GREG FORBES SIEGMAN
After graduating college at the top of his class, Greg Forbes Siegman walked away from his own lucrative career dreams to spend one year as a substitute schoolteacher in Chicago’s public schools. Two months into teaching, on March 8, 1997, Greg ran into two of his African-American students and took them for milkshakes. When the kids were treated poorly by a nearby customer, Greg was furious and vowed to return to the restaurant with ten people instead of two. In the process, he had started the BrunchBunch.com Program– bringing adults and students together over brunch on a weekly basis. 243 weeks later, Greg– now 29– had still never missed a single week of BrunchBunch.com. Not even four operations on his feet got in the way (the kids simply pushing him to brunch in a wheelchair). The one year teaching turned into five.
After the first 70 brunches, Greg created The 11-10-02 Foundation. Named after Greg’s 30th birthday and his belief young people can do anything, this 501c3 nonprofit organization oversees BrunchBunch.com and now gives out tens of thousands of dollars a year in grants and scholarships at their annual ShakingUpChicago.com Gala thanks to support from the likes of Kinko’s, AT&T Wireless Services, LaSalle National Bank Senior VP Michael W. Kiss, business advisor David Weinbeg, global consulting firm Strategos and the Gordon & Karen Millner Family Foundation. To raise funds– and to prove his principle that everyone and everything in life has value– Siegman has made a practice of selling seemingly ordinary items for extraordinary prices (convincing Nordstrom, for example, to pay $8000 for the piece of a Sprite can and later this year, auctioning off a piece of a baseball and the splinters of his Grandma’s rocking chair). The bulk of the funds raised by 11-10-02 now come from its “Milkshake” Campaign — instead of just taking kids for shakes, Siegman now sells shakes for $7500 apiece (and notes it is a fair price because it comes with a straw).
Greg has still never taken a salary for his efforts– still substitute teaching to this day while also speaking at companies, conferences, colleges and schools around the country. The principle behind ’11-10-02′ that young people are as capable as anyone has been put into practice as well thanks to the efforts of talented interns like Michael Berardini of Lake Forest High School, Kris Ekdahl of Latin School, Katrina Beltran of Loyola University and Naomi Fox of Highland Park.
Greg Forbes Siegman, whose stockbroker dad named him after the magazine, said he could not have made the foundation a success without his parents’ (unwitting) support. He joked, “Every year, my Dad sends me the Crain’s Book of Lists in the hope that I’ll go work for one of the CEOs featured inside of it. And every year, I end up convincing those CEOs to come volunteer with The 11-10-02 Foundation. It’s been a huge boost to our efforts.”
Jokes aside, Siegman insists that while his parents do wish he was more concerned with IPOs than SATs, they still remain the two most supportive people he knows and uses the lessons they taught him daily. He said, “My dad taught me that an investor invests not just in companies but in the people who are part of them. He also taught me that return is a function of risk. I never wanted to follow the Forbes family’s footsteps or for that matter, my dad’s, but in the end, ironically enough, in trying so hard to carve out my own path, I’ve ended up doing exactly what they do — investing in people– and in the process, I discovered my Dad was right– the risk may be greater when you invest in something or someone in whom nobody else believes– but the return is too.”
In a fitting irony, Siegman now even consults his Dad on the stock market but notes “some things will probably never change. He still ignores me when (CNN Anchor) Lou Dobbs is talking.”
For more information about Greg and The 11-10-02 Foundation, go to www.ShakingUpChicago.com
THOMAS TURNER
Thomas Turner has been an active community volunteer for over 45 years. At the age of 86, he devotes an average of 40 hours per week to helping seniors and young people in the Greater Cincinnati area and his local community, Georgetown.
A former professional baseball player with the Negro League’s Chicago American Giants, Turner began his public service in the 1960’s by organizing and coaching title-winning girls’ softball teams. His expert advice helped start more than 300 women’s slow-pitch teams.
