KHADIJAH AMATULLAH
Drug abuse, hunger, and violence within families are issues that overshadow citizens of Cincinnati, Ohio’s everyday lives. These issues pose such a problem that most people choose to remove them from their consciousness. They choose to overlook these things and pretend they are not there, in hopes they will not have to ever personally handle a volatile situation. Khadijah Amatullah has impacted the lives of many in Ohio and helped them reach a higher potential, change their life situation, and become positive members of society.
Khadijah Amatullah stepped forward as a mentor, leader, facilitator, and a coordinator working against overwhelming odds. Because of her initiative, hundreds of youth throughout the City of Cincinnati are served at 13 sites. Three Square Music Foundation board members and chairperson supported this effort. This program offers drug awareness education, homework labs, art, music, and computer help. It works to reduce the involvement of youth in drug related activities by offering positive educational and recreational programs.
Amatullah also volunteers in coordination with the Gimmentti Bakery. There, she transports, coordinates, and distributes bread products to women’s shelters and needy families. In addition to this, Amatullah is on the Homeownership Center of Cincinnati and Avondale Redevelopment Board and a part of the Greater Cincinnati Mortgage Counseling. Amatullah educates and aids low-income families by teaching them and providing them with the information they need to become homeowners. She instills individuals with pride and personal responsibility in the communities where they live.
Amatullah works with the Beech Acres as a volunteer group facilitator. There she offers focus groups to divorced families and encourages them toward introspection, which helps to reduce anger within the families and restore family values. She has also developed and coordinated a free tutoring and mentoring program for youth in need of educational support. Amatullah recruits college students to go to the homes of those in need and give them support in their empowerment through education. She serves as Volunteer Community Coordinator with Hamilton County Community partnership. She serves more than 11 communities, and she helps to develop programs that create drug free and violence free environments. She also works with families to develop life skills, communication, and employment.
Amatullah may not be able to measure the success of every program she is involved in; however, results have been widespread and encouraging. Pregnancy rates have lowered because of the empowerment and increased self-esteem of individuals. Economic bases have broadened, which affects many families and in some cases entire communities because individuals were able to overcome barriers and go back to work. Hundreds of people in the Cincinnati area have been affected by Khadijah Amatullah’s work. She is a volunteer as well as a business owner. Through her business, Amatullah has donated more than 2,000 fingerprinting kits, some smoke detectors, coloring books, and educational aids for teen drivers. This also results in a more informed, safer community.
ANTHONY PIRAINO
Anthony Piraino is a husband and father and works a full-time job. However, he still finds time in his busy schedule to work to make his community a better place to live. Since 1992, he has founded three organizations that are solving problems prevalent in his Phoenix community.
In 1992, Piraino founded the Northwest Block Watch Coalition (NWBWC). This is a nonprofit crime prevention organization whose mission is to bring the community together while also taking a stand against criminals. Piraino and the Coalition urge citizens to get involved and keep watch for each other so they all can benefit. They refuse to allow a criminal element to take over and intimidate them in their own neighborhood.
Piraino also founded the Graffiti Hotline. This program offers rewards anonymously to citizens willing to identify graffiti vandals. Since its inception, the Hotline has received more than 26,430 calls, established in excess of 1,420 cases, and paid more than $91,200 in rewards. The Graffiti Hotline is also responsible for more than 716 arrests. They are definitely making a statement to vandals in the community that they care and they will no longer stand by and see it being destroyed.
The Stealth Team is another of Piraino’s projects. During the last six years, Piraino and his Team have painted over more than 425,000 square feet of graffiti. Daily, the team goes out at sunrise canvassing the neighborhoods. They take a donated truck with a professional paint-spraying rig and paint over graffiti that was put up the night before. The Stealth Team also takes digital pictures of the tags or the graffiti artist’s signatures. These tags are placed in a database along with other information and have been used to successfully prosecute vandals. In addition to the tagging data, police handwriting experts work to apprehend and charge vandals. They can then be held financially responsible for the damage. To date, this Team has tracked more than 3,000 vandals and traveled in excess of 15,000 miles, painting out graffiti.
