Peter Genuardi

As a student at New York University (NYU), Peter Genuardi has been an incredible force on the campus. An active volunteer, member of several groups and clubs on campus and founder of the Anti-Hunger League at NYU, Genuardi demonstrates extraordinary youth leadership.

His community work includes an internship at the Legal Aid Society of Brooklyn, the coordination of a Thirty-Hour Famine to Stop World Hunger and regular volunteering at the NYU Catholic Center’s Soup Kitchen. He is also a member of Students for Social Equality and the prestigious Scholars Program within the Gallatin School of Individualized Study at NYU. However, Genuardi’s most impressive service stems from his work in a group that he founded two years ago.

In the summer of 1997, Genuardi founded the Anti-Hunger League, a volunteer student group dedicated to relieving the burden of hunger in the community through food rescue and homeless outreach. With a current membership list of more than 100 students, the Anti-Hunger League coordinates a number of volunteer projects throughout the academic year including two model programs: the World’s Largest Food Drive and the Midnight Delivery.

After months of planning, Genuardi, along with the help of his fellow students, coordinated the first “World’s Largest Canned Food Drive.” On November 21, 1998, more than 75 volunteers from NYU clubs, scholar groups and offices collected food from grocery stores between Canal Street and 34th Street, and the East River and the Hudson River—an area of over four densely concentrated square miles. Strategically planned for the weekend before Thanksgiving, the drive was conducted from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Within those four hours, 3,500 cans of food were collected from over 20 supermarkets. This resulted in an average collection of 14 cans per minute!

Genuardi is also instrumental in coordinating the Midnight Delivery project. Several times per year, volunteers prepare about 80 bag meals and distribute them to homeless men and women in lower Manhattan. In addition to a carefully planned meal, an information card of services and resources for the homeless is included. This program has been a very effective way of ensuring that homeless men and women in New York receive the food and information they need to begin to rebuild their lives. Genuardi is also credited with “planting a seed” in the minds of several administrators involved in the renegotiations of the university’s contract with Aramark Food Services. For more than a year, he advocated for the donation of any unused and surplus food from any Aramark catered event or residence hall to a food rescue agency. In September 1998, NYU became one of few to set such a precedent.

Genuardi is currently working on putting together a “Procedures Manual” on how to coordinate these and other events to benefit the hungry in local communities. He will be sharing this technical assistance manual with other colleges and universities across the country and hopes that these models will be widely implemented in a greater effort to eradicate poverty in the United States. Genuardi was recently selected as a 1999 Mickey Leland Hunger Fellow. Through this fellowship, sponsored by the Congressional Hunger Center, he will work for six months in a community field placement working for an organization that serves the hungry. For another six months, he will be assigned to a policy based organization in Washington, DC that works on issues affecting the poor, hungry and homeless.

Michael Bowler

Michael Bowler has devoted his life to children. Born with hearing loss, he has been an exemplary role model and mentor to his Little Brothers in the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Program of Catholic Big Brothers and an inspiration to his fellow volunteers.

During his 15 years of service, Bowler has proven to be an outstanding friend and role model to his four Little Brothers. While most Big Brothers are matched to one child, Bowler sees the overwhelming need of children, particularly deaf and hard-of-hearing children, and has opened his heart to four boys. After being matched for three years with his first Little Brother, he readily agreed to take on a second child. Once the first child graduated from the program, Bowler took on a third Little Brother. Just recently, Bowler was matched with his fourth Little Brother.

Through Bowler’s caring and guidance, all of his Little Brothers are leading quality lives. Hard of hearing himself, Bowler has been an example to the boys of how to flourish in the face of adversity. He became a Big Brother, in part, because of the loneliness he faced growing up as a hard-of-hearing child. His childhood experience as “the only one” is not unusual for deaf and hard-of-hearing children, who often have a pessimistic outlook for their future. Through his volunteer work, Bowler has prevented these hard-of-hearing boys from experiencing the terrible loneliness he endured while providing all the benefits children normally receive from having a Big Brother.

His value as a mentor goes far beyond the personal relationships he has developed with his Little Brothers and benefits society as well. Studies have shown that mentored youth are less likely to engage in violence or use drugs and alcohol and are more likely to stay in school. It typically costs a sponsoring organization approximately $1,000 to make and monitor a match, while an incarcerated youth costs society an estimated $30,000 per year.

