ELIZABETH MINCEMOYER

“Before birth, a baby is kept warm by its mother’s body. Its own thermostat is not challenged. After birth, a baby’s temperature regulation system is on its own. Placed in a cool environment, a baby may have trouble adjusting. Compared to the rest of its body, a baby’s head is relatively large. Its provides a large area of skin from which heat can escape even if the baby’s body is bundled. The purpose of the cap is to preserve body heat. We do not know whether it also makes a baby more comfortable. Hands and feet are as you pointed out, little. They are unlikely to be a major source of heat loss for a baby. Booties seem to make grandmothers more comfortable and may be recommended for that reason alone.” Rockford Register Star

Betty has been knitting hats for SwedishAmerican Health System in Rockford, IL since 1994. The article above featured in the Rockford Register Star by Mondena Wilson and Alian Joffe, for the Baltimore Sun, demonstrates the importance of the work that Betty does but let me tell you more.

To date, Betty has knitted a total of 823 bonnets spending to date, 3292 hours knitting for infants in the community. Most often, these hats are placed on babies after birth preserve body heat. Local hospitals often provide the bonnets to newborns so that they all have the same level of quality in their hats. A SwedishAmerican hospital has approximately 2500 each year. Those children that may be less fortunate or cannot afford a bonnet are given the same as any other child. She continues to do this even though she has been diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome in both hands and urged by doctors to discontinue knitting.

Betty has spent much of her life volunteering to help better the lives of our children in the community. Her golden years have been dedicates to this work. Since age 74, she has been active in local organizations that work for children. She has served as President of the Rockford Day Nursery. She was also honored by SwedishAmerican Health System at their 2002 Volunteer Recognition Banquet for her ongoing support of the newborns.

OAK GROVE SHADOWS 4-H CLUB

The Oak Grove Shadows in Missouri do many community projects each year. They have a dozen families that pitch in and help. They have won the President’s Volunteer Service Award for over 1000 volunteer hours as a group for one year.

Some of their activities are collecting items to donate to the community services league at the holidays for their town, they send cards to the troops in Iraq and make Grandparent’s Day cards for the resident’s in their local nursing homes. Some members participate in National Youth Service Day. They rake yards, pull weeds, clean gutters, and etc. for those people who may need help. They also volunteered to help the Hy-Vee program make up candy bags for Santa’s visit. They have also volunteered at numerous horse events at town, county and state levels. Once such event was the Equus America in Kansas City. They help out with the elderly, kids, Girl Scouts and trash pick-up around the community. It does not stop here! Some members work at food pantries and assist church groups.

A member, Serea Watson hosts a Japanese Exchange Student, Asami Kusunoki. “I think more people should host Japanese kids because we can learn more about their culture and they can learn more about ours,” Watson said. During Asami stay with Serea’s family, she participated in 4-H club activities and family outings. She celebrated her 14th birthday with the 4-H club. The group made the Grandparents Day cards, which will be given to nursing home residents.

Shadows 4-H members joined 50 other volunteers April 17th in Independence for National Youth Service Day. Program “Helping Hands” was coordinated by Fran Daniel at the Fairmont Community Center. Volunteers were given t-shirts and went to elderly residents’ homes to rake leaves, wash windows, clean out sheds and other jobs.

MURRAY KAMENS

Murray Kamens has been an advocate for the disabled in the Fort Collins Community for over 8 years. He is always available to assist those in need. Along with the Disabled Resource Services, he has maintained the loan closed, which provides mobility equipment to the disabled, most of the time delivering the equipment himself to the people in need. Many times he has gone to homes to access what they need to make their homes accessible to them. Then finding people to help do the work. In Spite of his own mobility problems, breathing problems and diabetic neuropathy. He leads his life with humor and a big heart.

Murray who has respiratory and mobility problems, said he enjoys helping other people with disabilities. He received both the Volunteer of the Year and the Dorothy Lasley Memorial Award, which goes to a person with a disability who works to raise awareness of people with disabilities and increase their quality of life.

He garnered the nominations and awards for his work with Disabled Resource Center where he has been volunteering for eight years, including six years of the Board of Directors. The organization specializes in employment counseling and job placement. They also lend equipment such as wheelchair ramps and hospital beds for people with disabilities. Kamens does a variety of work as a volunteer with the nonprofit, including helping people with disabilities make their homes more accessible, transporting people and equipment and matching up people with disabilities with those who can help them with household chores and repairs.

