JO COSBY

Each Monday, Jo Cosby, 15, provides invaluable services to the American Red Cross, Morgan-Lawrence County Chapter. She is a capable leader and a reliable volunteer as well as an apt student of disaster. She has volunteered at the Red Cross office one day a week for more than two years. Since Jo is home-schooled, she has a flexible schedule and volunteers throughout the year. Staff in Health and Safety, Disaster, Blood and Chapter have found Jo’s help indispensable and depend on her weekly to give aid to a variety of projects.

Her duties at the American Red Cross include but are not limited to answering the telephone, making phone calls, filing, assembling bulk mailings, stamping community disaster education brochures, assembling adult and youth orientation packets and shredding confidential documents. Recently, she undertook the project of creating and maintaining a Youth Volunteer Scrapbook to be used in recruiting other youth volunteers. During the Christmas holiday, Jo puts up, decorates and takes down the office Christmas tree. She is also in charge of hanging the honorary gift cards from the chapter’s Holiday Appeal campaign on the tree. She also helps to assemble coffee break bags for blood drive sponsors and gift bags for the Secretary’s Day fundraiser. In addition, Jo folds and counts blood drive t-shirts and cleans and sanitizes mannequin faces.

Jo is also a trained blood drive volunteer. She registers blood donors and serves refreshments to donors at chapter and community drives. She also serves as a youth representative on the Volunteer Committee of the Morgan-Lawrence County Board of Directors as well as conducting leadership workshops for youth volunteers, assisting with youth volunteer orientations and assisting with activities at the Chapter Board retreat.

Jo was only 13 years old when she started volunteering at the Red Cross two years ago. She is the youngest volunteer to be given such significant responsibilities at the Chapter. This youth is still making a mark on youth involvement at the local Chapter. Although approximately 40 youth volunteer during the summer months and many do not continue their involvement. The goal of the Council is to get them to stay involved during the school years by providing quarterly newsletters, meetings and group service project opportunities. She has been responsible for implementing and planning this Council. She conducted the first meeting, sent out the first newsletter and makes arrangements for the service projects. In addition, Jo also set up and maintains a database of new residents in the county. She enters the information and then sends a welcome letter, tips on safety, a schedule of upcoming classes and a family disaster plan brochure.

In addition to her service with the American Red Cross, Jo has also volunteered on a mission trip to Guatemala. She was determined to make the trip with other church missionaries, and spent months earning money to pay her own way. She mowed lawns, sold home-baked goods, did babysitting and watched after a neighbor’s vacant house. While in Guatemala, she volunteered at an orphanage.

THE BUTLER FAMILY

The Butler family is three generations of extraordinary commitment to service to Washington DC. The family began volunteering through Greater DC Cares (GDCC) Family Cares Program in the summer of 2001. Initially drawn to Family Cares because of Brian’s community service requirement for school, the entire family soon found that volunteering provided their family with precious time they needed to bond. Since that summer, Brian and his mom, Pamela and his grandmother, Sarah, have been a model for other families to follow.

The Butler’s family’s first project through Family Cares was at the Days End Farm Horse Rescue in August of 2001. This is an organization that rescues abused and neglected farm horses throughout the state of Maryland. They enjoyed that project together and continued to serve at various agencies until they found their niche in volunteering.

The Butler’s soon found their nook at Christian Community Group Homes (CCGH). This is an agency that serves low-income elderly residents of the District of Columbia. Having recognized that this critical issue receives too little attention in their community, the Butler’s have continued to volunteer at CCGH during the past two years. They soon found that being there and sharing with the residents hit closer to home than they could ever imagine. Sarah recognized one of the residents as a distant cousin that she had not seen in years.

Their dedication to volunteering and to CCGH extended further than anyone could have imagined. They took on a family leadership role through the Family Cares, serving as the ongoing Project Coordinator at CCGH. As a Family Coordinator, the Butler’s responsibilities include recruiting family volunteers to attend the project, coordinating these volunteers and managing them at each of the projects.

The Butlers also took on a significant role in Family Cares Challenge in the spring of 2002. As part of the Challenge, Pamela engaged other families to participate in the program. These families came from their neighborhood, thereby increasing their community’s involvement in family volunteering and civic service. Brian was also able to spur the interest of his friends and classmates, sharing with his peers the importance of volunteering.

