PEGGY KEARNEY

Peggy Kearney is affectionately known as “the Can-do girl” because she is always ready and willing to help. Kearney has been donating her time to the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) since October of 1998. During the six years of service, she has given more than 7,300 hours of service.

Kearney volunteers almost everyday each week though she is over 80 years old. She is currently assigned to three RSVP sites. She works at Tuomey Healthcare Systems Monday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Their she works with patient care serving Endoscopy, Day Surgery waiting room, Imaging Center and maintaining patient services by delivering and picking up menus and transporting patients that are being discharged.

Kearney donates her time at the Sumter Senior Services on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. There she works as a receptionist in addition to delivering hot/frozen meals to shut in seniors trough the Meals on Wheels program. In addition, she performs a variety of clerical duties for RSVP. Kearney also serves at the Sumter Exhibition Center several afternoons a week. There she answers the phone and performs clerical duties.

In addition, Kearney serves on the RSVP Advisory Board. She has also volunteered with Habitat for Humanity, Silver Set Program and at the Shepard Senior Center. Due to her dedication, she was nominated and won the South Carolina Network Volunteer of the Year Award. She was recently awarded the Presidential Service Award for Lifetime Service for an excess of 4,000 hours.

BARRY ROWE

Barry Rowe has been involved in the ministry of young people since 1989. He has served on church staff as a minister to help encourage students. In addition to being a husband and father, Rowe has also been a positive role model for many students and young adults alike. Rowe is continually involved in local project to encourage, mentor, coach and counsel young people.

Currently Rowe serves at his local church in various ways. He holds fellowships where the children are able to go to amusement parks, fund zone, backyard Bible clubs and block parties. He also holds regular meetings weekly for the Children’s Choir, where he teaches children music and drama. Rowe has also produced several musical productions and the choir has performed at Children’s Hospital in Birmingham, Alabama, the Montgomery Zoo Festival of Lights, Hatley Healthcare and The Gardens. Though he is on staff as Minister of Music, Rowe spends numerous hours serving with no compensation.

In addition, Rowe serves as President of the Chilton County Rotary Club. This organization is widely known for its involvement in fighting the irradiation of Polio by 2005. Another project under his leadership the Rotary Club has taken on is providing dictionaries to every third grade student in Chilton County. Each student will receive his or her personal dictionary in addition to each third grade class. The students who are bilingual will receive a dictionary for both Spanish and English translations. This project is designed to aid third grade teachers in their goal to see all their students become good writers, active readers and creative thinkers. Rowe believes the dictionary is a companion for problem solving as a child develops his or her reading, writing and creative thinking skills.

Rowe also has a special recognition project to encourage the students. He elects a “Student Spotlight” each month during the school year. A particular student is selected and awarded a cash scholarship. Their picture will be put in the local newspaper receiving their scholarship based on their academic excellence, community involvement and positive impact on their community.

JENNIFER STANLEY

The West Lanham Hills Volunteer Fire Department is a governmental subdivision, which is managed and operated by volunteers from the community. The Department provides fire suppression and emergency medical services for a busy area – over 10,000 responses per year. Dedicated persons from the community volunteer many hours, sometimes many weeks and months per year, to take training and respond to emergency calls. Firefighter/EMT Jennifer Stanley is one of its most hard-working and invaluable members. As with all members of the Department, Stanley is a volunteer who puts her life on the line everyday without monetary compensation.

The West Lanham Hills VFD, like many other fire departments in Prince Georges County, Maryland depends on volunteers to provide vital emergency services to the community. Obviously, firefighting and emergency medical care are essential services. Within one year, Stanley took several hundred hours of training, became a fully qualified firefighter and EMT. She participates in the live-in program, which assures that personnel will respond to call for help around the clock. She has also assumed a leadership position as a Fire Sergeant, working with and training the new volunteers. Stanley plays a vital role in providing a real community need. Moreover, she leads others and trains them to correctly do the same. This serves all persons in the community who call for help, especially many of those who are indigent and less fortunate.

Stanley provides hands-on services directly to persons in need of assistance: victims of crime, the elderly, people involved in motor vehicle crashes, and persons suffering from dire medical conditions. She puts out fires in people’s homes, where all of the residents’ belongings and valuable are housed. The Department services people of diverse cultural backgrounds and ethnicities; Stanley is always there to respond to their calls.