In addition to going out on the truck, Piraino attacks the vandalism problem by going to schools, crime prevention fairs, block watch meetings and community gatherings. He speaks to the old and young alike and distributes t-shirts, posters and pencils, along with a candid message. Some children look at graffiti as harmless; they are unaware that the annual cost associated with graffiti and cleaning it up is approximately $15 billion annually in America. Piraino has also initiated a home painting program for seniors and disabled citizens who are not able to do their own upkeep. During the past two years, Piraino and NWBWC volunteers have painted 30 houses.
Piraino’s programs have been so successful that they have reduced graffiti by 92% in their area over the past six years. Because of his positive impact and innovative programs, Piraino has been asked to take his messages to other states and police conferences. He has also been the guest of the Australian government so he could share his programs and views on combating graffiti. Anthony Piraino works tirelessly to make Phoenix a better place to visit and live and willingly shares his successful methods with others so they can achieve the same results in their communities.
BOYD AMERICAN LEGION AUXILIARY JUNIOR DIVISION POST 326
The Boyd American Legion Auxiliary Junior Division Post 326 has a sincere commitment to making life better for the youth and elderly in Boyd, Wisconsin. They are especially dedicated to serving children with life challenging or life threatening illnesses. The Junior members are an example to their peers as well as adults because of their spirit and selfless attitudes. They work at Alumni tournaments, school play concessions, bike-a-thons, raffles, and other fundraisers to help children facing difficult times.
Thirty-five Junior members worked over 150 hours at the Alumni tournament. There they handled statistics, admissions, registration, and concessions. The Juniors received money from concessions and used it to buy a Spinoza Bear for Logan. The bear is a stuffed bear that has a hidden cassette player that helps console children with life challenging disabilities. Logan is a five-year-old with a chromosome disorder who cannot walk or talk. Logan also has poor vision and lacks motor skills. The Juniors adopted Logan as a special friend and even invited him to ride on their floats in the Memorial Day parade.
The Juniors also work at the school play concessions. The money earned from there went to the purchase of a computer for another friend, Hailey. She is a two-year-old little girl with Downs syndrome who is recovering from heart surgery that also slowed her development. Hailey and 10 of her friends are able to participate with the Juniors in the water therapy program. The Junior members have volunteered more than 50 hours this year with this particular program.
Another project the Juniors work with is the bike-a-thon. The members organize, plan, and participate in this event. The proceeds go to the Make-a-Wish foundation that provides a favorite wish for a child with a life threatening illness. The Juniors also sell raffle tickets, and the proceeds go to Zackary’s Benefit Fund. Zackary is a six-year-old boy who was diagnosed with leukemia and undergoes chemotherapy treatment. The funds are used to help with his medical costs. The Juniors were also able to purchase Zackary a radio controlled truck.
Thirty of the Juniors helped to put on a Halloween youth dance. The ladies organized the dance, decorated, ran a fortune telling booth, served as DJ’s, and helped with games and clean up. The proceeds earned at the dance were used to purchase Nintendo games for Nicklaus who is a seven-year-old boy that underwent brain surgery to remove a tumor. The games are used for therapy.
Other projects include fund-raisers used to purchase school supplies for needy children, canned food drives, clothing, and blanket drives, as well as book drives that help fill hospital libraries for children. They have also collected pull tabs for the Ronald McDonald House, taken mentally disabled children on field trips, visited nursing homes and taken residents for walks, taken treats to shut-ins on holidays, helped the elderly with yard work and errands, and delivered groceries to those that needed their services. The Juniors also volunteer more than 300 hours helping their peers that need extra help along with teaching youth sport skills.
BARBARA ANN KARMANOS CANCER INSTITUTE BREAST HEALTH EDUCATION SPEAKERS
The Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute is a unique, urban-based integrated system of research, patient care and education, dedicated to the prevention, early detection, treatment and eventual eradication of cancer. The Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute’s volunteer Breast Health Awareness Speakers present educational programs to community, business, religious and social groups on maintaining good breast health and the risks associated with breast cancer. The main focus of their outreach is to encourage women to be compliant with the designated breast cancer screening guidelines. These guidelines advocate all women to have an annual clinical breast exam performed by a physician or other health care provider, practice monthly breast self-examination, and obtain an annual screening mammogram for those women over forty.