Throughout the year, the Butler family continues to coordinate projects at CCGH in addition to participating in various other projects, including National Youth Service Day and National Family Volunteer Day. Their sustained dedication to their community has not gone unnoticed, receiving the Volunteer Spotlight in the March 2002 edition of the Greater DC Cares newsletter, The Connection.

THE HAENDLER FAMILY

Nearly every Saturday for the past two and a half years, Ruth Haendler and her 17-year old son, Michael and their dog, Nutmeg have been welcome yet unconventional volunteers at Mediplex. They have dedicated themselves to share with the residents at the nursing and convalescent home in Stamford.

Prior to the Haendlers coming to the facility, the family reserved part of the summer in order to complete a five-week training and evaluation course with their dog in “pet assisted therapy” through the Good Dog Foundation. The mission of the foundation is to promote society’s understanding of the therapeutic value of the human-animal bond. The goal of this training program was to ensure certification of volunteers and their animals in order to provide safe and therapeutic visits.

Every weekend, the threesome are welcome visitors at the nursing home as part of an animal assisted therapy team and are judiciously written into patients’ weekly schedule. With the understanding that these patients rarely receive visits from young people and their pets, Michael and his mother demonstrate compassion as they listen to their stories, bring them small gifts on special occasions, photograph the patients and entertain them with their golden retriever’s tricks.

Even patients who have difficulty with verbal responses, the pair’s quiet encouragement, along with Nutmeg’s leanings and nuzzlings, obviously engages the clients as they pet, smile and nod. Providing these therapeutic and positive interactions with the elderly and rehabilitative patients clearly delight the residents as the call out to the family when they see them in the halls. As committed visitors, the Haendler’s golden threesome support residents as they deal with issues such as Alzheimer’s, serious illness and failing health.

In order to encourage others to join in pet assisted therapy, the three have volunteered in promoting the program at the Good Dog Foundation booth during local dog shows and festivities. Ruth maintains volunteering compounds happiness. Michael explains volunteering with a mathematical equation: V(volunteering) + V ( volunteering) does not equal 2V but V squared.

DAVID BRANTON

David is a senior at Northside Methodist Academy in Dothan, Alabama. He is a busy teen-ager who has to balance his schoolwork and extra curricular activities. David also makes serving a priority. He is co-president of the Youth Council that includes approximately 50 ninth through 12th graders in the Dothan-Houston County area. In addition, he is mascot for the Dothan-Houston County Substance Abuse Partnership at local functions.

David is involved because he has genuine concern for family, friends and his neighborhood. In seeking local change through governmental involvement, David has served as a county team leader for the Bob Riley for Governor Campaign. He was also among the members of the Birmingham-Southern College Model Senate, where he received the Outstanding Senator Award. His participation in government programs at his school has been wide through his first three years there and has given him the background needed for affecting governmental rulings.

David is also a part of Mothers Against Drunk Driving’s State Youth Advisory Board and helped the board establish its mission, “to prevent underage drinking, to reinforce the consequences of alcohol use and to provide peer support and education throughout Alabama.” David is president and founder of his school’s Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD), Red Cross volunteer and Flowers Hospital Teenage Volunteer team leader. David is also director of the organizational oversight committee and an active member of Habitat for Humanity. Because of his dedication to Habitat, he was honored as Habitat for Humanity’s Most Outstanding Salesman.

Hundreds of elementary aged children also know David as “Drug-Phrey” the dinosaur. He works with the substance abuse partnership in spreading its anti-alcohol, tobacco and drug message. David has volunteered his time and talents in a number of projects. Among the most recent activities is taking a youth leadership role in the efforts of the Coalition for a Tobacco-free Houston County. The coalition is seeking to abolish the use of tobacco products in city and county restaurants, and David recently spoke to city and county leaders during the first community forum on the subject.

Davis also participated in the Summer Scholar Program at Birmingham-Southern College. He lived on campus for a period of seven weeks and had to take two classes in addition to participating in numerous extracurricular activities. He was a junior in high school but taking college classes, and David did well in both of the classes he took. The classes were the main focus of the Summer Scholars; however, they had the opportunity to also participate in service projects. Because of his participation in extra projects and his excellence in the classroom, David is on a short list of Summer Scholars who will be considered for one of three scholarships to the school.

COMMUNITY FOOD RESOURCE CENTER

For Kathy Goldman, helping families file their taxes and take advantage of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is a natural extension of the Community Food Resource Center’s (CFRC) original mission: feeding New York City’s hungry families. “Much of our work is focused on families struggling to make ends meet,” says Goldman, who founded CFRC in 1980 in the wake of government budget cuts to anti-hunger and school lunch programs. “But we are also working to help families build assets so they can become more stable financially. EITC is the single biggest transfer of wealth for low-income working families.”