“I’m not doing this for recognition,” Kamens said. “But it is an honor to be recognized.” He said, he likes to help people get along easier in life. He found out the hard way. “I’ve gone through it for many years, and I know what its like. I don’t want anybody else to have to go through what I did.” Murray says. Along with assisting others, Murray is a caregiver, advocate and a loving husband to his wife of 32 years.

TIFFANY BAKER

Tiffany has dedicated an uncountable amount of hours to the Explorer Post 119 program. The program is designed to make a safer community, investigating crime scenes and putting on community events as we learn more about leadership and law enforcement. As a member of the post, Tiffany’s volunteer hours help her communities by parking cars; directing traffic, crowd control and crime scene investigation. She also assisted the police with the program shop-with-a-cop. This is where they took children from low-income families shopping for Christmas gifts.

Tiffany has made an extreme impact on her community. Besides various individuals and groups commending her on her achievements and strides to make the community a safer place, but she volunteered to search for the body of a missing 10 year-old boy. This situation impacted Tiffany life to in that it made a stop and look around. It allowed her to realize that she took those around her for granted. In this, Tiffany continued to impact the community with Explorer Post 119 to keep the neighborhood safe.

Tiffany continues to be a part of the Explorer Post and is involved in such activities as assisting with community events, raising funds, going to various events nationally and any other areas that the department may need assistance. The experience that Tiffany has gained by giving herself unselfishly to see that others are safe warrants a job well done.

ALBERTA HALL

Time flies when you’re having fun. It has been over five years that Foster Grandparent Volunteer, Alberta Hall (Grandma Alberta) has assisted in Mr. Laird’s 1st grade class. She is amazing and has made a huge impact on these youngsters. Mr. Laird notes: “Alberta really cares for the children and keeps them focused. She creates a positive and caring experience for children who very rarely receive it. She performs guided reading with small groups, conducts assessments of individual children, administers spelling tests to students who were absent when tests were given to class, works one to one with “at risk” students in all subject areas, assists with craft projects, prepares student folders each day and more. The class reading and writing skills have dramatically improved under Grandma Alberta’s tutoring. Her presence has enabled me to give the children who are having a hard time, more intensive help. Grandma Alberta is always cheerful, friendly and reliable”. At 70 years young, while I visited her class in early January, Alberta was assisting a small group with an individual art project. Each student was designing, painting and decorating their own snowman. As they put on the eyes she asked; how many eyes does he have? And so on with each aspect of putting the snowman together. Two eyes, one nose, three buttons on his coat. This was very fun to observe and instructive at the same time. The children were genuinely enjoying their project with Grandma Alberta. Several art projects were displayed around Mr. Laird’s class and I could tell this was soon to be the next.

Alberta was in the first graduating class of Foster Grandparent Volunteers in our Literacy Project in Placer County and the first volunteer placed at Rocklin Elementary School. Since then she has personally recruited several new volunteers, two that are currently placed at Rocklin Elementary School while others volunteer elsewhere. Alberta’s commitment to children is grand. Most foster Grandparents volunteer 3-4 hours a day 5 days a week. Alberta volunteers 6 hours a day, 5 days a week. Over the past five years Alberta has posted nearly 8,000 hours. Last year Alberta received the Presidents Lifetime Achievement Award for accumulating over 4,000 volunteer hours over her lifetime. Well, Alberta deserves recognition for accumulating 8,000 volunteer hours in five years alone.

Alberta is one of 100 Foster Grandparents is Sacramento, California that offer meaningful volunteer opportunities for people 60 and over to provide love and support to children with special or exceptional needs. Thousand of children have been helped by Foster Grandparents in the 30 plus years of the program. Some children are mentally, physically, or emotionally disabled; others are abused, neglected or in the juvenile justice system. Every child is special, but many lack the presence of that special someone who could make all the difference in the world.

SAINT MARY’S HALL RED CROSS CLUB

The Saint Mary’s Hall Red Cross Club exists for the purpose of nurturing servant leaders while serving the greater good of the community. The club is comprised of high school students attending a demanding college preparatory program. All volunteer activities are completed without pay.

The activities of the club include traditional activities of the American Red Cross such as staffing First Aid and water stations, compiling comfort kits for disaster victims, and conducting fundraisers for hurricane victims in Florida. Other events include activities such as the fund raising for the Measles Initiative and providing safety education and training. In addition, the student volunteers of the Saint Mary’s Hall Red Cross Club provide babysitting at the USO in support of families of whose military members are deployed overseas.