Stanley became a volunteer in October 2001. Since then, she has taken over 400 hours of physically and mentally challenging training. She has also volunteered thousands of hours of her time, mostly due to her participation in our live-in program, where volunteers can live-in the station. The program assures that volunteers are present and ready to respond to emergencies twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. She continues to participate today just as strongly as she has since beginning.

As a result of Stanley’s dedicated volunteerism, the ambulance and fire trucks are always fully staffed with trained and knowledgeable, and experienced personnel. Of course, this is always a team effort, involving all members of the Department, but Jennifer Stanley is a consistent and dependable volunteer who leads and manages others.

RACHAEL LAMBIN

Rachael Lambin saw a need to educate her community about the seriousness of a condition that affects many children across the county. Lambin knows the seriousness of asthma and she created “Kids Helping Kids” with asthma (KHK).

Her younger brother who has been hospitalized many times due to respiratory problems inspired KHK. Lambin has spent in excess of 2,400 hours teaching children and adults about asthma. She also educates by writing and illustrating children’s books and creating educational events for children with asthma and their families. To date, she has raised more than $15,000 and continues to work with KHK at least 35 hours each week.

Last year, Lambin created a summer day camp for asthmatics between the ages of 4 and 16. They were able to bring their oxygen tanks and various medications and “just be like any other kid.” This innovative and informative program has grown to more than 23 youth in three states, and KHK has three camps scheduled for the coming summer.

Lambin also enjoys art and uses her talents to create artwork. These items are sold in galleries, and the proceeds from this as well as her books, go towards asthma education. Lambin and KHK also write, direct and edit asthma public service announcements (PSA’s) for local television stations.

During May of 2003 Lambin was able to go to Washington DC to promote HR-2023, which is a bill at the House of Representatives that would allow children to carry their life saving medication with them at all times. She met with Representative Juanita Millerder-McDonald of California and Nancy Sander the founder of AANMA. Lambin’s work was presented on the House floor, and she appeared on C-Span Network and is part of the Congressional record. Her work continues to impact others and the support for KHK is growing each year.

WILL SCHOENHALS

Will Schoenhals is a “Jr. Naturalist” volunteer at Three Forks Nature Center in Sequoyah State Park. He started working at the center in December 2002 at the age of 10. He has since worked over 330 hours through July 2004. Will is 11 years old and currently in the sixth grade.

Will has provided outreach nature programs to schools in the area and also to Boy Scouts day camps. Will is also one of our Jr. Naturalist instructor. As an instructor he helps with the training and orienting of the new volunteers that go through classes which includes both kids and adults. These classes are taught in the spring on 4 different Saturdays. In order to teach the class he has given up soccer games and Boy Scout campouts. He is our only Jr. Naturalist that has taught the entire set of classes.

This past year Will painted and relocated 20 signposts to re-open one of the trails as a self-guided trail. The trail had not been properly marked and used as a self-guided trail in over four years. He assists with the daily maintenance, rehabilitation, and care of the animals that we have at the center.

Will is able to provide information about the park and activities to the visitors at the center and also leads or assists with programs. He works closely with visiting scout groups helping with their advancement requirements. On the Saturdays that he is working, he leads the rock painting program and assists with the reptiles program.

Will has earned the Gold Presidential Community Service Award both in 2003 and again this year.

Due to reduction in funding, the staffing as the center has been reduced. It is because of volunteers like Will, that quality wildlife education programs continue to be provided to visitors that come to the park.

WENDELL CUTTING

Wendell Cutting is the District Chief of Staff to Congressman Duncan Hunter, he is responsible for district offices and staff and is the Congressman’s representative and spokesperson when the Congressman is in Washington, D.C.

Mr. Cutting is a former teacher and school administrator and served as the Mayor of the City of San Jacinto. He spent many years in the Middle East and Asia building and operating a successful business that by the time he returned permanently to the United States, had over 2,500 employees in 12 countries. He returned to the U.S. in 1990 to handle foreign policy, defense and economic issues for the Republican Leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives with special responsibilities for Middle East and Arab affairs.

Mr. Cutting is the volunteer Vice-President for Rescue Task Force, a non-profit, all volunteer, international relief agency founded in 1988.

During the war in Kosovo, Mr. Cutting made two trips to Albania (the second trip included being among the first civilians into Kosovo) where he set up a distribution system for incoming relief supplies and delivered tons of supplies to the region and refugee sites. In 1999 he spent time in slum areas of southern Thailand teaching residents hygiene and ways to prevent dengue fever. While in Thailand, he also counseled cancer victims and their families. Traveling by bush planes and dug out canoes, he has delivered many emergency response teams deep into the jungles of Honduras’ Miskito coast to provide medical care, water pumps and hand tools to forgotten disaster victims who has never before has contact by outsiders. He has built and equipped a medical clinic in this remote jungle area where native tribes people have never before received any medical care.