CFRC combines advocacy and direct services to help New Yorkers in all five boroughs meet their families’ basic needs for food and nutrition, income support and decent housing. CFRC serves almost 200,000 meals a year at its Community Kitchen of West Harlem and Senior Dinner Programs. They also help thousands of New York City families access food stamps, housing and other public benefits. In 2001, CFRC helped over 2,000 families keep out of homeless shelters through crisis intervention.

Last year, CFRC also initiated a free tax preparation service to help low-income families increase their income by claiming tax credits and avoid the high fees of paid tax preparers. By some estimates, nearly half a billion dollars — $465,000,000 — in EITC is unclaimed in New York City annually.

CFRC set up toll-free hot lines in English and Spanish to answer tax questions, distributed thousands of flyers through churches, community organizations and unions and produced 27 newspaper and 1,800 radio ads. In a joint press conference with Mayor Bloomberg, CFRC was able to expose predatory tax preparation practices and highlight the importance of the EITC to working families. “One of the keys of the initiative’s success was developing partnerships with a variety of organizations, including unions and credit unions,” says Goldman. “By creating coalitions, we can be a much more powerful force for change.”

CFRC prepared and electronically filed federal and state tax returns for more than 2,000 low-income workers at nine sites, resulting in tax refunds totaling more than $3 million. The initiative also helped tax filers open bank or credit union accounts and access other financial services that would build their families’ assets.

Last year, CFRC also began its Community Culinary Training Center. The program uses the Community Kitchen’s equipment during off hours to train 40 adults each year for jobs in the food service industry and helps them find employment. One graduate is Frances Rodriguez, who had gone to CFRC’s West Harlem food bank after a fire forced her and her family into a homeless shelter. Rodriguez now has a part-time catering job at NBC that she is hoping will become full time. “I just want to get my foot in the industry and work my way up from there,” she says.

The Community Food Resource Center is a 2003 Honoree of Families Count, the national honors program that recognizes organizations that are making a difference in the lives of families struggling to survive in tough neighborhoods.

MICHAEL TAMKIN

Michael Tamkin, a senior in high school, has conceived and developed Films for Friends, a student-initiated community service program. This program focuses on collecting and distributing movies to homeless assistance programs, hospitals, rehabilitation center, low-income families, centers for abused children and other charitable organizations that may be able to use the same. It was conceived to provide information and entertainment to people who would not otherwise have this opportunity.

Since its inception in 2002, this organization has donated in excess of 1,000 videos to various programs like the Boys and Girls Clubs, Westside Children’s Center, Saint John’s Hospital, One Voice, Exceptional Children’s Foundation and Ocean Park Community Center. The goal of this project is not only to provide a respite from the stresses of daily life, but also to reassure less fortunate people that students have a genuine interest in their well being.

Michael’s interest in helping other grew throughout his continued service to the homeless community. He has volunteered more than 400 hours at local soup kitchens, food pantries and other assistance programs. He also works after school to prepare sandwiches for delivery to local homeless shelters. While working at various shelters, he realized the people attending would like to watch a movie along with receiving nutritious meals and supplies. Watching films helps to enhance the social environment and make the experience more relaxing and friendly.

Under Michael’s leadership, Films for Friends collects new and used videos from his high school. Through flyers, advertisements, speeches and drives, Michael has encouraged many students to donate videos to the project. The movies are then matched by age and content so that appropriate videos will be donated to the proper organizations. Films for Friends not only benefit those receiving the donations, but it also encourages high school students to develop the gift of sharing with others. Students can develop a life-long interest in volunteering to help others.

Films for Friends has greatly benefited the lives of those who are the recipients of the movies. They have received numerous letters from program directors and individuals. Abused and neglected children who welcome the chance for entertainment and fun have especially appreciated the videos.

Since the beginning of his project, there has been an interest by those wanting to receive and those wanting to give. Michael is currently seeking corporate donations and sponsorships so that Films for Friends can expand to deliver an even larger and more varied selection to a greater number of organizations. He will continue to use this innovative idea to reach out and raise the spirits of those who need help in the community.

THE STRONG FAMILY

Andrew and Denise Strong have worked to serve their community since 1996. They donate hundreds of hours of volunteer service that has positively impacted disadvantaged children and inspired other volunteers to engage in volunteer service.

