Kisha Emanuel Durrell

Kisha Emanuel Durrell has been a volunteer for most of her life. A community activist since she was 16, she has helped countless men and women in her community overcome hardship.

“I had to overcome some hurdles of my own,” says Durrell, “but I knew that if I could make it so could countless people who might feel like I did.”

 For the last 11 years, Durrell has been volunteering with Women in Touch, a Detroit-based nonprofit that helps women and children of domestic violence, homelessness and substance abuse by addressing the emotional, social, vocational, educational, health-related and developmental needs of individuals in order to increase self-esteem, and increase the ability to make informed decisions and solve problems.

 Every year, Durrell engages more than 2,000 women and 400 youth. These women have been able to rejoin the workforce and reunite with their children who were placed into foster homes. Many of these women have gone back to school and become solid role models for others in their lives.

“When the need is in my path I will try to meet it,” says Durrell, who humbly acknowledges that she couldn’t do the work without a solid support system, “I have friends and family that support my endeavors. They stand by me in all I do.”

Nadya Okamoto

By age 16, Nadya Okamoto had experienced homelessness. Through that experience and by having conversations with other homeless women, she learned that there was a huge lack of access to feminine hygiene products.

Determined, compassionate and resilient, Nadya decided to start Camions of Care to help address the natural needs of homeless women.

The oldest of three girls in a single parent household, Nadya’s family ended up homeless for a few months. “I was constantly concerned about compiling enough support for my sisters and mother,” says Nadya, “I gave up many privileges and access to certain resources, sometimes this included feminine hygiene products.”

 Through Camions of Care, Nadya and her team of volunteers do more than provide feminine hygiene products, they provide resources on the HIV/AIDS prevention, information on personal hygiene and where to find clean restrooms that are accessible to homeless women. “For homeless women, dealing with the monthly reoccurrence of periods is one of the most challenging obstacles,” says Nadya.

Since the organization’s founding, Camions of Care has gone from helping approximately 20 women a week to 100-150 a week. The organization currently serves more than 550 women in Portland, Oregon and Salt Lake City, Utah and in Guatemala with small care packages that have enough products to last one menstrual cycle. 

Amber Pizzo Memorial Foundation

Faced with their worst nightmare, the parents of Amber Pizzo channeled their grief into something positive. They developed a series of public service programs designed to raise awareness on the dangers of drunk driving.

The Amber Pizzo Memorial Foundation, today’s Daily Point of Light Award, was founded to honor the memory of Amber Pizzo, a young New Jersey teacher who was killed by a drunk driver in July 2005.

Every year, almost 11,000 people are killed in drunk driving accidents. The foundation serves to assist and support state and local programs that are committed to saving lives.

Working in conjunction with service agencies, faith-based organizations and the NJ-DOC, the Amber Pizzo Memorial Foundation funds educational programs in an effort to reduce the incidence of alcohol related fatalities in Union County, New Jersey, and throughout the state, where 27 percent of driving fatalities involve the alcohol.

Because, Pizzo loved young people and was a committed advocate for the educational needs of today’s youth, the Foundation also provides annual scholarships to high school graduates who are planning to major in early childhood education.

Since its founding in 2006, the Amber Pizzo Memorial Foundation has given $24,000 in scholarship money. 

Eric D. Mead

Eric Mead, father of five is also an active Boy Scout troop leader, soccer, basketball and baseball coach as well as a strong supporter of 4-H. Knowing that there are insufficient opportunities for young students to explore STEM—science, technology, engineering and math—he finds extra time in his very busy schedule to help youth discover ways for real world application of these concepts and skills.

Mead is involved in Shocker MINDSTORMS; a LEGO robotics competition for middle school children. The competition draws approximately 350 students every year. And with Mead’s help, remains free to all participants. Many schools are underfunded and simply cannot afford to purchase needed resources and do not have sufficient time in the school day to add to their curriculum. As a member of the steering committee, he and his colleagues are responsible for securing funding and planning the event, so Mead works with companies and private donors to secure funds that allow for STEM expansion into after school programs.

Since Mead’s involvement in the Shocker MINDSTORMS competition, participation has increased from 18 teams representing 175 students to 36 teams representing 380 students. And financial support has almost doubled. The courses built for the competition began though volunteer coordination but has evolved to a for-credit college course that includes workshops, designs, budgets and project planning.

Mead also serves as a judge at the annual Project Lead the Way Engineering Design and Development competition, a nonprofit organization that develops STEM curricula for use by elementary, middle and high schools. These competitions host activities that encourage students to build machines out of recycled or readily available materials.

Eric Mead has been a strong advocate of STEM education and a champion for the effort to obtain a balance in gender, race and socio-economic status among students to make STEM programs accessible to all. 

Bianca Ray

Bianca Ray, has helped save countless lives of the homeless pets in Orlando, Florida.  

A matchmaker in the truest sense of the word, for the last six years Ray has been working to help homeless dogs find their “fur”ever homes by matching potential adopters to suitable canine companions. She allows customers to learn the personality of each dog to help them make the right decision.

Of particular interest to Ray is working to socialize fearful dogs, as those are often overlooked during the adoption process. The infinitely patient Ray works to build trust with these dogs by teaching them that hands can be gentle, not hurtful.

Hard working and reliable, Ray steps up to plate whenever and wherever needed. The shelter is high intake and receives around 50 stray cats and dogs a day on average. And so Ray, a ‘super’ volunteer has to work in many different capacities at the shelter, from cleaning kennels and exercising the dogs to facilitating animal handling trainings and socialization for incoming volunteers.

Today’s Daily Point of Light Award winner, Bianca Ray goes above and beyond to ensure that Orlando’s four-legged citizens all have a safe place to call home.