Leveraging his relationships with former Negro League baseball players, Turner provided the leadership that helped form Seniors With A Purpose (SWAP). SWAP, made up of a local group of noted Negro League players, bridges community gaps with youth through participation in the lives of seniors. SWAP members seek to share their experiences and pass on the historical wisdom that made them successful. Members are active, signing on for speaking engagements, personal appearances and baseball clinics at elementary, junior and senior high schools, colleges, churches and civic organizations.
Turner holds a special place in his heart for the seniors in nursing homes. He volunteers weekly at the Villa and Locust Ridge nursing homes, leading the seniors in entertaining activities, poetry readings, sing-a-longs, and Bible trivia games. An accomplished cook, Turner makes special desserts for the seniors and often invites them to his home for dinner. Turner brings the generations together by enlisting Georgetown High School students to push wheelchairs for disabled seniors at the annual Brown County Fair. A man who likes to stay busy, Turner finds time to head up the Brown County Alzheimer’s Fundraiser and Annual Memory Walk.
Turner was born in Olive Branch, Tennessee, but grew up in Glendale, Ohio and lived most of his adult life in Cincinnati. He attended Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee, Alabama, on a football scholarship. Turner has been admitted to the Negro League Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri.
Said Turner: “I feel blessed to be able to perform small acts of kindness that can brighten a few minutes of someone’s day. Spending time talking, teaching and learning with both the young and the old gives me a new perspective from which to view the cycle of life. I’m honored to be among those recognized by the Points of Light Foundation.”
ORANGE HATS
Some of the toughest neighborhoods in the country are those that are located in large inner-city urban areas. Citizens of these neighborhoods are often portrayed in the media as apathetic in the fight against crime and, in some cases, even sympathetic to those perpetrating the crimes. However, in some communities, angry citizens once polarized by the fear of crime have discovered a new tool to take back their streets. Their discovery coupled with a renewed resolve to fight back is one reason that crime rates across the country have diminished in recent years.
These brave men and women have found that by working together in groups to patrol their streets, they can deter crime. The largest of the organized citizen patrol groups is the Orange Hats, known for the orange baseball caps they wear as a sign of solidarity. Founded in 1988 by Ed Johnson in the Fairlawn section of Southeast Washington, DC, the Orange Hats have grown through replication throughout the District of Columbia and in communities across the country. Each Orange Hat group consists of 5-50 members who band together to walk the streets of their community during the evening enough to deter crime, they often do much more than just walk. They utilize camcorders to videotape drug dealers, write down the license plates of suspicious cards and stay in constant contact with walkie-talkies and cell phones.
While Johnson is acknowledged as the founder of the Orange Hats, Jim Foreman is generally given credit for popularizing and expanding the idea. Foreman was a member of Johnson’s patrol and as word of the Orange Hats’ success spread, other neighborhoods asked for assistance in initiating similar groups. Thanks to the efforts of Foreman, Eleanor Hill and many other leaders of this movement, more than 250 Orange Hat patrol groups across the country have been formed. Foreman often travels when he is requested to do so by concerned citizens interested in forming an Orange Hat patrol.
One example of his travels is a recent trip to El Paso, Texas, where at the request of the Justice Department, Foreman met with a group of citizens and provided them with the training they need to form a patrol group. Today, although there is no official count, membership in Orange Hat patrols is estimated to number more than 14, 000.
The Orange Hats have not yet put an end to crime, but they have made a difference in their own neighborhoods by discouraging drug dealing and crime in general. The citizens of Washington owe a debt of gratitude to Jim Foreman and to all those patrol group members who are making the effort to take back their streets.
SONDRA CLARK
Sondra Clark has published two books, is a motivational speaker, and has her own line of craft projects at the ripe old age of 11 years old. She has always been motivated to use her skills and abilities to help children in less fortunate situations. Sondra has utilized unique and creative ways to raise money and support other children who are in need.