Andrew served as the Chairman of a Houston Young Lawyers Association Committee that recruited volunteers to work with the Aspiring Youth After-School Program. He started out as a volunteer for Aspiring Youth before becoming the Chairman of the Volunteer Recruitment subcommittee and then Chairman of the entire leadership capacity, he was chosen to be the Volunteer Chairman for recruiting lawyers for Aspiring Youth Programs in cities statewide. He also has personally tutored and mentored the students many times in the afternoon.

Denise has worked with the Aspiring Youth students on an etiquette course to learn manners and appropriate business etiquette. As a reward to the students who completed the course, she recruited Morton’s of Chicago restaurant to open the restaurant during lunch for a special luncheon just for the Aspiring Youth students. Many of these students had never been in a nice restaurant, and this experience will enable them to feel more comfortable in the business environment someday. The impact on the students and their parents and friends has allowed the Aspiring Youth After-School Program to recruit more students.

Andrew relays his story to the students. He is blind in one eye, but he overcame this disability to play college athletics and also achieve academically. He wants to motivate the children and show them that they, too, can overcome their own challenges and succeed.

In addition, Andrew has worked with the Houston and Texas Young Lawyers Associations, to develop partnerships so that Aspiring Youth can recruit more volunteers. This year, he is devoting many hours of service as the President of the 20,000 lawyer Texas Young Lawyers Association. In that role, he is spreading the Aspiring Youth “College for a Day” Program to eleven cities statewide and is involved in many other public service projects.

Andrew and Denise have also served together as Co-Chairs of the Silent Auction Committee for the Aspiring Youth gala for the past four years. These silent auctions have raised in excess of $50,000. In addition, they recently worked to repair a house for a 93-year old disabled woman. Their working together as a team is always an inspiration to the Aspiring Youth students.

President George W. Bush has said, “Children are the face of our future.” Andrew and Denise’s volunteer service has positively impacted numerous children and their families. They inspire others to come together as a family time to make life better for the next generation.

FIRST BAPTIST MIDDLE SCHOOL GROUP

Each Sunday afternoon, 25 middle school students put away their basketballs, roller blades and homework and come back to First Baptist Church in Decatur, Alabama. These youth are a part of a group called Youth on Mission, and they take their volunteer service seriously. They have made a long-term commitment to tutor children who need extra academic help. Their undertaking demands time, energy and heart.

The tutoring vans arrive at 4:45, and students from Leon Sheffield arrive at the church. The First Baptist students are partnered with a younger child and the pair goes off to read books, work math problems and memorize spelling words. Adults are present during the tutoring sessions to assist with questions or discipline; but except in special circumstances, the middle school student does the teaching.

In addition to the academic help, the middle school students provide the elementary children with on-going friendship and the positive role model of an older student, who is interested in doing well and working hard to achieve academic success. Unfortunately, some of the children who come to be tutored have had unstable backgrounds. Some have been living in a succession of foster homes and even changing schools. For those children, the middle school students’ time with the youth is especially important. They are more than tutors or even friends. The middle school students become a constant in a hurting child’s otherwise chaotic life.

During November and December of 2000, the middle school students and the Leon Sheffield students combined their voices to create a Christmas production. They sang for parents, friends and others who attended a Sunday evening worship service at First Baptist Church.

At the end of each school year, the First Baptist Youth on Mission students recognize the students from Leon Sheffield. They present a trophy to the students that recognize the child’s commitment to academics, which was demonstrated by their consistent attendance at tutoring. During the summer months, several of the Youth on Mission students help staff a weeklong sports camp that is held in the church’s gym. Students who regularly attend the tutoring program are invited to the camp. Youth on Mission students play basketball, run relay races, assist with crafts and do whatever else is necessary to make this special week a success.

The work of students from Leon Sheffield and other elementary schools follows the school calendar, and they meet when school is in session. This particular program began three years ago and many of the Youth on Mission students have participated since the beginning. Others have graduated from the program but still come back and work with the students. Several of the students tutored have been involved during the entire three-year period, and the tutors as well as those being tutored form lasting bonds with each other.

MARIELLE WOODS

Marielle Woods prides herself in her volunteer work with the homeless. As a member of the National Coalition for the Homeless, a youth member of the Inter-religious Fellowship For The Homeless and the high school representative for the Bring Home America Act, she has been personally delivering packages bags of toiletries to homeless shelters throughout the regional areas as well as Boston, New Haven and Brooklyn, including Catholic Charities and shelters in Peru for years.