Every year, this club organizes the delivery of over one hundred meals for both Thanksgiving and Mothers Day to the needy senior citizens of the community. On these occasions, up to twenty students and half a dozen parents will support the Christian Senior Services of San Antonio for this special occasion delivery. Students in pairs will deliver to each for cards created by the city’s grade school children, flowers, and the traditional turkey dinner with all the trimmings. The moments these students provide many senior citizens are the only company these people will receive during the holiday.

On the day after Thanksgiving, the volunteers of the Saint Mary’s Hall Red Cross Club meet on San Antonio’s famed Riverwalk to raise between $15,000 and $20,000 dollars in the annual Holiday River Parade. This event’s funds are used exclusively for the maintenance and improvements to the city’s tourist attraction. For this event, students set-up and number almost 2,000 chairs around the convention center lagoon. As spectators arrive, the students lead them to their seats. During the event, they provide assistance as required and after the event all the chairs are restacked and the area cleaned up from cups, programs, and associated debris.

The singularly distinguished actions of the Saint Mary’s Hall Red Cross Club are reflected in the success of their members to assume greater responsibilities. The club president is also the president of the Youth Council for the entire city of San Antonio. She also sits on the San Antonio Chapter of the American Red Cross Board of Directors that represents the 21 counties and seven million people of South Texas. Finally, the club president was awarded an opportunity to represent the chapter at the 2004 national convention of the American Red Cross in Saint Louis, Missouri.

TOBYETTE SIMMONS

Without volunteers, the Boys & Girls Clubs would not be able to touch as many youth as they do in the many program areas that they offer. Four years ago the U.S. Olympic Committee offered the metro Atlanta region the opportunity to create a “Community Olympic Development Program” in Track & Field. Tobyette Simmons, a Boys and Girls Club volunteer, stepped forward and embraced the challenge of trying to implement and develop a sport that the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Atlanta had never attempted to run. Over the past four years, Tobyette committed her time from January through August to educate youth, train volunteers and staff, raise funding, and plan all the travel and competition logistics. She dedicates eight months a year, and a minimum of 20 hours a week as a volunteer for the metropolitan Atlanta track program. In four short years, Tobyette has engaged over 2,500 boys and girls to run in this track program. With the hope of success, a byproduct of providing this opportunity, under Tobyette’s leadership, six of her kids have gone on to receive college scholarships. Twenty-two of these athletes have become All-Americans and over 100 have qualified for the National Championships. She has helped to not only change lives, but save lives.

Tobyette has also engaged parents in keeping the kids in the program active, as well as solicited support from local vendors surrounding participating Boys and Girls Clubs. This program is truly a community effort being driven by Tobyette’s passion.

In general when people give back to the community, it is usually through financial contributions or volunteering for a single event. Tobyette’s commitment however, goes above and beyond the call of duty expected by an average volunteer. In January of each year, she plans the trainings, event competitions, and logistics tied to each meet. Every Saturday during the months of March and April, she hosts “all-comer’s” meets which allow all Boys & Girls Clubs members in the area to participate. In addition to this, she dedicates two nights a week to organize practice with the teams. In May of each year, she coordinates and runs the Metro Atlanta Boys & Girls Clubs Championship Meet. After that meet, she hosts the Boys & Girls Clubs Invitational. This has grown to be the largest invitational meet in Georgia under Tobyette. Tobyette still finds time to be the Head Track Coach for the Boys & Girls Clubs Elite Track Team that participates in the local, state, region, and national U.S. Track & Field Championships. While having a full time job, getting married, and having a child this past year, her dedication has only grown. She is strongly committed and the results are indicative of her leadership and guidance to inspire and enable others.

“It is not easy to work with youth from disadvantaged circumstances. When you add to it a program that has never been tried and has little or no support, why would anyone want to take on such a challenge; especially as a volunteer,” asks Matt Ryan, Director of Programming for the Boys and Girls Clubs of Metro Atlanta. “Well, Tobyette is about overcoming obstacles and providing optimism to others. The results from this program speak to that strength. She knows all the kids that have come through the program by name and she is affectionately called ‘Coach T’ by the many people in the community whose lives she has touched. She gives of herself with no expectation of something in return, just the smiles on her kids faces is the reward.