These 2000 figures establish why this group initiated and continues this volunteer activity. It is estimated there will be nationally–182, 800 new cases of breast cancer and 40,800 deaths in Michigan–6, 700 new cases of breast cancer and 1,500 deaths. Research has proven that if women followed the above mentioned breast health practices, the number of yearly deaths could be reduced by 30%. Nationally that could mean a saving of 54,840 lives in Michigan, and this translates into saving approximately 2,011 lives each year.
Many women feel that the saving of even one life would justify this program; as a group their educational efforts save many lives yearly. Recently, there has been a community based research project added for those women attending health education programs. Volunteers, by phone, provide follow-up encouragement to any women reported as non-compliant (if over 40 and not having a mammogram within the last year) six months after each attended a program.
Although some of the volunteers are women who have not experienced breast cancer, the majority of them are breast cancer survivors. These volunteers present a slide show and narrative program every day of the week at numerous times for no charge. The programs are presented with the goal of providing women with the most current information available so that they can make healthy decisions about their personal health practices. During each presentation, the audience is able to ask questions and have them answered. Cancer survivors are utilized as speakers, and this allows each participant to see that a cancer diagnosis does not have to be a death sentence. They show that a rewarding and fulfilling life can be possible following diagnosis and treatment. The speakers address a need and are able to personally encourage best breast health practices and show that those practices can save lives.
In addition, the volunteers collaborate with a number of other community organizations. Many of the speakers have motivated individuals, groups, and companies to participate in the Komen Race for the Cure. Last year, the Michigan race alone raised over $1 million and $700,000 of the proceeds went to local breast caner education, research, and treatment. The Institute’s formal Breast Health Education began with 15 volunteer speakers in 1995. To date, they have presented 124 programs and reached 4,559 people.
THE ASSOCIATION FOR SENIOR CITIZENS
Elizabeth Cohill founded The Association for Senior Citizens 20 years ago at 22 years of age and continues to serve as its Executive Director. The goal of the organization is to promote the self-sufficiency of all senior citizens and to ensure that no senior in the Denver Metro area goes without the necessities of life including food, shelter and public services. She is committed to the elderly and has obtained the support of contributors such as the Denver Broncos/NFL Quarterback Award and the Bronco Wives’ Food Committee. These relationships help the Association to continue to have volunteers and the financial means necessary to serve the elderly of Metro Denver. In addition to founding The Association for Senior Citizens, Cohill established the Tibetan Blues Bash and the Northwest Council for Seniors.
During the year 2000, more than 250 seniors from Denver needed emergency assistance. This money was needed to pay rent, utilities, phone, medical bills and other necessities. The seniors reciprocate by volunteering time or repayment of their loans in small amounts. The Association for Senior Citizens, along with the Northwest Council for Seniors, prevented more than 150 seniors from becoming homeless, kept utilities connected for more than 80 seniors, and loaned approximately 50 wheelchairs, walkers, canes, crutches, bed pads and tub benches. Many of the seniors need more than one service and are able to receive what is necessary.
In addition, the association provides nutrition for seniors. For two hours every Wednesday, approximately 170 seniors receive packages of food from the food bank. When the seniors come to the food bank, they receive prepared bags of groceries and are able to choose their own breads and vegetables in a country market setting. Last year they gave out 8,609 bags and provided more than 3,000 Meals on Wheels. Commodities are distributed every third Thursday to about 80 seniors, and last year they totaled 962.
The association’s Winona Court residence rents rooms at reasonable rates to seven seniors and provides a live-in manager who cooks the evening meal and serves it family style. During their dinners the residents exchange ideas and information on needed services to help one another. Winona Court is able to serve seven seniors; however, the association has a Volunteer Services Coordinator, also. They provide more than 100 seniors a friendly home visit at least once a week. Last year the volunteers donated more than 3,700 hours of “house-calls.” Finally, the association started Operation Warm-Up, a program that provides warm clothing for seniors at a time when utilities have increased an average of 40 percent.
Cohill volunteered at the Colorado Christian Homoe from October 2000 to January 2002 for 15 hours per week. Cindy McKinney, Volunteer Coordiantor, stated that: “She was a dedicated volunteer that brought hope and joy to a child.” Cohill was also a Denver Partner for five years working with at risk children.
