Maria D’Angelo

Meet Maria D’Angelo, today’s Daily Point of Light Award winner and a 2013 Women of Worth honoree. Read her story and nominate someone you know as a Daily Point of Light. (See below for more about Women of Worth.)

Maria D’Angelo

Maria D’Angelo grew up in a family with little means after immigrating to the United States from Italy at age 13 and settling in Los Angeles. Witnessing the plight of other immigrant families moved her to start volunteering at a young age. 

In 1993, D’Angelo founded the Children’s Lifesaving Foundation to serve homeless and at-risk children throughout the Los Angeles area. D’Angelo’s guiding concept for the organization is that a healthy, happy childhood is the firm foundation for the rest of one’s life.

D’Angelo, of Santa Monica, says that even though she was poor as a child, she was always optimistic, and she believes that sense of hope is missing from the at-risk kids she meets today.

“Perhaps it was the encouragement from my very loving father, but even among my friends – the kids in the neighborhood – there was always a feeling that we would pull out of this,” says D’Angelo. “I do not see that as much, sadly, any longer. What I see is more desperation. I wanted these children and families to see that they have the exact same right to a lovely and decent life as anyone else, to thrive and to succeed.” 

Over the past 21 years, the Children’s Lifesaving Foundation has served more than 75,000 homeless and at-risk youth. The group has moved 43 families from shelters into new homes (providing furnishings, household goods, new clothing and stipends), and financially helped hundreds more.

The foundation has given out more than 45 college scholarships and offers Care Through College, an after-school tutoring and educational program. In 2004, the group launched the Vita Network, which targets a core group of families in need and works through tutoring and mentoring to ensure that children in the program will attend college.

D’Angelo was also interested in providing holiday and recreational activities for children, and set out to find an area that she could use as a summer camp. While conducting a field trip to the Santa Monica mountains, she discovered a 1,700 acre abandoned Boy Scout camp that was perfect.

D’Angelo struck a deal with the National Park Service to lease the property in exchange for making renovations, and Children’s Lifesaving Foundation volunteers went to work on the refurbishing project. Thanks to media outreach, the foundation was deluged with offers of service and donations and was able to complete more than $150,000 worth of upgrades and repairs for only $6,000.

The result was Camp4All, a recreational facility that has served 75,000 children and family members since its opening.

D’Angelo, who originally financed Children’s Lifesaving Foundation on her own and now serves as its full-time executive director, says she is motivated by the “children’s and mothers’ successes.”

“The children in our program are the first in their generation, often, to graduate from high school – and definitely college,” says D’Angelo. “That, I believe, has been our strength in the past 20 years – to give these children the confidence to hope and dream very big. We have seen these young people change the trajectory of their families’ lives, within one generation, just as my brother, Ciro, sister, Elena, and I did, as immigrants to America.”

Through the renowned Women of Worth program, Points of Light and L’Oréal Paris have partnered to celebrate women like Maria D’Angelo, a 2013 awardee, who are making a difference. Each year, 10 finalists are awarded $10,000 to support their extraordinary efforts to serve their communities. You can nominate yourself or a deserving woman in your life through June 25, 2014. Nominate and see the difference women around the country are making now by visiting WomenofWorth.com​.

Patricia Boles

Meet Patricia Boles, today’s Daily Point of Light Award winner and a 2013 Women of Worth honoree. Read her story and nominate someone you know as a Daily Point of Light. (See below for more about Women of Worth.)

Patricia Boles

Patricia Boles has a unique perspective on the difficulties of being a foster parent. She and her husband have personally fostered more than 100 babies – adopting 10 of them. As she discovered the many burdens facing foster parents, she also found serious shortcomings in the support available through the foster care system.

So in 1998, Boles, of San Marcos, Calif., founded Straight From The Heart, an all-volunteer organization devoted to providing services and resources to foster parents and children throughout San Diego County.

Straight From The Heart offers training, support groups, individual advocacy and mentoring for foster families who may be experiencing a host of challenges with their foster children, from behavioral problems to bedwetting, and with the bureaucracy of the foster care system itself. The organization also operates a center where families can come to receive immediate assistance with various needs. Volunteers – many of them foster parents themselves – are available 24 hours a day.

In 2013, there were about 1,650 foster parents in San Diego County and approximately 4,000 foster children. Boles estimates that almost all foster families in the county have received some kind of service from Straight From The Heart. Over the past 16 years, Straight From The Heart has given out Kid Packs of pajamas, blankets, toys, clothing and other items to more than 12,000 foster children.

The group has also provided more than 30,000 hours of mentoring to foster parents, distributed 50,000 holiday and birthday presents to foster children and given out more than 4,000 tickets to sports and cultural events to foster families. In addition, Straight From The Heart provides care for special needs foster children and has successfully lobbied for both improvements to the child welfare system and stronger laws to protect and support foster families.

Boles says the mission of Straight From The Heart is to ensure that children are loved, nurtured, protected and given a chance to soar. She credits her parents for her dedication to serving others.