In addition to his extraordinary service to Catholic Big Brothers, Bowler is active in many other community organizations. His involvement with the Los Angeles Archdiocese’s Detention Ministry has spanned nearly 15 years. He counsels juvenile offenders three days a week at one detention ministry and twice a month at another. Through the years, he has counseled more than 1,500 youth in detention. Bowler also volunteers four days each week teaching a weight-training class at the Westchester YMCA. The students at Hawthorne High School, where he teaches special education, also benefit from his involvement in many extracurricular activities, such as sponsoring a skateboarding club and a weightlifting club. If there is a spare moment, it seems that Bowler is dedicating it to a child.

Bowler is a spokesman for mentoring. He speaks regularly on the behalf of Catholic Big Brothers, making himself available for media and giving special presentations for the Deaf/Hard of Hearing Program. He also participates enthusiastically in Catholic Big Brothers’ annual “Bowl for Kids’ Sake” fund raiser and supports many of the agency’s activities.

Other organizations have honored Bowler with many volunteer awards. In 1998, Bowler was named Volunteer of the Year by National Philanthropy Day in Los Angeles and also honored as Outstanding Volunteer by the Volunteer Center of Los Angeles. In 1989, the County of Los Angeles named him Probation Volunteer of the Year. That same year, he also received Los Angeles County’s Health and Human Services Award. He has also been honored as Catholic Volunteer of the Year at Sylmar Juvenile Hall for his work with the detention ministry.

TMC HealthCare L.E.A.P. Program

The Learn, Earn, Advance and Prosper (L.E.A.P.) Program is a comprehensive welfare-to-work model implemented by a not-for-profit community hospital in Tucson, AZ. Welfare reform, a serious social issue, has gripped the country over the past few years and legislators around the country are scrambling to implement programs that target welfare reform. TMC HealthCare is an innovative business that is leading the charge of filling in the gaps in welfare reform in Southern Arizona.

It seems fitting that the only not-for-profit community hospital in the region is taking on the challenge of developing, implementing and continuing to evolve one of the most comprehensive welfare-to-work models in the country. This model not only addresses the obvious criteria of welfare reform, to employ individuals who are losing their welfare benefits, but also takes the individuals participating in the program to newer levels of self-sufficiency. The program does this by breaking down critical barriers to success such as transportation and sick child-care needs and providing ongoing support through continuing education, on-the-job training and a comprehensive mentoring component.

The mentoring element is one of the most important components of the L.E.A.P. Program. Seasoned employees from TMC HealthCare are matched with L.E.A.P. participants to provide them with a support network as they begin the program. While individuals from TMC HealthCare receive compensation for some of their activities with the L.E.A.P. Program, many are also giving countless hours on a voluntary basis in order to make the program successful. These volunteers lend support and guidance while setting an example of dedication and commitment to TMC HealthCare and the community at large.

The TMC HealthCare L.E.A.P. Program is a unique collaboration consisting of a health care organization, a not-for-profit volunteer center, a community college and a state agency. Through the efforts of these organizations, 17 individuals have graduated from the program and gained employment with TMC HealthCare. The program is in its infancy; however it has significantly changed the lives of the L.E.A.P. participants and all the mentors and coordinators that are involved in the program.

Since TMC HealthCare is a not-for-profit organization, it does not receive tax benefits for its involvement. The purpose statement of the organization states: “To improve the health and well-being of the community.” This does not only apply to health care issues, but also to other issues which help create a healthier community; issues such as economic development, continuing education and breaking the cycle of poverty.

Mimi Levin Lieber

After fifteen years of service to the students of New York, Mimi Levin Lieber decided not to seek re-election as a member of the New York State Board of Regents. Instead of enjoying her retirement, Lieber developed a vision of how families and communities could get involved and address illiteracy in the state. Using her many years of experience as a sociologist and social psychologist, Lieber worked tirelessly to develop an organization that would build the capacity of parents and the neighborhoods around elementary schools to support young children and their schools.