At eight years old, Sondra penned her first book, Craft Fun with Sondra. Sondra tried to teach some children crafts and realized they did not now how to use a bottle of glue or take off marker caps. She wrote the craft book after deciding she wanted to financially support Bethany Adoption Services. Due to the book sales, she has donated more than $2,000 to Bethany. Sondra wrote her second book at the age of nine and the proceeds from that book went to Childcare International. To date, Sondra has donated over $3,500 to them. For more information on Sondra’s craft work, visit Sondra’s craft site.
Childcare International requested Sondra be a “spokeschild” for their organization. She speaks at schools, churches, and conferences where she gives information about the organization. Sondra also asks those at the conferences to sponsor a child for $25 per month. She was able to visit Africa and see first-hand what other children have to go through every day. Several villages she visited had no electricity or running water. Children go to school from 8:00 to 5:00 and have dirt floors, no electricity, and few school supplies. Sondra saw a village where half of the community was infected with AIDS. She also saw a shack where three young boys live alone because both of their parents died of the disease.
Sondra was able to teach games, songs, and interact with hundreds of children. She even held a little baby whose father had died and mother was dying of AIDS. Sondra collected 140 t-shirts from her school friends before her trip. She took them to Africa and gave the children an opportunity to “shop” for clothing. The group set up a pretend store and allowed the children to have their choice of clothing and select a t-shirt on their own. Sondra also visited an orphanage run by Childcare International. There, one woman cooks three meals a day for more than 100 children using only a few pots over an open fire.
Sondra is an example for her peers and adults as well. She also gives motivational speeches at schools and conferences. She writes articles for magazines about the importance of volunteering, and she is a part of an on-going project that will provide aid for children in Haiti, India, and Africa.
VOLUNTEER SERVICES PROGRAM AT METHODIST REHABILITATION CENTER
Patients at Methodist Rehabilitation Center deal with the effects of stroke, traumatic brain injury, and spinal cord injury. One of the goals of rehabilitation is to help the patient return to his/her former life, and a job is a vital step in that process.
There are currently 100 volunteers in the volunteer program. As volunteers talk about their volunteer experiences to others they encounter, others come to join in helping people with disabilities realize that they can do almost anything they did before their trauma.
One of the volunteers is now retired from her position as Certified Rehabilitation Counselor and gives her time to visit patients and explain to them the options open to them in the work place. She assists them with finding a job suitable for them when they leave the hospital. This type of one-on-one help would be too expensive for most patients, but they receive this assistance at no charge thanks to the volunteer program.
The volunteer program has been in place since the hospital opened in 1975, and they are a permanent organization. The volunteers make a difference in patients’ lives by reading, writing letters, delivering mail and newspapers, pushing wheelchair patients to occupational, physical and respiratory therapy, celebrating patients’ birthdays, and many other acts each day.
A serious social problem for people with disabilities is filling their time after they leave the hospital. One of the ways volunteers have helped solve this problem in an innovative way is with art lessons for patients. A volunteer artist and volunteer art teacher met with patients to teach basic skills. Another volunteer donated frames so that each participant could have a piece of their artwork framed to take with them when they went home. Some patients have discovered talent and ability that they had no idea they possessed. They gain a hobby and possibly even a source of income.
As volunteers help to change the attitudes of individual patients, their families, and their friends, community attitudes will also gradually change. When helping a patient eat, the volunteers show with words and body language that it is their privilege to help with this most basic of human needs. In small increments, these volunteers are changing in the minds of individuals.
PAUL BALES-2
Paul Bales’service to the people of Blount County, Tennessee began when he was just a child. He is employed with The Daily Times , and his service continues today. His first service project at age six was picking strawberries. He was paid two cents a cup, and Bales used the earnings to buy cookies for residents of the near-by Blount County Poor Farm. He loves animals, and he would also take his dog around for people to pet and enjoy while he passed out cookies.
