrs. Gloria Shipman

In 1975, Rev. C. Edward and Gloria Shipman founded Happy Hill Farm Academy/Home, a residential school for severely disadvantaged children and youth in Granbury, Texas. The Shipman’s wanted to give at-risk young people safety, nurturing and the education they need to become productive citizens. Today, 110 boys and girls between the ages of 5 and 18 now live, work and study on the 500-acre farm campus located southwest of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.

Because of the Shipman’s vision, sacrifices, commitment and talents, hundreds of young people headed for delinquency are now exemplary, happy and fruitful young adults. Hundreds more of today’s youth and those in the future will benefit from the legacy created by the Shipman’s. In addition, the Happy Hill Farm Academy model is inspiring other people to create similar programs in communities across the country.

Before creating Happy Hill Farm Academy/Home, Rev. Shipman was directing a private foundation and pastoring part-time at a rural church. One evening the city marshal called asking for help with two runaway teenage girls. The Shipman’s agreed to take the girls in temporarily while looking for a permanent home for them. The Shipman’s did find a suitable place for the girls to live; and out of this challenge, Happy Hill Farm Academy/Home was ultimately born.

Happy Hill Farm Academy/home was set up as a non-profit charity and the Shipman’s deeded their assets to the non-profit entity. The Shipman’s leased their first living unit from friends and both families lived together with five foster boys for the first three years. The Shipman’s two sons, Chuck and Todd, who grew up on the Farm, have gradually assumed a leadership role in the non-profit organization. Rev. Shipman is attempting to build an endowment to secure the future of the organization. Happy Hill Farm Academy/Home does not accept public funds but relies on foundations, corporations and individual donations.

Students at Happy Hill Farm Academy/Home come from backgrounds of abuse, neglect, and other family trauma. Having experienced only disappointment from adults, Happy Hill Farm Academy/Home is a complete change of environment, with safety, security, a good education in small classroom settings and the experience of being valued by adults they highly respect. Students live in homes housing eight boys or girls, with married couples and their children, attend the accredited K-12 school on campus and participate in a wide variety of athletic, academic, vocational, leadership, spiritual (interdenominational) and cultural activities. Instead of treating these youth as “poor clients with problems,” students are given the clear message that they are worthy of this investment of time and money.

Happy Hill Farm Academy/Home changes students’ horizons and broadens their dreams of what can be achieved with their lives.