ASPIRE – UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE CENTER FOR GOVERNMENT TRAINING
The University of Tennessee believes teens are agents of change and are capable of addressing many issues they face today. Through Aspire, a youth development program serving high school students in the state of Tennessee, students are trained and empowered to take a leadership role in their schools and communities. Funding provided by the Tennessee Safe and Drug Free Schools and Communities Program allows The University of Tennessee, Center for Government Training, to administer the Aspire Program.
Adult sponsors from 19 schools and community agencies select eight diverse students to serve on their Aspire team. These students, who mirror the school they represent, participate in training sessions designed to enhance their leadership skills. Eight college students, as well as Tennessee’s Y.E.S. (Youth Engaged in Service) Ambassador provide the training.
Having received leadership training, Aspire teams are charged with designing and implementing service projects in their local areas. Through these student-initiated projects, teams address two specific program goals: They work to improve school climate as it to relate to safe and disciplined learning environment, and they change attitudes and norms regarding youth alcohol and other drug use.
Aspire teams are currently implementing a variety of projects. The Haywood County High School has trained its team in peer mediation. Mediators educate the student body about the mediation process and how it might solve a variety of school and personal conflicts. Morristown Hamblin East High School began a mentoring project serving incoming freshmen also. Team members visited eighth grade students throughout the school year to discuss topics such as choosing classes and extra-curricular activities. The mentors served as resources during the first week of school.
Humphrey’s County 4-H All Stars deliver an annual training program for 60 area eighth grade students on ethical leadership. The 4-H Aspire team designed this training based upon information learned at their regional Aspire training. Annually a celebration is held to close out the school year and recognize outstanding efforts of the volunteers. At the party, teams showcase their accomplishments and network with others from across the state to gain new ideas for the coming year. Student leaders facilitate many workshops so that others can learn how to duplicate their projects.
Aspire teams have had a positive impact on their communities. They have affected their peers and developed their own leadership skills through experiential learning. The volunteers determine the unmet needs in their school, and Aspire provides a framework within to problem solve. Aspire differs from many statewide programs in that resources are concentrated on students as the change agents in their community. The volunteers determine their greatest need and gives them the freedom to choose how to meet that need. The Aspire team members are selected from diverse environments and are therefore able to mobilize their peers through a personal connection.
REV. WILLIE WILSON
Reverend Willie F. Wilson has championed a unique blend of community outreach services tailored to the human needs of residents in the Anacostia region of southeast Washington, DC, which experiences chronic unemployment, poor social services, regular occurrences of violence and a chronic sense of hopelessness. A cornerstone of his approach is an innovative “liberation” theology that seeks to ignore denominationalism, unlock the inherent power within people to elevate every aspect of their lives, and improve the large community by stressing the responsibility that we all owe to the larger community.
Rev. Wilson’s ability to mobilize people of all walks is nothing short of phenomenal. As the local chair of the Million Man March (1998) and local organizer of the Million Family March (2000), he mobilized hundreds of thousands of volunteers and participants from all walks of life to come together in two of the most prophetic events the nation’s capital has ever seen.
Additionally, every summer for the last 17 years he chairs “Unifest,” which brings together the faith community, local vendors and businesses, and the entertainment industry to celebrate the region’s diversity in the largest outdoor festival of its kind in the nation – more than 200,000 people attended in June 2000 alone.
As Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Community Development Corporation, Rev. Wilson’s ongoing involvement to aid the economically and socially depressed is demonstrated in his “Square 5971” project. Through the acquisition and redevelopment of a major portion of an entire city block in Anacostia, not only will he house a small business incubator and health and fitness center, all of which will provide severely needed jobs in a region with double digit unemployment, but also a hospice facility for those suffering from AIDS and a day care facility for the working poor.
Additionally, he assists individuals with transforming income into wealth through his innovative program “Stop and Grow Rich,” which focuses on debt elimination. Also, in cooperation with Wells Fargo Bank, he assisted 75 first-time homebuyers in helping them repair their credit and by pre-screening loan applications. He has helped 20 families never previously involved in homeownership move in and stay in their first home.