Literacy, Inc. (LINC), the organization Lieber conceived and launched, is now in its second year of operation. LINC’s innovative approach brings school staff, parents and representatives of local community based organizations into collaboration to plan and implement reading partner programs for children in grades K-3. Many children in the schools LINC serves read below grade level. Volunteer reading partners spend time with young children each week providing additional time to read and enjoy books. Reading partners, recruited in the neighborhood around each school, is central to LINC’s innovative approach. Last year, close to 2,000 children read over 24,000 books with over 700 volunteers in LINC programs.

Lieber is directly responsible for LINC’s success. The program is her vision and it is her special skills that keep LINC on course. As President of the Board, Lieber is involved in programmatic and administrative activities, in meetings with community leaders and organizations, in planning for LINC’s expansion to more schools and in fundraising. She has been a crucial participant in successful efforts to raise funds from the U.S. Department of Education, the New York State Department of Education, foundations, corporations and individuals.

LINC links school, family and community in an effort to ensure that all children read well by grade three. Literacy, Inc. helps build the community’s capacity to support profound change in children’s expectations about their abilities to read. LINC unites concerned citizens and groups around supporting learning activities for families and around developing volunteer reading partner programs for every child in kindergarten through grade three.

Lieber inspires others with her deep commitment to the children of New York City, with her unbounded energy for the work she’s performing. She provides a constant vision of what is possible for the children of New York City and of what it means to commit oneself to a deeply felt mission.

Sylvia Goodman

Sylvia Goodman was the driving force behind the construction of the Sci-Port Discovery Center, a 67,000 square foot hands-on science center designed to enrich the lives of children in the area of science. Goodman is diligently working to resolve the need for supplementary science education in the state and provide wonderful educational opportunities.

In 1991, Goodman began raising the money to design and construct a $20 million permanent science center through both public and private funding. Through her fund-raising efforts, an interim science center was established in 1994 that has served over 300,000 children. Even with the success of the current interim center, Goodman continued to direct the process of creating a permanent center.

From 1991-1997, she led the political effort to acquire seven million dollars of city funding matched by $8.5 million dollars of state funding for the construction of the permanent science center. At her expense, Goodman lobbied legislators and traveled around the country to negotiate contracts and get the project off the ground. She served as building and exhibits chair as well as president of the boards of directors. Goodman traveled to science centers around the country and abroad to gain the expertise to design and plan the building and exhibits. All of this work was done at Goodman’s own expense.

Goodman was at the helm of every aspect of the science center. As a result of her efforts, the Sci-Port Discovery Center opened at the end of November 1998. Every effort she made for the children of Shreveport was done on a volunteer basis. Goodman’s love for science and children provided the drive and determination that brought the dream of the science center to a reality.

Clay Mountain Housing, Inc.

Clay Mountain Housing, Inc. (CMHI) began in 1988 after Clay County, WV was one of three regions in the state featured in a study that brought to light the struggles of families who live in substandard homes. Two women, Kathy Britt and Clara Deyton, decided to take action to address the tremendous housing need in the impoverished county that was revealed in the study and formed Clay Mountain Housing. After securing funding for the organization, the women began working out of their cars, visiting families who needed housing improvement and learning about the housing loan and construction process.

CMHI assists elderly, handicapped, low-income families and property owners who are income eligible for housing services such as rehab, repair or ownership. The process of securing a housing loan for a family begins with a “pre-application” that allows a family to explain their housing needs and provides the opportunity for financial counseling. The family’s needs are assessed and then they are given steps to take to move the loan process forward, with CMHI providing guidance along the way. The families learn how to manage their meager resources to enable them to repay a housing loan.

The rural nature of the county, the lack of adequate jobs, poor education and a lack of self-esteem and self-confidence among the population are the main factors contributing to the housing problems in the area. Although West Virginia ranks high in home ownership rates, many of the homes are old trailers or substandard, dilapidated homes. Clay County, with a population of 9,400 and a per capita income of about $6,500, has little industry and few viable businesses. The public school system is the largest employer in the county. Workers not employed by the school system generally earn between six and eight dollars an hour, wages that are insufficient to buy a new home or to afford monthly rent.

To make home ownership affordable, the lenders will apply various interest payments or a use a fixed percentage of the family’s income. All families receive financial and home ownership counseling before and after the loan closing. CMHI’s goal is to assure the families that their loans for home repair, home rehab or home ownership are successful experiences.