When Bales was seven, he learned to hop the trains that passed through the County. There he saw hobos, and he soon began taking food to those he met along the way. Bales’ service has taken other forms since he has matured, but the results are the same. He feeds the hungry, helps those who are cold gain shelter or warmth, and the lonely are blessed with fellowship.
Paul Bales has been chairman of the Empty Pantry Fund, which is an organization that buys and delivers food to the needy of Blunt County during the holidays, for the past 43 years. He oversees the annual budget, which was $62,000 in 2001 and coordinates the activities of the 1,500 volunteers in the program. More than 100 million pounds of food have been distributed. The number of baskets has grown from 50 in his first year as chairman to 1,400 this past year. Each of the baskets contains enough food to feed a family of four for over a week.
Bales also initiated Coats for the Cold and served as its chairman in 1997 and 1998. Because of his efforts, over 1,000 coats were donated and then given to those in need. He paid all advertisement, building space rental, and other incidental expenses. In 1999, Bales also created a similar program in 1999, which distributed over 18,000 baby items to those in need. He also paid the expenses for this program.
In 1994, Bales founded Operation Big Yellow. This is a safety check of local school buses prior to the beginning of the school year set up to ensure the children’s safety. The state of Tennessee provides the safety check forms, but Bales pays the expenses. He did not stop there; in 1995 he chaired an event that raised over $26,000 to buy car child restraints for families who could not afford them. He also helped raise funds for the Boys Club of Blount County and helped organize the first Teen Safe Driving Club in the county. As chairman of the Maryville Kiwanis Carnival for over 25 years, Bales has been instrumental in raising more than $100,000 to be used in local youth programs.
Senior citizens have also benefited from Bales’ service. He has paid for refreshments and entertained more than 100 people at Broadway Towers, which is a housing unit for the elderly. Paul Bales has served them since 1999. In addition, he initiated Protect the Ones that Serve. This is a program that involves providing bulletproof vests for local law enforcement personnel. He led the effort to raise $26,000 to fund the cost of the vests.
SENIOR CONNECTIONS AMERICORPS
The Green River Area Development District “Senior Connections” AmeriCorps seeks to improve the quality of life for the at-risk elderly in Western Kentucky by providing in-home assistance in the areas of chores, home management, home repairs and caregiver relief in an effort to improve the quality of life for more than 300 seniors in the seven counties they serve. Their service in the community goes far beyond the normal 8-4:30 routines. The program does not require weekend and evening activities but all of the events have had a team of members responding to recognized needs. “Senior Connections” members are assigned to various sites in the counties of the Green River Area Development District. Each placement is in response to recognized needs of its senior population within a given community. The members have a role description, which outlines their service. The “Senior Connections” AmeriCorps members go far beyond that what that role description entails. They do not need to be asked – they just do what needs to be done. Examples include:
- The City of Livermore has a citywide potluck on Veteran’s Day and 10 members went on a Saturday to set up the tables, roll silverware, serve the residents, wash dishes and take the tables down.
- Daviess and Ohio County’s “Repair Affair” each had a team of members respond on a Saturday to provide much needed repairs to the homes of low income senior homeowners.
- A garden was planted for the residents of a local nursing home as well as several special parties planned and implemented.
- The local Red Cross chapter provided additional disaster response training on a Saturday. Members arrived to assist and participate in the training.
- The Long-Term Care Ombudsmen needed additional volunteers to visit and monitor the area nursing homes and members responded.
- Hospice had patients who needed respite care on weekends so their caregiver could attend church services and members assisted with this request.
On January 3, 2000, a tornado struck Owensboro. By 7pm that day, the “Senior Connections” members were helping the American Red Cross set up the shelter to care for those who were displaced as a result of the disaster. For the next three weeks, in addition to maintaining their clients, the members staffed the shelter, delivered meals on the Emergency Response Vehicles, sorted and delivered cleaning supplies, and assisted with damage assessment. The members were also instrumental in providing a Christmas party for the 300 children who literally had their Christmas “fly out the window” as a result of the tornado. The members picked up toys donated by area merchants, sorted them by age groups, staffed the party and helped with the cleanup. All of this was in addition to serving their senior clients.