Renee Runge

Thanks to Renee Runge, Palm Beach County, Florida now has a one stop shop for people of all ages looking for volunteer activities in their local community.

A Suncoast Community High sophomore, Renee, 15, is the founder of Palm Beach County Community Angel Network, or PBCCAN, a website that posts available service projects in the area.  This volunteer opportunity search engine is particularly useful to high school students, like Renee, to easily find projects to complete their service hours required to graduate from high school.

In addition to the volunteer directory, PBCCAN hosts their own unique monthly projects dedicated to a cause of Renee’s choosing, which she describes as, “not your average food or clothing drive… CAN strives to involve thoughtfulness and creativity in all of the projects that we do.”
PBCCAN is a diverse and growing directory and has a list of more than 90 local nonprofits looking for volunteers.

Renee, who has devoted more than 300 hours on the creation of PBCCAN, calls it a “life changing experience.” Says Renee, “I have learned that your age doesn’t matter and that it’s more about your passion and determination to turn a small idea into something much bigger. I feel I’ve made a huge difference in our community and hope to inspire other young people to put their own needs aside and get involved. I look forward to the endless possibilities and future of Community Angel Network.”

Johanna Crawford

One in four women will experience domestic violence in her lifetime. This chilling statistic is a reality for Johanna Crawford who grew up in an abusive household. But Crawford refused to just be a statistic and took matters into her own hands. In 2004 Crawford started Web of Benefit, Inc to liberate women from domestic violence.
 
“We help survivors one-on-one create a life plan and define what their biggest dreams are and then we figure out the steps to get them there,” Crawford explains.
 
Web of Benefit has a two-step approach to helping women create a life free from domestic violence. The first step for survivors on the ‘Transition to Self-Sufficiency’ is applying for a grant by building a plan for economic survival.
 
“Grants can only be $600-$700, but we can be very flexible with what the grants are for because we don’t take any public money. We’ve helped get a prosthetic eye, fixing teeth, housing, education, micro-financing, hundreds of laptops; whatever the specific need is,” Crawford explains.
 
After receiving the grant, survivors become a piece of the Web of Benefit network by adhering to the ‘Pay-it-Forward’ philosophy. Survivors complete three good works for a fellow victim of domestic violence.
 
“These are women who could not help themselves six months or a year ago, and now they are out there helping other women. Its such a powerful thing for women to know they can help other people,” Crawford adds.
 
Crawford saw a gap in the attention being given to domestic abuse survivors after volunteering at a domestic violence agency in 2004. A scared and penniless woman explained to Crawford that while fleeing her abusive home, she left behind all the documents she and her children needed to start a new life. Crawford broke agency rules and gave the women $40, which she used to pay for access to her government records. That woman was able to start fresh and create a new life, but she needed that initial help to get started
 
Crawford remembers thinking, “If I can do that for $40, I have to do it in a bigger way.”
 
Since that experience, Crawford and her team at Web of Benefit have given grants to more than 1860 survivors totaling over $950,000, touched the lives of more than 7,000 women and their families, and partners with more than 80 organizations in Boston and 25 in Chicago.
 
“I thought, if I could help 100 women that would be amazing. Now, we’re closing in on 2,000,” Crawford says.
 
If you know someone like Johanna Crawford dedicating their lives to empowering survivors, nominate them today for the Daily Point of Light Aw

Altrusa International of Greater Kansas City, Inc.

Altrusa International of Greater Kansas City is an international volunteer service organization made up of leaders dedicated to improving local communities through personal service, achieving as a group what individuals cannot do alone.

With a long history, their first meeting was held in 1936, Altrusans—members of the club—believe that strong leadership creates better communities.  

The club develops and funds specific service projects to meet community needs, especially in the area of literacy, following a three-year service plan. Each three-year service plan always involves a new organization that has never worked with volunteers before in a mutually educational opportunity and supportive environment.

The group works with a variety of service organizations doing projects that are easily replicable. One Altrusan developed literacy adoption program called “Head to Toes,” that takes place during Christmas. In this program, each participating child receives a new book and a gift card for a pair of shoes at Payless Shoe Store. In the last ten months, this club of approximately twenty women have given 1,656 hours of service to the many projects that they have undertaken including clipping and mailing $338,181.00 worth of manufacturer’s coupons to an Air Force Base in Incirlik, Turkey through the Overseas Coupon Program.

Currently, Altrusa is working with Awesome Ambitions, Dictionary Project, Elmwood Cemetery, Habitat for Humanity, Harvesters, KC Literacy, Operation Breakthrough, Overseas Coupon Program and Upper Room.

Ponte Vedra High School Sharks and Minnows Club

Sharks and minnows are friends, not foes, at Ponte Vedra High School in Ponte Vedra Beach, FL.

Sharks and Minnows, a service club comprised of a group of enthusiastic teenagers, spend their after school hours serving as mentors at after school programs for at-risk elementary age students. Additionally, the teens fundraise and host collection drives for much needed items like books, coats and school supplies.

These students use social media to spread the word about their work, engage supporters and recruit new members. Most importantly however, it that the Sharks and Minnows club has done a great job in generating enthusiasm for service among their peers. The club has become so popular that students who otherwise can’t find time for extracurricular activities find a way to get involved. Take the PVHS football team, as soon as the season ended, a group of players approached the Sharks and Minnows team asking to get involved as soon as they possibly could.

The club is comprised of about 30 volunteers and one teacher who mentor approximately 30-40 at-risk elementary age kids every week during the school year.

Only in its second year, Sharks and Minnows has doubled in volunteer participation and has plans to expand to other schools in coming year.