“I was raised by a father that served our country and a mother that served our neighborhood, no matter where we lived,” says Boles. “She showed us by example how to love each other, especially the ones who were not ‘pretty’ to the rest of the world. The child with profound physical and mental challenges due to cerebral palsy, the 12-year-old still needing a bib, were welcome at our home.”

Aside from her own home duties, Boles is also a founding member and current president of the North San Diego County Foster Parents Association. Despite her busy schedule, she sometimes volunteers more than 1,500 hours a year for Straight From The Heart.

Boles says that much of her drive to keep fighting injustice to children comes from a personal experience. Boles’ foster daughter Monique was born to a methamphetamine addict who attempted to hide the pregnancy so as not to be kicked out of her house. Monique was born in a bathroom inside her mother’s sweatpants. Had a neighbor not insisted on taking the mother to the emergency room, Monique could have died. Boles took Monique in when she was 8 days old.

“I see the good that we do at Straight From The Heart, and the thanks of our foster and adoptive families means the world to me,” says Boles. “I am better for knowing them and lifted up by their service to children who need them so much.”

Through the renowned Women of Worth program, Points of Light and L’Oréal Paris have partnered to celebrate women like Patricia Boles, a 2013 awardee, who are making a difference. Each year, 10 finalists are awarded $10,000 to support their extraordinary efforts to serve their communities. You can nominate yourself or a deserving woman in your life through June 25, 2014. Nominate and see the difference women around the country are making now by visiting WomenofWorth.com​.

Tricia Baker

Meet Tricia Baker, today’s Daily Point of Light Award winner and a 2013 Women of Worth honoree. Read her story and nominate someone you know as a Daily Point of Light. (See below for more about Women of Worth.)

Tricia Baker

When Tricia Baker’s son Kenny was in high school, he was diagnosed with severe depression. Often overwhelmed with anxiety, Kenny would disappear for days. And because of the social stigma surrounding mental illness, he hid his condition from friends and classmates for three years, telling people he had mononucleosis.

Shortly before he would have graduated, Kenny committed suicide. For his family, the grief was compounded by continued social stigmatization. The school even tried to have Kenny’s photo stricken from its yearbook.

Baker, of Plainsboro, N.J., was an executive with a top financial firm. With support from her husband, she left her job and founded Attitudes In Reverse (AIR) in 2010 to educate youth about mental health and suicide prevention through the Coming Up for AIR program. In the years since, Baker and a small group of Attitudes In Reverse volunteers have made presentations to more than 11,000 students in New Jersey and New York – from middle school to college age – about the prevalence and warning signs of mental illness and stereotypes associated with it.

While an estimated one in four people is affected by a mental health disorder, fewer than 40 percent seek treatment due to stigma and the fear of ridicule. Coming Up for AIR Presentations also emphasize the warning signs of suicide, which is the second leading cause of death on college campuses and the third leading cause of death among high school students.

Attitudes In Reverse has also worked to change school and government policies pertaining to mental health, distributed more than 20,000 educational brochures in English and Spanish about mental illness and holds community events such as walks to raise awareness about mental health issues. The group also distributes wristbands and T-shirts to motivate youth.

Baker says she was moved to create Attitudes In Reverse in part because of the negative impact that school and community reactions to her son’s death were having on her daughter, Katelyn.

“Katelyn was a student at the same school, and received no support from school counselors,” says Baker. “She was now being judged because of her brother’s illness and the way he died. School became overwhelming for her and she started to struggle with going each day. My fight went from trying to save my son to trying to save my daughter. Attitudes In Reverse was born from conversations with Katelyn.”

In 2012, Attitudes In Reverse launched a new program called AIR Dogs: Paws for the Mind. Based on research that dog ownership has a positive effect of mental well-being, AIR Dogs hosts monthly meetings that enable people to meet and play with dogs from local shelters. Many good matches have resulted from AIR Dogs meetings.

Attitudes In Reverse is currently working to expand its educational presentations to more states. It also reaches people in multiple countries via its website and offers information and resources through a Facebook group that now has more than 500 members.

“No other child should be embarrassed or afraid of saying that they have been diagnosed with a mental health disability,” says Baker. “No other family should endure the pain of losing a child and then have to face judgment. … Attitudes In Reverse is what helped us as a family pull ourselves out of grief and despair. Attitudes In Reverse is what allows our family to continue to heal.”

Through the renowned Women of Worth program, Points of Light and L’Oréal Paris have partnered to celebrate women like Tricia Baker, a 2013 awardee, who are making a difference. Each year, 10 finalists are awarded $10,000 to support their extraordinary efforts to serve their communities. You can nominate yourself or a deserving woman in your life through June 25, 2014. Nominate and see the difference women around the country are making now by visiting WomenofWorth.com​.

Eckert Family

Today at the Points of Light Conference on Volunteering and Service in Atlanta, the Eckert family of Ohio recieved a Daily Point of Light Award. Read the family’s story and nominate someone you know as a Daily Point of Light.