Rev. Wilson’s sustained advocacy and commitment to meeting the human needs of the community, innovative and effective approach to inspiring people, ability to clearly articulate the needs of the community to policy and decision makers, and ability to mobilize the community, resulted in his selection to the University of the District of Columbia Board of Trustees.
SENIOR VOLUNTEER TUTORS AT KING ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
King Elementary is a hub of activity – both in shape and in scope. The award-winning school excels in an atmosphere where the assigned volunteers of the Louisville & Jefferson County, Kentucky Community Action Agency’s Seniors In Service (Retired and Senior Volunteer Program, Foster Grandparent Program and Family Friends Program) are considered as team members with staff. These 16 senior volunteers are focal points in the school’s ability to plan and implement scholastic assessments and achievements. They provided 4,150 service hours during calendar year 2000!
Over 400 students, K-5, are offered innovative, competitive and creative opportunities that build on the basic educational norms. The volunteers are an integral part of providing the foundation of academic achievements that enable students to reach beyond their initial obstacles to learning. The consistent, caring dedication of the RSVP, FGP and FFP volunteers is also a year-round constant as they move from school calendars to summer programming for an expanded age base that welcomes K-12.
In conjunction with the on-site Family Resource Center, the Big Brothers/Big Sisters, local YMCA and Vista; the senior volunteers continue their tutoring throughout summer months – preventing the normal reading regression experienced by students during their “off time.”
The energetic volunteers may be found in any of the “open space” classrooms. Often they are the safety valve for an emotionally upset child who needs more than just a teacher’s situational judgment.
Principal, Mae Kennerly, proudly proclaims the praises of these volunteers. And, the volunteers return her regard. The on-going training and support the staff gives the volunteers is also evidence of Kennerly’s standards of administrative excellence. The Resource Center Manager, Buddy Lee, shared monthly updates on new teaching and classroom management techniques.
The volunteers eagerly affirm that their duties give them great pleasure and a wonderful sense of accomplishment. They are not glory seeking, but are recognized with pizza parties, certificates, hearty doses of genuine affection from the children and deep gratitude from the parents. In addition, the RSVP, FGP and Family Friends Programs also participate in special days of acknowledgment for outstanding impact.
From an amazing 2nd Place finish against 800 teams of middle and high school students in a statewide stock market studies competition, “field day” rafting experiences on the Ohio River, performing arts groups in demand for public and private ceremonies, as a Kentucky Department of Education “Rewards Status” school, to partnership with a local bank; the volunteers of King Elementary help to make the school and community a better place.
DOMINICAN DENTAL MISSION PROJECT
The year 2001 marks the 20th anniversary of the Dominican Dental Mission Project (DDMP). Begun in 1982 as an individual effort by Dr. Francis G. Serio and continued under his direction, the DDMP has developed to the point where teams of 30-35 dentists from around the country and dental students from the University of Mississippi, University of Maryland, and Medical University of South Carolina volunteer their time each summer to provide a variety of dental services not otherwise available to the rural poor of the Dominican Republic. Over the years, these teams totaling 300 persons have provided in excess of US$6.5 million in dental care to approximately 43,000 individuals. After his first trip, Dr. Serio felt that in the face of the great need his efforts were but a grain of sand on the beach. Looking back, it is apparent that the DDMP has become the beach.
The DDMP is headquartered in the town of San Jose de Ocoa in the south central mountains of the Dominican Republic. The dental teams work closely with nuns belonging to the Religious Hospitallers of St. Joseph and Fr. Luis Quinn of the Scarboro Foreign Mission Society. The dental teams coordinate their activities with the local development association, Asociation Para El Desarollo de San Jose de Ocoa. In addition to serving the area around Ocoa, smaller dental teams serve the towns of Hondo Valle and El Cercado near the Haitian border.
There are several features that set the DDMP apart from many other dental mission efforts. Dental caries (decay) and periodontal (gum) disease are the two most widespread diseases worldwide. Dental infections are often painful and occasionally may be life-threatening. While many projects focus only on the provision of extraction services to combat these diseases, the DDMP provides extractions, both composite (tooth-colored) and amalgam (silver) fillings, preventive services including the distribution of toothbrushes and floss along with oral hygiene instructions, and the fabrication of removal appliances (partial plates) to replace missing upper front teeth. As it is often difficult if not impossible for many of the campesinos (country people)to get to town, the DDMP is completely mobile. The team heads to a different mountain village each day, converting a school room, rural clinic, or church into a dental clinic in about 45 minutes.