Tobyette Simmons is deserving of this award on her time commitment alone. But she is more deserving of the award because of the results she gets. I always worry she is doing too much, but she simply says, ‘If not me, then who? I love these kids.’ And we at the Boys & Girls Clubs and the community love her.”

DARICE GARDNER

The idea for delivering flowers to nursing homes through the month of May in honor of Mother’s Day was initiated by her church; however, she was inspired to take part in this experience by her passion to make a difference. Sure it took a lot of time out of her day, but once she saw how happy and cheerful it made all the people, and how it touched their lives, all the time invested was more than worth it.

Every Saturday, throughout the month of May, some people from her church and Darice visit nursing homes for about seven hours each time to give some flowers to the mothers. She purchased flowers for everyone that they had talked to at the nursing homes. She recruited for people support and assistance for buying and giving out the flowers.

She was able to touch the lives of the residents and improve them to the point where they would look forward to Saturdays in the month of May each year. There are about twenty people involved in delivering flowers to the elderly. While there was not any direct fundraising to purchase the flowers, the church and the community came together to make sure their was enough funding to give out the flowers yearly.

There was a great feeling of satisfaction for Darice as well as others that were involved. Spearheading, the project was every rewarding to Darice because she was not only able to learn communication skills but it felt rewarding to touch someone’s life in a simple but strong way. As one resident said, “Saturdays keep me going” will remain with Darice for the rest of her life.

Darice wants to continue to make a difference at her church and in her community and to lead by example for those young people in her community.

KATIE EPSTEIN

Two years ago, as a freshman in high school, Katie Epstein took action on her desire to make an impact in the Las Vegas Community through helping others. Because the only volunteer programs offered through her school were available to those students that could drive themselves to and from the activity, Katie decided to begin a program for those students who, like herself, wanted to volunteer but was not able to drive. That’s when she created a program in conjunction with Seville Terrace, an assisted living center for the elderly that is located across the street from her school. With this program, people confined to the limits of a retirement home were able to interact with high school students on a variety of levels from simple conversation to assistance with their chores. And while this program was started two years ago, a number of students continue to participate, building lasting relationships with the elderly.

This past year, Katie took leadership of the nationally recognized Meadows Mentors program, where as many as 30 students from her high school (The Meadows School) go to a local public school and tutor either individual students in need of literacy training or entire classrooms. Teaching these children, Katie realized that her passion in life is in helping children to realize their potential. Her true compassion for children and here genuine interesting their success is why she has decided to pursue a career in special education. This past summer, Katie traveled to Vanderbilt University in Nashville so that she could participate in a three-week program there for Autistic children. There, she was able to teach social skills to those children whose disease prevents them from adapting to societal customs. And while her resume is certainly impressive enough to merit a Daily Point of Light Award, it is Katie’s simple humanity that makes her an extraordinary young woman.

GARDEN ANGELS

I have had the opportunity of knowing Shawn Henry (founder of Garden Angels) through my work at Youth Venture. Youth Venture is a national non-profit organization that engages young people (Youth Ventures) to think about as well as address the problems in their communities. We provide our Youth Ventures with the tools necessary to create civic-minded organizations, clubs, or businesses. Youth Venture is a resource for young people like Shawn when they have project ideas that they want to launch. We provide our young people with the support needed to start them on their way.

Shawn launched his organization, Garden Angels, in December 2002 with a $1000 grant from Youth Venture. The Garden Angels has expanded to a following 50 core members and almost 200 young supporters in his Brooklyn neighborhood. It all started when Shawn had the idea of transforming an empty lot into a beautiful community garden. Shawn and the Garden Angels have since continued to pursue more community projects focused on engaging young people, such as tutoring, peer mentoring, poetry slams and chess tournaments.

Youth Venture supports young people throughout the beginning stages of their ventures because we believe strongly in the fact that young people are capable of being leaders in the community.

This past September, Shawn Henry was a recipient of $2000 for the Gloria Barrron Prize for Young Heroes in September 2004. He exemplifies this success as he manages to balance college life, work and being the leader of the Garden Angels. Shawn is a member of the Youth Advisory Council at Youth Venture and helps organize professional events for other young people to attend in the New York City area.

Shawn Henry’s continual involvement in the movement of young people who are making change in the world today is impressive and he deserves recognition because of the inspiration that he has brought to so many young minds in his community.