Her project, Hygiene Help for the Homeless, keeps her busy with amassing supplies, packaging, delivering and shipping, phone calls, paperwork and filing. Some of the items collected are toothbrushes and toothpaste to hair combs, shampoo, conditioner, cotton balls, mouthwash, hand cream, q-tips, soaps, shower caps and more. She believes she has benefited as much as the clients. She has learned to focus on other people and the real and immediate problems they endure because they are homeless.

This project has put her in touch with a side of life she has not known. She has found joy, though, in sitting and talking with people who are homeless. She realizes they are having a difficult time and need help. Marielle works to convince hotels, supermarket managers, doctors, pharmacists and others to give as much as they can. She contacts manufacturers and CEO’s for donations. She presents herself as a responsible advocate and gives information on her charity.

Marielle learned how to develop a charity from scratch. She has written letters, made appointments with business professionals. In addition, she has learned to present her organization in a professional way and how to interact well with others from various walks of life. In addition to working with Hygiene Help for the Homeless, Marielle is a board member of Table to Table, a nonprofit organization dedicated to feeding the homeless. She was instrumental in securing a luxury cruise on Seabourn Lines that garnered Table to Table $12,000 at a recent auction.

Marielle also visits the New Jersey Veterans Home with rescue dogs she has adopted working with the New Jersey Scottish Terrier Rescue. She and her therapy dogs are registered volunteers and a welcome sight to the residents there. In addition, she is the band and music coordinator of Ridgewood Fourth of July Parade, and she coordinates an inter-school ongoing collection drive for New Eyes for the Needy. As a music coordinator, Marielle has a yearlong commitment. She has to contact the band, do mailings and paperwork and take care of parade placement. With regards to her work for New Eyes for the Needy, Marielle has seven schools and businesses involved. She designs and delivers boxes requesting glasses for the needy. Marielle believes she has been very fortunate in her life. She now passes on those blessings to others. Whether she is playing chess with some of the residents of homeless facilities or at businesses soliciting eyeglasses for those in need, she makes service a part of her everyday life.

GREG DABEL

In accordance with the words of biblical text, which state: “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these,” Greg Dabel founded Kids for Kingdom – a Christian humanitarian organization serving children in poverty worldwide. Dabel’s mission is to transform the physical and spiritual lives of children so they can eventually transform their nation out of poverty and despair.

Dabel currently travels the world as a correspondent for WORLD Magazine; however, he has served in leadership positions for nonprofit and ministry organizations for the past 25 years. He is always been responsive to the needs of children, so he sought a way to combine the delivery of services for imminent physical needs with the delivery of the Biblical message of hope. He especially works with children in third world and war-torn countries, and these youth need food, clothing, medicine and other practical services.

Many relief agencies are recognized for their superior ability to deliver emergency food, build orphanages, render medical care and deliver vital services to the chronically needy and to disaster sites. There are also many organizations that effectively bring the Christian message to the furthest reaches of the world. Dabel sought a methodology to combine the delivery of practical aid with imperative spiritual teachings. In doing so, he hopes to be able to rescue children, disciple them in the Christian faith, equip them with job-training and life-skills and raise them up to become leaders in their own community. Kids for the Kingdom has become that delivery vehicle in 12 countries.

The author of ‘Saving Money In Nonprofit Organizations,’ Dabel also crusades for charities. He sees them as efficient stewards of financial resources and makes sure Kids for the Kingdom consistently maintains an overhead at 1% to 2% emphasizing the delivery of services directly to needy children. Dabel takes no salary; all of his time is volunteer. Dabel has an uncommon approach to raising money. Rather than conducting fundraising activities the organization simply relies on word of mouth and the good will of donors who collectively contribute $400,000 to $500,000 annually.

Dabel and his wife Karen live in the farming community of Sebastpool, California with their four sons on the family chestnut ranch. During his world travels as a news correspondent, Dabel continues to develop and support children’s projects in Nicaragua, Kenya, India, Cambodia, Guatemala, Russia, Afghanistan, Iraq and Philippines. He has brought together the resources of many charities, non-government organizations, nationals, missionaries and volunteer teams. As a result, the lives of more than 20,000 children were impacted last year with provisions for food, blankets, shelter, medicine, school tuition, job training, wheelchairs and love.