Gabe Eggerling

Gabe Eggerling loves to read. For him, reading has always been a way to take a trip to a far off destination without ever having to leave home.

When he was only 7 years old, he became the youngest SAG Bookpal reader, a signature children’s literacy program of the SAG Foundation designed to provide an opportunity for performers, gifted in the art of storytelling, to help develop a love of reading in children and give back to their local communities.
He went from school to school getting kids excited about reading but soon learned a shocking truth: that there were children who did not own even one book at home. Gabe decided to something about it, so he started Mission: HERO (Helping Everyone Read Out loud).

Today, the 11-year old hosts events, reads to schools and donates thousands of new books to disadvantaged kids.

Gabe reaches eight to 10 schools a year where he goes in person to read, motivate and donate books and hosts three to five awareness events. He gives one talk on literacy annually at a high attendance conference, and takes one annual trip out of the county to build a library someplace with high need.

Gabe realized early on that it felt good to help people and that he could help make a difference. He tells other kids that he is just like them and that everyone has special talents and can be a tiny ripple of hope. He loves to learn and share, and is quite oblivious to age limits and the word “can’t.”

Do you know someone who is making a difference in your community? Nominate them for a Daily Point of Light Award today!
 

Jill Soares

Children in distressed situations across Rhode Island have a friend in Jill Soares.

There are so many different roles that Soares has filled over the years to help provide a sense of stability for children in need in Rhode Island.  She is a mentor, a party planner, a role model and for one young boy in foster care, she is a “forever friend.”  Family, friends and colleagues are all in agreement that Soares is simply one of the most loving and caring individuals they know.

One example is Jill’s work with Massachusetts based nonprofit, Birthday Wishes.  For many children, birthday celebrations are childhood staples, but for those living in a homeless shelter, they are a luxury some cannot afford. Simply put, Soares helps to “keep the birthday candles lit.” Each month, she volunteers at a Rhode Island family shelter to host birthday parties for the children whose birthdays fall in that period. More than 2,000 homeless children have been able to celebrate a birthday party as a direct result of her efforts. 

An employee of Hasbro, Soares was introduced to Birthday Wishes as a result of the company’s philanthropic relationship with them.  Hasbro established a program where toys and games are donated as birthday presents for each party, while volunteers design party crafts, bake cakes and wrap the gifts. Working directly with the shelter, Soares coordinates and hosts a party each month. Her spirit has also inspired and empowered her colleagues at Hasbro to volunteer their time alongside her each month, together creating “one-of-a-kind” parties and bringing smiles to children who need them most.

May is Foster Care Awareness month and it’s important to celebrate those, like Soares, who are making a difference for foster children. For the last year, she has developed a close friendship with a 14 year old boy she met during an event she volunteered at benefitting foster youth in Rhode Island.  Children in foster care face challenges unlike most other children, often growing up with little to no stability in their lives. Soares was determined to become a stable influence and quite simply, someone who “wants” to be in his life. She established herself as what she calls a “Forever Friend” – and has worked through the proper channels to become a Foster Child Mentor. They meet regularly, celebrate holidays, talk about school and life in general. 

Her spirit lifts those of the children she serves. Her dedication to Rhode Island’s homeless youth and her leadership among the Hasbro community makes Jill Soares today’s Daily Point of Light Award winner.

Do you know someone making a meaningful difference in their community? Nominate them for a Daily Point of Light Award!

William Flores and Noel Bezette-Flores

Meet Daily Point of Light Award honorees Noel Bezette-Flores and William Flores. Read their story and nominate an outstanding volunteer you know as a Point of Light.

William Flores and Noel Bezette-Flores

When Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in 2005, thousands of evacuees streamed into nearby Houston. Their arrival added to the city’s influx of refugees who had arrived from troubled nations in Asia and Africa and immigrants from Mexico and Central America.

“There was sense of tension about the ‘others’ coming into town and the perception that they were straining the city’s already limited resources,” says Noel Bezette-Flores, co-chair of Citizenship Month, a citywide initiative she helped found in 2009.

The event, held each November, celebrates Houston’s diversity while encouraging civic responsibility and participation. Spurred by her own doctoral studies in immigrant and refugee communities and the interest of the Mayor’s Advisory Committee on Immigrant and Refugee Affairs (now the Office of International Communities), Bezette-Flores and civic leaders persuaded then-Mayor Bill White to create Citizenship Week, an educational and cultural showcase of the contributions and cultures of these newcomers.

William Flores and his wife, Noel Bezette-Flores (not pictured), are both avid community volunteers. Here, Flores helps pack food at the Houston Food Bank.

The project has morphed into hundreds of activities held throughout the month, involving dozens of nonprofits, chambers of commerce, neighborhood groups, education institutions and corporations.

Often, there’s an arts component, such as the recent Open the Door project, which invited artists from France and Texas to paint large metal doors – representing gateways to different cultures – for installation around town.

Civic partners have included the city’s transit system, which scheduled a dedicated train to trace a route that included stops at area ethnic restaurants, and several school districts, which staged a literacy contest that garnered more than 3,000 entries.

“The essays and poems we’ve received have been so passionate and compelling,” says William Flores, Bezette-Flores’ husband and the president of the University of Houston – Downtown, which helped developed a curriculum for the contest. “They wrote about the suffering they saw in their homeland and how important it is for all of us to appreciate freedom.”

Flores says that as the event has grown he and his wife have been prompted to look more closely at the idea of citizenship in a broader sense. “It goes beyond legal documentation,” he says, “to how do you contribute to making this a better place to live?”