CMHI’s efforts are having a measurable impact on the community. In 1996, the organization helped to build six new homes. In the summer of 1997, CMHI participated in Hammering in the Hills, a joint project of FAHE Groups and Habitat Humanity. Together, the groups built 150 new homes in the Appalachian area of West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee during the summer of 1997. CMHI again participated in Hammering in the Hills in 1998, in addition to completing several home rehabs and building several new homes.

At the local level CMHI works with other local agencies through Clay County Interagency Meetings. As part of a five county CAE designated Enterprise Community, CMHI works with housing groups from surrounding counties. At this present time CMHI is working directly with interested citizens in Roan County, assisting them in establishing a local nonprofit housing group in their county.

CMHI is directed by a Board of Directors of whom more than half are eligible for the services of the organization. The day to day operations are managed by the Executive Director. Presently, eleven people are employed by CMHI, and according to WV Housing Development Fund, CMHI is longest operating grass roots community housing organization in the state of West Virginia.

Walter Bodle

Inspired by his passion for children, education and photography, retired schoolteacher Walter Bodle has mobilized an entire community. In just five years, Walter's volunteer vision of giving a few teens a few cameras has blossomed into an independent, non-profit organization, Youth in Focus, enriching the lives of well over 200 of Seattle’s inner-city youth.

Walter is retired after more than three decades as a public school teacher. For years he taught government at a high school in Compton, CA. While many of Walter's colleagues would leave the most economically disadvantaged area of Los Angeles and teach elsewhere, Walter persisted. Walter was tremendously committed to the kids and realized that what had the greatest impact on his disadvantaged students was a caring adult who reached out.

Bodle began by soliciting camera donations and leading teens on informal photographic field trips. Soon other photographers joined Walter in volunteering with the young people. After just a few weeks, an advisory board was formed.

Walter has increased his involvement and dedication by recruiting and training volunteer mentors, teaching classes and writing curriculum, requesting in-kind donations and supplies, performing outreach to social service agencies, speaking to numerous community groups, helping plan and organize benefit auctions, framing, matting and hanging the student exhibits and much more.

Along the way, Walter has inspired hundreds of others to touch young lives through photography. The program has grown to serve between 80-90 students per year through its year-round after-school and summer programs. Today, Walter is the executive director and earns a minimal stipend for occasional class instruction and reimbursement for transportation and other related expenses.

Walter's volunteer efforts positively impact youth in Seattle's Rainier Valley—the most diverse community in Washington. Youth in Focus actively recruits participants from social service agencies and provides the program at no cost to low-income families. By providing non-traditional activities and positive adult mentors during after-school hours, Youth in Focus presents youth with engaging alternatives to substance abuse, teen pregnancy and crime.

Youth in Focus has received national recognition from the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities for its successful use of the arts in working with at-risk youth (Coming Up Taller, 1996). Graduates of the basic black and white photography program are encouraged to volunteer themselves as peer mentors, explore the digital photography session and pursue a photography-related work internship. Public exhibits of the students' work further help build self-esteem as they realize the value and importance that viewers place on the images they created.

Walter's leadership has attracted more than 100 community members who make Youth in Focus effective and cost-efficient as they assume volunteer roles of mentors, board members, and committee volunteers. Additionally, more than 300 individuals attend the annual Double Exposure fund-raising auction in support of Youth in focus.

Sarah Hawkins

Sarah Hawkins believes the best gifts that she can give to children are selflessness and education. During her freshman year in high school, she accepted an opportunity to tutor local children at Margaret Mitchell Elementary during her free period. Once a week, she helped a child learn basic reading and math but decided that this was not enough. For years, she aspired to be a teacher for deaf children. At the beginning of her sophomore year, she talked to her school service coordinate who provided a list of schools in the Atlanta area that had deaf education programs. After a tour of the Oral School for the deaf, she was given a job as a volunteer teacher’s aide. Every Tuesday, she drove to the Speech School to teach phonics and reading to 4- and 5-year-olds.

Her experience at the Speech School was overwhelming. All of the children at the Speech School have cochlear implants, so they have partial hearing and are able to lip-read. Hawkins relished the satisfaction of helping a child correctly pronounce a word or read a sentence. This year, she is going to devote more time to the Speech School. Twice a week during her school free period, she will drive to the school and help teach a class. This year will be more challenging because she is teaching younger children who are still learning how to use their cochlear implants to hear.