Myles Eckert and Lt. Col. Frank Dailey reunite at the Cracker Barrel where they met in Maumee, Ohio.

In February, 8-year-old Myles Eckert went with his mom, Tiffany, and 10-year-old sister, Marlee, to a Cracker Barrel restaurant near their home outside Toledo, Ohio. Before they entered, Myles had the good fortune to find a $20 bill in the parking lot. At first, he thought of using it to buy a video game, but instead decided to follow a family tradition and “pay it forward,” perhaps as a big tip to the waitress.

Minutes later, he changed his mind when a man entered the restaurant in a soldier’s uniform. Myles scribbled a note, wrapped the $20 bill in it, and presented it to him.

The note read: “My dad was a soldier. He’s in heaven now. I found this 20 dollars in the parking lot when we got here. We like to pay it forward in my family. It’s your lucky day! Thank you for your service. Myles Eckert, a gold star kid.”

Myles’ father, Army Sgt. Andy Eckert, had been killed in action in Iraq in 2005 when Myles was just 5 weeks old.

The man who received Myles’ gift and note, Lt. Col. Frank Dailey of the Ohio Air National Guard, was so moved by the gesture that he, too, decided to pay it forward. He photocopied the note and sent it with the $20 to a charity as what was supposed to be an anonymous donation. However, the note was circulated, and a photo of it ended up on social media. It went viral.

The Eckerts were quickly swamped with letters from people who wanted to give $20 back to Myles. And soon, the story of Myles’ random act of giving was featured in a segment of “On the Road” on CBS news. Even more mail poured into the Eckert house.

Tiffany, Myles and Marlee held a family meeting and decided to ask people to pay donations forward to Snowball Express, an organization that provides fun-filled group vacations to children of U.S. military personnel who have died in the line of duty. Myles and Marlee had been on multiple Snowball Express trips.

While the Eckerts sought no publicity and avoided talking to the press, they eventually agreed to let Myles make an appearance on “The Ellen Show,” which they felt would provide the largest audience for their message to “pay it forward” to Snowball Express.

The message got through. Donations rolled into Snowball Express, especially after a Texas-based firm, Highland Capital Management, heard about Myles and pledged to match all donations, up to $1 million, made to Snowball Express by Memorial Day 2014. According to Tiffany, as the deadline approached, donations were near $800,000 – and are still being tallied.

“I couldn’t be more proud of Myles,” says Tiffany. “It’s like the ultimate payoff for me as a parent.”

Myles, now 9, is glad he’s been able to give back to an organization that has meant so much to him.

“It’s great,” he says. “I like Snowball because I like being around kids just like me.”

The Eckerts continue to hear from people who want to donate money directly to them, and Tiffany is now trying to start a foundation to support various programs for veterans and their families, particularly veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

“When my husband died, I wanted to keep his name alive,” says Tiffany. “Andy’s name is never going to be a number. Andy’s heroism is now going to be equated with the sweet spirit of our son.”

Lamman Rucker

Today at the Points of Light Conference on Volunteering and Service in Atlanta, actor Lamman Rucker recieved a Daily Point of Light Award. Read his and nominate someone you know as a Daily Point of Light.

Lamman Rucker, center, visits kids at a Stephanie Starks Hope Foundation gathering in Los Angeles.

Lamman Rucker says his work with young people has saved his life.

Known for his roles in the hit movie, “Why Did I Get Married?” and the popular TV show, “Tyler Perry’s Meet the Browns,” Rucker started humbly in high school as an original member of the Washington Area Improvisational Teen Theater in D.C., which taught teens about the risks of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

And as he became an established actor on television and film, Rucker maintained that desire to help young people make good choices. In 2007, the year “Why Did I Get Married?” came out, Rucker co-founded The BLACK GENTS – an all-male, African-American theater company in Los Angeles – to resurrect and redefine the positive image of the black male through programs for young people and service to the community. 

Rucker calls the ensemble “an African-American male collective of artists, scholars, entrepreneurs and community servants whose focus is to entertain, educate and empower through the arts, serve our community, uplift our young people and illuminate and project the positive images of black men in all facets of life.”  

Though the emphasis is with black male youth, the theater company also provides support to young boys and girls from all backgrounds.

Rucker says he and his co-founders “have been amazed by the spirit and drive of them all when they have been given a chance to be involved in the process to make a difference. We not only live to inspire them but have been overwhelmingly blessed to have been inspired by them. My work with young people has saved my life.”

Rucker has been involved in youth programs in 10 middle schools, 30 high schools, 20 colleges and two leadership and arts programs in Barbados and South Africa. His tells young people about the vital role of education and the power of chasing your dreams.

 “I know that simply the attendance and presence of children in school every day makes a huge difference on the education they receive,” Rucker says. “When a student is not just physically present but is fully present in school – meaning they are focused and on task – how much they can learn expands exponentially.”

He adds, “As a teacher, role model and mentor, I also recognize that my presence counts in encouraging and empowering the young people within my reach to work hard, to dream big and to be courageous.”