Mr. Cutting is also engaged in delivering large quantities of food and medical supplies to various Mexican orphanages, clinics, and hospitals. This past year in El Salvador, he worked with refugees from the civil war and helped put in water wells in settlements without water while providing books & materials and roofs for schools. He is currently building a suspension footbridge over a river separating a settlement from their school. Several children are drowning each year trying to attend the school.

Mr. Cutting returned to El Salvador immediately following the January 2001 earthquake where he set up a distribution system for relief supplies into remote areas as well as distributed medical supplies food blankets and tents in remote areas that were hardest hit.

He recently returned from Pakistan and the Pakistan-Afghanistan border where he set up a distribution system for relief supplies for Afghan refugees. While there he provided immediate assistance to a pro-American, anti-Taliban tribe and helped to stop the delivery of goods to the Al-Queda network of terrorists.

In 2000, Mr. Cutting was honored by the El Cajon Rotary Club when he was presented their “Service Above Self Award” and then was surprised when the Club announced that the perpetual Award would hereafter be designated the “Wendell Cutting Rotary Service Above Self Award.” He was recognized for his service with the “President’s Award” by the San Diego East County Chamber of Commerce for the year 2000 and was recently named the “El Cajon Citizen of the Year” by various service organizations and churches. He is a recipient of the “Lifetime of Achievement Award” by the East County Economic Development Council.

TRUMAN SMITH

Truman Smith has volunteered his time to help beautify the landscape of several local schools. His work includes planting shrubs, flowers and trees and the upkeep of the landscaping. He also takes the time to read to the school children. Mr. Smith has donated hundreds of hours of his time annually for the past several years to make the Cape Girardeau Public School District a better place.

There is a dire need in the Cape Girardeau School District to help keep up the school grounds and playing fields. Mr. Smith graciously fills this role. Currently the budget for the Cape School District is very tight, and without all his hard work there would be no way the District could afford the upkeep. His volunteer work has touched not only the students and teachers that attend the school, but the entire community benefits from the beauty.

Mr. Smith takes a hands-on approach to his work by interacting with all of the students and teachers when he works. In addition to planting shrubs and trees, Mr. Smith plants vegetables on school grounds so the students can study them. He also takes the time to listen to the children as they read to them and makes sure he impacts the life of each student he meets.

Mr. Smith suffers from some physical limitations; however, he never lets them slow him down. His continued dedication and optimism has inspired the entire community. While many ignore the problems in the community, Mr. Smith continues to find new ways to lend a helping hand. His hard work and unselfish contribution to the community has made Cape Girardeau Public Schools the attractive learning centers they are today.

BOY SCOUT TROOPS 513 & 108 AND PACKS 108, 513 & 60 OF THE COASTAL CAROLINA TWIN RIVERS DISTRICT

Boy Scout Troops 513 and 108 and Packs 108, 513 and 60 of the Coastal Carolina Twin River District have been volunteering at the Center for Forested Wetland Research (SRS-4103) for the last three years. These African American Scouts and Scoutmasters have been helping with field work at a time when there were few staff, and made it possibility for the USDA – Forest Service to conduct several important studies.

The Scouts helped plant seeds and plants that grew in the studies on sweetgrass ecology and management. The Scoutmasters are dedicated mentors to these mainly urban and underprivileged boys, and are assisting with outreach to this underrepresented population by helping to expose the boys and their families to this agency and the work that is being done.

Each of the scouts and their leaders are African-American, the majority of the Scouts lacking one parent in their households. Thankfully, the Scouts has Scoutmasters who tirelessly work to keep them involved in constructive activities that are helping them to grow in productive young men.

Cubmasters Macio Jacobs,Daryl Orage and Penelope Middleton, and Scoutmasters Robert Madison, Sr. and Sara Freeman, have on numerous occasions brought their groups of young men to the Center’s work unit facilities and to field sites on the Francis Marion National Forest to help with field work. The scouts helped propagate seedlings by mixing potting mix, filling pots with soil and planting seeds, weeding, and eventually using the seedlings to help install research plots by digging holes and planting the seedlings. The work was hot, dirty and hard, but the scouts and scoutmasters always got the jobs accomplished. Because the work unit has been understaffed, no other field assistance was available during this period and therefore important studies would not have been accomplished if it were not for the help of these Scouts. As a result of their hard work, there are now two field studies installed and hundreds of additional seedlings growing in the greenhouse and at the Seed Orchard, poised for use in future studies.