In addition to tutoring at Margaret Mitchell, she began to tutor at the Emmaus House, an after school program that helps children with their schoolwork and further develops their reading skills. At the request of his grade advisor, she started weekly tutoring a 7th grade student at her school who needed help in Spanish. She now tutors a different seventh grader and a freshman student as well. A few Saturdays every month, Hawkins goes to Capitol Area Mosaic, a recreation center that provides low-income children with a place to safely play and learn. Her love for teaching has grown stronger with each project that she takes on.

Through her teaching, Hawkins has accomplished many goals. She has been a role model and a mentor to children who might not otherwise have one. She has spent hours patiently assisting children to read, while others have not given them a second chance. She has also identified needs for supplemental education in her community and gives of herself to fulfill those needs. Her work helps to combat illiteracy, neglect and lack of interest in the community.

Fred Appel

A volunteer for Hospice of the Valley since 1981, Fred Appel has been instrumental in the growth of this organization. In the 1970’s, Appel’s wife died of cancer. Family sacrifices were made to care for her at home since there were no organizations to support them. When hospice care came to the area, Appel was the first to sign up and has been actively promoting the concept ever since. In his 18 years as a volunteer, Appel has spent time with hundreds of patients and their families, helping them through one of the most difficult times of life. He has logged more than 65,000 miles on his car and has given more than 3,000 hours of his time.

Each year, Hospice of the Valley serves 600 patients with terminal illnesses and their families. Working with dying patients takes special skill. Most people are not eager to volunteer for the task, until they meet Appel, who is affectionately referred to at the agency as “Mr. Hospice.” To each patient, he brings his unique humor and a special trademark to remember him by—the Fred Appel “apple,” a real apple filled with flowers. This helps to foster a bond and makes the patient and family feel at ease.

Appel is committed to the power of learning and its role in hospice care. He has attended national seminars and conferences, at his own expense, to learn more about hospice. When traveling, he often visits hospices and talks with the staff. When he returns home, he shares with his peers was he has learned. He inspires other volunteers, staff and board members through his leadership and selfless dedication to the mission. He also serves as a mentor for new volunteers and catalyst for improving the program with his ideas.

Recently, he was assigned to a patient who was estranged from his wife because of his terminal illness. When Appel discovered that the wife liked to paint and the husband enjoyed woodworking, he came up with a pattern they could work on together. At each visit, he encouraged them until the project was completed. This is only one small example of how his actions have helped to bridge the gap terminal illness can create.

At age 84, and now a cancer survivor himself, Fred Appel has never slowed his pace or given less than 110%. He still volunteers for patient assignments and organized all of the community outreach presentations.

Julie Bachman

Julie Bachman, a local attorney licensed in the states of Nevada, California and Massachusetts, began volunteering her services at the South Lake Tahoe Women’s Center in July of 1997. Since that time, she has provided legal advising to more than 360 survivors of domestic violence and/or sexual assault.

Bachman first contacted the South Lake Tahoe Women’s Center to offer her services when she learned of the agency’s desperate need to make legal consultation available to its clients. Bachman’s primary concern was women and children who are penalized by the system because they lack financial resources or knowledge of the judicial system. Bachman generously offered to donate four hours of her time each week to provide legal consultation and assistance with preparing legal documents for court for domestic violence survivors. Prior to her efforts, the Center had no such services available.

As a result of Bachman’s generosity in donating her legal expertise, many clients have found the courage to leave abusive and dangerous relationships, secure with the knowledge that they could file for such things as an order of protection, a divorce or custody of their children.

In addition to providing assistance to domestic violence survivors, Bachman has pioneered a battle against the tolerance of sexual harassment in the workplace. She has advised and drafted letters of complaint, including client demands, for victims of sexual harassment. Her efforts have been rewarded with an increased interest in rape prevention education presentations for local businesses and consequently increased public safety.

Bachman has been an invaluable volunteer for the South Lake Tahoe Women’s Center. Last November, she appeared on a national talk show to talk about her volunteer work at the Center and hopefully inspire others to follow in her footsteps. She continues to donate her time and expertise out of a strong dedication to end violence against women and a desire to help others living in the community.