Bezette-Flores expands on that idea. “At its heart, Citizenship Month is about the ability to connect with other people in the city no matter where they’re from,” she says. “It’s about acknowledging that our strength comes from our diversity.”

Judy Mathewson

As we approach Memorial Day, we honor fallen heroes and the volunteers who serve their families. Read about Daily Point of Light Award winner Judy Mathewson and nominate an outstanding volunteer you know as a Point of Light.

Judy Mathewson

For many kids, Memorial Day is just a day off from school, a taste of summer break. But for some children, it can be a reminder of a loved one lost in the line of duty.

That’s where Judy Mathewson comes in. A retired school teacher and member of the Arkansas Air National Guard, Mathewson for two decades has been an integral part of the TAPS (Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors) Good Grief Camp.

During the annual camp, children who have lost a parent, sibling or other close loved one in the military meet each year in the Washington, D.C., area over Memorial Day weekend.

Young survivors are paired with active duty military mentors who teach them about how the country honors fallen heroes. The campers see they are not alone in their sadness, making new friends and participating in special sessions geared toward their age to help them manage their grief.

“Children and teens meet others of their own age group to share and learn together,” Mathewson told Counseling Today. “[They] have fun while discovering how to cope with the pain they are experiencing. They learn a lot from each other.”

In addition to the Memorial Day weekend camp, TAPS also holds local camps throughout the year across the country. The Arlington, Virginia-based organization also has a host of services designed to address the emotional well-being of military families who have suffered a loss.

Since TAPS was founded in 1994, Mathewson has volunteered her time, using her training working with special needs, disabled and grieving children to bring comfort and care to families. She has been instrumental in providing urgent care for children in crisis, including intervening in cases of troubled teens and special needs children.

Mathewson’s background in special needs and mental health was crucial to the development and evolution of the Good Grief Camp program, which began in 1995. Through her volunteer work with TAPS, she has helped more than 300 families.

The feedback from Good Grief Camp participants shows what kindness and understanding can mean for someone in grief. One 4-year-old camper said:

“I got to meet a lot of other little boys and girls whose mommy or daddy is in heaven so I don’t feel like I am the only one who doesn’t have a daddy. I love my daddy very much and will never forget him.”

Want to honor heroes on Memorial Day? Volunteer! Find local opportunities at AllforGood.org.

Tshimbalanga Family

Imagine living in one of the poorest countries in the world. Now imagine being a part of the most vulnerable populations in that country. That’s a reality for the children orphaned at the Congregation of Sisters Franciscan Stigmatines in Kinshasa, the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Motivated by what they saw after visiting an orphanage in the DRC in 2011, Sydney and Cassidy Tshimbalanga, sisters from Alamo, California, launched A Sister’s Project, a movement by sisters for sisters, designed to help women and children around the world living in fear and abject poverty.

While in the country, Sydney, 16, and Cassidy, 14, had an opportunity to work and play with the kids in the orphanage, but most of all they had an opportunity to learn and be inspired. They duo raise money through odd jobs and other fundraisers to help the Franciscan sisters who run the orphanage and to help feed and clothe the children.

In addition to providing food and clothing to the orphanage’s children, A Sisters Project also launched a “Let Kids Be KIDS” toy program that provides gifts of toys to children that have never had any.

Recently, the Tshimbalanga sisters launched their latest fundraising campaign, a Go Fund Me page that is raising funds to helps victims of violence living in the orphanage.

Sydney and Cassidy run their organization all by themselves and donate 100% of all funds raised directly to the orphanage.
 

Lifecycle Inc.

Meet Daily Point of Light Award honorees Jacob and Dani Brier. Read their story and nominate an outstanding volunteer you know as a Point of Light.

Jacob and Dani Brier

Participating in their first bike-a-thon eight years ago was a demanding effort that required Jacob Brier and his wife, Dani, to raise $4,000 each and complete a punishing two-day, 200-mile ride in and around Boston.

It wasn’t particularly fun, but the cause – cancer research and treatment – was important to them because both had close relatives who had battled the disease.

“We realized that this kind of support was needed closer to our home in Rhode Island,” says Jacob, “but we couldn’t find a local bike-a-thon that funded cancer research and treatment.”

So, in 2008, the couple created one.

“We quickly learned that organizing and managing a bike-a-thon is even harder than riding in one,” Jacob says with a laugh. He and his wife had no mechanism for raising money and no idea of how to persuade strangers to trust them. They had no experience in designing a route or coordinating with municipalities.

Gradually, things gelled. “We designed webpages for each rider that included the story of why they were participating and provided a way for donations to be collected,” says Jacob. “We tested each route to take into account traffic conditions or construction. We built relationships with local police.”

The first Ride ‘Round Rhody attracted 49 cyclists who raised $10,000. These days, about double that number of cyclists raise about $70,000 each year. By the ride’s 10th anniversary, the Briers hope to have raised $1 million for area hospitals and programs.

The money is distributed via grants by the Briers’ nonprofit, Lifecycle Inc., which in addition to the bike-a-thon occasionally organizes other fundraisers, such as benefit concerts and award dinners.

“There are a few programs we automatically donate to every year,” says Brier. “Then, as the money comes in for each race, we contact the cancer centers to ask about their specific needs. If an oncologist has an idea for improving treatment or needs a piece of equipment, our board of directors will evaluate it to see if it’s in line with our funding interests.”

In 2012 and 2013, for instance, Lifecycle helped fund clinical trials for a pancreatic cancer treatment. Last year, one of the volunteers distributing jerseys to the cyclers was someone who had chosen to participate in the trial.

“He is now in complete remission,” says Brier. “He was there to celebrate his life – and to help others enjoy that success.”