Clients often call and give thanks to members who stopped by to check them on a Saturday or came to the hospital to visit them or called to make sure they were all right in the evening. Clients have called the express gratitude for the groceries or rides to the doctor, or the fresh vegetables left on their porch. None of these activities are part of the “Senior Connections” members’ service assignment. What is done is volunteerism from the heart.
VOLUNTEERS FOR PEACE
Volunteers for Peace (VFP) has been a Vermont nonprofit membership corporation since 1982. VFP is totally membership supported and is in partnership with an international network of voluntary service organizations operating under UNESCO. VFP provides consultation and placement services for work camp host organizations (nonprofits) in the United States as well as providing thousands of voluntary service opportunities abroad for American students.
In 1982 VFP had its first work camp in Vermont where 19 volunteers from 11 countries came together to do a community service project. Since then VFP has introduced the work camp concept to dozens of nonprofit organizations in the United States and has provided them with volunteers to assist with their widely varied projects. Through its membership VFP has recruited thousands of U.S. volunteers to serve in projects around the world. While living in the community, the volunteers help to foster understanding between people of different backgrounds and cultures, promoting international peace.
VFP’s volunteers in the United States have provided thousands of hours of community service in the areas of: construction/renovation of low-income housing or community buildings; environmental education, trail building, repairing trail erosion, wildlife protection, park maintenance, organic farming; social services with children, the elderly, physically/mentally/emotionally disabled people, refugees, minority groups, people in drug/alcohol recovery, women’s shelters, homeless people, soup kitchens, halfway houses; HIV/AIDS education and services.
VFP’s programs are about intercultural immersion, communicating and adapting to different people, situations and living conditions. The programs are a way for volunteers to respond positively to the many challenges facing our planet. Because volunteers at each site usually come from several different countries they learn a lot about one another’s cultural, social, economic, and political conditions. Volunteers build bonds and friendships that often last a lifetime. They also have a strong impact on the community in which they are living and working.
Since 1982, when VFP hosted 19 volunteers, VFP has placed more than 12,000 volunteers in international and domestic service projects. The volunteers come from around the world to work on worthwhile projects, providing thousands of hours of free labor to the host organizations. The U.S. programs have grown in number from one in 1982, to 65 in 2000. Through its partner organization network VFP offered over 1,500 volunteer opportunities worldwide in the year 2000.
VFP’s US programs are hosted by nonprofit organizations. VFP provides volunteers to these organizations to work on many varied and ongoing projects. Some of these organizations have been receiving VFP volunteers for more than 15 years. Some of them take time off to reorganize or fund-raise and then return as project hosts. Many programs have on-going projects that require volunteers to return every year. Many of VFP’s volunteers participate in multiple programs and come back year after year to serve in the same or new locations.
DON HAIDL
Although volunteer participation in meeting the public safety needs of the community has been a long-standing tradition of civilization, Don Haidl has taken it to a new level. With over 15 years service as a volunteer reserve law enforcement officer, he had come to the conclusion that while the existing benefits to the community were commendable, more could be attained.
The depth of Haidl’s convictions and commitment to this concept was demonstrated in January 1999 when he accepted the responsibility of the uncompensated position of Assistant Sheriff at the Orange County Sheriff’s Department and was tasked with managing that department’s Reserve Division. Although directly involved in the management of a national corporation, Haidl has, for the past two years, committed between 30 and 50 hours per week to Sheriff’s Department operations.
The Orange County Sheriff’s Department is committed to providing a safe environment for all residents, businesses, and visitors; but as with any governmental entity, it must do so both effectively and efficiently. The members of the Reserve Division under Haidl’s direction have contributed significantly to the department’s ability to fulfill this commitment. Members of the eight specialized units under Haidl’s direction have logged more than 70,000 hours of service assisting the Sheriff’s Department in meeting the law enforcement needs of Orange County. These services would otherwise have cost taxpayers $3 million in salaries. This could not have been attained without Haidl’s planning, prioritizing and goal setting. His success in this endeavor is evidenced by that fact that over the past two years, the number of volunteer members in the Reserve Division has doubled.