Most of the efforts contributed by the Boy Scouts has been focused on studies of the Ecology and Management of sweetgrass (Muhlenbergia filipes). This native coastal grass is an important non-timber forest resource used by local Gullah people in the traditional coiled basket art form brought to this continent by enslaved Africans. “Sweetgrass baskets,” as they are called, are a source of income and cultural pride for many of those who make them and the baskets are historical icons for the Charleston, SC area where most of the baskets are made and sold. However, with the recent urbanization of the area, both the amount of the resource and its accessibility has declined dramatically. As a result, basket makers who used to personally collect the materials must now buy it at a high price from others who travel to less-developed coastal areas to collect it. The work of the Boy Scouts is important in helping to shift the balance and restore the population of sweetgrass in this area.

KATIE MURPHY AND MAGGIE HATFIELD

Katie Murphy and Maggie Hatfield were Community Service Board members for the Pembroke Hill Upper School (2003-2004). In this positiion, they were instrumental in organizing three major school community projects: Christmas in October, the Harvesters Food Drive, and the Serviceman’s Holiday card and letter writing campaign.

Katie and Maggie worked tirelessly on recruiting volunteers for the Christmas in October project, which involved cleanup and repair projects for needy individuals and neighborhood associations in the greater Kansas City area. They also helped organize the upper school food drive competition for Harvesters, which collects food for the homeless and needy in the Kansas City area.

Katie and Maggie both made the key contacts with upper, middle, and lower school art classes in order to put together a successful holiday greeting project for servicemen and women in Iraq and Afghanistan. Finally, and most impressively, these young women have become involved with a peer mentoring program in Kansas City, Kansas, for teens who are going through pregnancy and for teenage mothers. Not only have they been individually involved in the program, but have recruited other students into this program. They have spent many hours on the Athena Project, both organizationally, and in personal counseling.

MEGHAN AND LAUREN PARNELL

The Texas Department of Human Services recently named Meghan and Lauren Parnell, Senior Girl Scouts with the San Jacinto Council and members of the Delta Chapter Home School National Honor Society, the “Outstanding Volunteers of the Year.” The residents of Heartland’s Assisted Living Center nominated the Parnell sisters multiple times for their willingness to give of their time, talents and treasures to enrich the lives of others, namely those of senior citizens. Lauren and Meghan volunteer at Heartland’s regularly; the residents adore the girls and look forward to their visits.

Three years ago the Parnell Girl Scouts began visiting the Assisted Living Center and started exploring areas where they could be of use. Initially, they called bingo games on Monday afternoons and painted the nails of the residents. They spent time refreshing some residents on how to send loved ones e-mails or just reading from a chapter book. As they got to know the residents better, they noticed their need for independence. The Activities Director, Donna Martin, along with Meghan and Lauren, set up “The Country Store.” The store is stocked with items from food to hair bows. Residents can purchase these items on their own and never leave the facility.

Resident who enjoy getting out can now enjoy a shopping trip to Wal-Mart on a monthly basis. The girls, with others from the Honor Society, meet at Wal-Mart and await the transport bus. As the residents alight, the girls assist them with shopping by pushing the shopping cart or wheelchair, reaching tall shelves and just looking around without rushing the residents. After the shopping, the girls sit and talk to the seniors while they eat at the restaurant inside of the store.

As part of the Council Puppetry Troupe, Meghan and Lauren brought the life-like puppets to the residents of Heartland. Kids on the Block puppets Michael, in a wheel chair, and Renaldo, a blind puppet, are real favorites of the residents. At the end of the show, the girls brought the puppets to visit the seniors who spoke to the puppets directly. They seem to relate to the trials and limitations of the 3-4 foot puppets.

Christmas this year brought a whole new meaning to giving. The girls decided to have their Honor Society holiday party with their friends at Heartland’s Assisted Living Center. They brought their treasures of tree ornaments, some purchased and some homemade to decorate, along with the residents, their tree in the activity room. The girls recruited members of their Honor Society to give of their talents. The residents were entertained for more than 90 minutes with violin, piano, and dulcimer music. A group sing-a-long with accompaniment by one of the students playing the guitar and a very interesting Highland dance brought hand clapping and toe tapping – showing music has no age. The group served the residents punch and cake and cookies and the spirit of the season was truly felt.