Each day’s activities are truly a group effort between the American volunteers and Dominican volunteers. Both groups are essential to the success of the project. While the American volunteers provide the bulk of the dentists and the equipment and supplies,, the Dominicans are responsible for transportation to and from each village, notifying each village of its appointed day, crowd control, and providing assistants for the dentists. Over the years, eight young Dominicans who started as assistants have become interested in dentistry and have received their dental training at the Universidad Autonoma de Santo Domingo. These Dominican dentists and students then return each summer to provide care to their fellow citizens as well.
The DDMP developed through an evolutionary process, at times with unpredictable consequences. The project grew and developed as more people became interested and more needs were identified. Several volunteers have either developed projects of their own or participated in other projects as a result of their contributions to the DDMP. DDMP volunteers have worked in countries including Jamaica, Belize, Vietnam, Cambodia, Venezuela, Mexico, Honduras, Ecuador and Haiti. Three marriages and one engagement are a direct result of the project.
Perhaps the most unexpected consequence is the effect the project has had on the Dominican people themselves. As mentioned, several Dominicans have become dentists as a direct result of their participation in the project. The most profound effect comes from Los Olvidados, the “Forgotten Ones,” who live literally at the end of the road in Hondo Valle. In their Christmas letter from the mission one year, it was stated that because the dentists return every year, these people know that God has not forgotten them. Giving people hope is perhaps the greatest power we have as human beings.
The DDMP is conducted under the auspices of the Catholic Medical Mission Board of New York, Inc. Funding is obtained from a variety of private sources including corporations, churches, and interested individuals. Dental manufacturers and suppliers have been very generous in providing donations of equipment and supplies. Through the generosity of its many benefactors, the DDMP has also been able to support many of the educational and humanitarian efforts in which the missionaries are involved.
COURTNEY COX
Although only 11 years old, Courtney Cox has accomplished extraordinary things. She was just about five years old when she first collected for a drive at church and has now logged more than 100 community service hours last year and nearly 40 hours this school year. She is also trying to surpass her own collection totals for the previous three years and has gathered more than 450 personal care items from hotels and thrift stores for use at homeless shelters so far this school year. Courtney displays her leadership, initiative and caring for the greater good through her participation in activities such as collecting toys and sporting goods for disaster victims, suitcases for foster children, supplies for animal shelters, adopting families and hosting parties at shelters for the holidays, performances for the elderly and helping to build a community playground.
Courtney’s selfless giving and energy sets her apart. Last summer, she volunteered more than 65 hours for a nonprofit agency that funds free or low cost mental health help for members of the community. Last October, Courtney learned the significance of pink ribbons and the importance of breast cancer awareness. She was amazed that a monthly self-exam and early detection could save women’s lives, yet not everyone performs them. Courtney decided she had to do something. She wrote to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation and received a generous gift of materials to educate and raise awareness. She recruited volunteers she worked with over the summer and provided more than 150 women with awareness materials. Making our mothers, grandmothers, daughters, sisters and friends aware of the importance of self-examinations, may have saved a life.
Last November, inspired by the church’s appeal for food donations and to help alleviate hunger, Courtney sought and received permission from her school and church and organized two food drives. Both were successful and altogether collected an estimated 600 pounds of food. Enough to feed one meal to nearly 1,500 people.
Last winter, Courtney organized a drive to benefit the St. Jude’s Ranch for abused and neglected children while at the same time reducing the amount of waste to our landfills. One of the largest fundraisers for the Ranch is to recycle greeting cards into postcards and then sell them. When Courtney learned of this project, she organized a collection drive at her school and at several businesses. Through her efforts, approximately 7,500 cards were saved from landfills and St. Jude’s Ranch was able to raise more than $5,000. It is too early to know the final results of her 2001-2002 drive for the Ranch, but early donations are promising.
In response to the 09/11 terrorist attacks, Courtney made ribbons and distributed them at church seeking donations for the children of the victims of the disaster, raising $1,100 for the American Red Cross.