Other units have seen similar increases in them membership also as a result of his dedication. This enables them to provide more support to departmental operations. The Uniformed Patrol unit augments the traditional law enforcement operational functions and provides security at major events. The Search and Rescue Unit is operationally active on an almost weekly basis. The Investigative Unit completes background checks for regular and reserve applicants. The Harbor Reserve Unit works with departmental personnel at three county harbors, the Administrative Unit handles recruiting, processing and testing.
Haidl designed and implemented an innovative Professional Services Reserve Unit. This program works as a mechanism through which law enforcement can avail itself of knowledge and experience professionals in highly technical and sophisticated fields have attained. This unit alone is comprised of about 200 members. These are experts in the area of law, medicine, finances, computer technology, arts and training who volunteer their expertise to assist the Orange County Sheriff’s Department in effectively incorporating cutting-edge technology and concepts into its operations to better serve the public. This program has been so successful that it has been duplicated in four other counties within the state.
SHORE INTERMEDIATE MAINTENANCE ACTIVITY
Shore Intermediate Maintenance Activity (SIMA), Norfolk provides a wide variety of community service efforts through the Adopt-a-School program with area elementary and vocational schools and Junior Achievement Consultant Programs. The team of volunteers takes on their tasks with a great deal of pride and satisfaction, providing positive role models to the communities’ youth and knowing that the students they train today will be future leaders of tomorrow. As the U.S. Navy’s largest maintenance activity, SIMA Norfolk has a proud tradition of assisting our nation’s youth by providing a unique perspective into the world of high production industrial maintenance.
Norfolk volunteers spend countless hours at Norfolk Technical Vocational Center (NTVC) and Church land Academy assisting students and teachers in teaching highly technical curriculums such as air conditioning principles, electrical repair, and computer network administration. The volunteers also serve as safety observers and guides during many school field trips and during laboratory work. Another example of SIMA’s sincere commitment to education is the scholarship fund awarded each year for the past three years to two graduating seniors at NTVC in the amount of $1000 each. The funds were raised through donut sales and volunteering off-duty hours manning a concession booth at Harbor Park during Norfolk Tides baseball games. In addition, SIMA Norfolk provided apprenticeship opportunities to three students from the Chesapeake Bay Academy. Students learned skills in database entry; computer aided engraving processes, and production documentation and tracking.
Operation School Supplies was developed to gather much needed school supplies for low-income children. Through their partnership with WAVY TV-10, a program was developed for the drop-off, pick-up, sorting, warehousing, and distribution of donated school supplies. In 2000, 65 SIMA Norfolk volunteers provided more than 2,300 off-duty man-hours collecting, transporting, warehousing, and distributing 22,000 different school supplies, double the number of school supplies collected from the previous year. More than 62,000 low-income children across the Tidewater community, in eight different school districts, benefited directly from this project.
The Coats for Kids Project collected useable winter coats for low-income children of Hampton Roads area. This project was a combined effort between WAVY TV-10, McDonalds, Albano Cleaners, and SIMA. In 2000,47 SIMA volunteers provided 1,200 off-duty man-hours collecting coats. As a result of their efforts, over 10,000 needy people were provided with a warm winter coat to wear last year when the area experienced severe inclement weather.
Southeastern Virginia Food bank works to ensure food is provided to low-income families. The partnership between the Food bank of Southeastern Virginia and SIMA has been long and beneficial to the people of South Hampton Roads. In 2000,350 SIMA volunteers provided 6,000 man-hours making this project a great success, evidenced by SIMA Norfolk winning the food bank’s military volunteer award for two consecutive years.
