UNIQEMA’S MENTORING TEAM

Since 1997, Uniqema has partnered in a School Mentoring program with the Harry O. Eisenberg Elementary School – a local neighborhood school. Working through the Governor’s office, we decided to select a school in the immediate community with ‘high risk’ students who could benefit from a mentoring relationship.

The mission of the Uniqema program is to increase the academic achievement and school success of students. The regular meetings of the students and their mentors aid in promoting this.

Uniqema’s objectives are to improve student attendance, communication skills, problem solving abilities, and academic achievement through an adult friendship/role model. Meeting these objectives will assist the youth in becoming well-rounded and positive individuals that can effectively contribute to society.

A Uniqema mentor is a caring adult who is willing to devote an hour a week to a child in need of academic tutoring, emotional support, or merely friendship. A mentor serves as a role model and a friend.

Students in theUniqema program attend Eisenberg Elementary and are in grades kindergarten through fifth grade. They are in need of the additional support and guidance of an adult to be successful in school. Many of the students lack the necessary home support to accomplish school success.

All mentoring occurs at the school. Mentors meet with the same assigned student for 1-hour a week. There is an opportunity to use recreational, art, music, computer and lunch facilities on a one-on-one basis with the student. Activities range from reading aloud, doing school work together, playing games, working on a PC, shooting hoops in the gym, to just hanging out and talking. Whatever the activity, the focus is on forming a supportive relationship with the child that can aid him or her to succeed. The mentor serves as the student’s role model and friend.

In addition, at the end of each school year, the students are invited to join their mentors at the Atlas Point Plant site for an Annual Mentoring Field Day consisting of “hands-on” science fun and learning adventures, safety activities, and a Plant tour in which students are able to witness the operations of a manufacturing plant first-hand. The students with their mentors tour and participate in activities in the Warehouse, Production areas, Maintenance Shops, Laboratories and Computer-Aided Drafting (CAD) area. Visitors may include the Governor and other elected officials. This is a very special day dedicated solely to the students.

ALPHA PHI OMEGA ETA KAPPA CHAPTER

The Eta Kappa Chapter of the Alpha Phi Omega National Co-ed Service Fraternity, located at the University of Wisconsin – Stout has long served the surrounding communities of Menomonie. As one of three cardinal principles of Alpha Phi Omega (APO), service is a key component in the activities of its members. Service opportunities include weekly game night at the Potter House, a local retirement home, interaction with animals at the local humane society, and volunteering at Special Olympic meet and fundraisers. Just recently, Eta Kappa began sponsoring the Week of Warmth, which raises money for individuals and families in Wisconsin who are unable to pay heating costs throughout the winter.

Besides community volunteerism, Eta Kappa also focuses on three other areas of service: service to the college, service to the nation, and service to the fraternity. Activities such as campus cleanup, aiding in laptop distribution to freshmen, assisting in moving freshmen into residence halls, and helping other campus organizations with events help fulfill our area of serving the college. Eta Kappa serves the nation through activities such as Adopt-A –Highway and participation in service projects hosted by other APO chapters throughout the United States. Service to the fraternity is achieved through various fundraisers and activities that allow APO to flourish at the University of Wisconsin – Stout and on other campuses across the United States. With the existence of these chapters, college age men and women are given the opportunity to help serve others.

HILLTOP KIDS CARE CLUB

In 1994, Beachwood’s school system redefined their mission statement to “develop intellectual entrepreneurs with a social conscience” and selected core values that would lead their students to contribute to society and their community. Created by the school’s guidance counselor, Sue Yuratovac, the focus of Hilltop Kids Care Club was on fostering education and preparing these graduating elementary schools students for a lifetime of volunteerism and commitment to their community.

On a rotating basis throughout the school year, the sixth grade students give up recess and lunch time with their school friends to become teachers’ aides at Fairmount School. They interact with preschool and kindergarten students through reading, assisting with art projects practicing cursive writing, eating lunch and socializing in small groups. These students travel to the Greens of Lyndhurst, a senior facility, where they are paired with the residents to eat lunch, work on arts and crafts projects, learn about the older generations’ lives and become surrogate grandchildren to individuals who feel good about the future being in the hands of these community-minded young men and women. Students deliver vital meals to frail, elderly individuals for Jewish Family Service Association and feel proud that they are helping these recipients remain independent in their homes. The students travel to the Heights Emergency Food Center, where they take canned goods and bulk items and separate them into smaller amounts for immediate disbursement for waiting customers. The students also volunteer their time at school creating fleece hats for children at Euclid Park Elementary School and Metro Hospital., items that are gratefully received and happily worn throughout the cold Cleveland months.

Students who are apprehensive about giving up their recess and lunch time with their friends believe that volunteering is hard work until they actually begin each project. Withdrawn students become confident, gregarious students learn proper protocol, and special needs students that are deaf and/or developmentally disabled are the most giving and loving as volunteers. After each project is completed, the students always declare that their leadership helps keep their communities thriving and growing. Volunteering allows them to accomplish wonderful things for very deserving people. At their sixth grade promotion, the students are recognized for their volunteer activities by the Beachwood School Board, families, teachers and friends.

The students have made an immediate, positive impact in their communities. The continued growth and popularity of the Club is a testament to the planning, dedication and support of the Beachwood School Board and Staff at Hilltop School. These students’ community service, begun at this young age, will carry on as they continually reap the benefits and rewards of volunteering. They are a unique Club comprised of students that exemplify the true spirit of volunteerism in every facet. They are role models for all students everywhere, demonstrating caring, kindness and mutual respect, and fostering healthy family values. This club truly represents a continuum of community interaction.

ROBERT CARPENTER

Robert D. Carpenter, of Huntington, West Virginia, has a professional job as a Funeral Director for Klingel-Carpenter Mortuary, but he spends most of his time doing community service, not only locally, but nationally and internationally.

He has worked many years to secure funding for fire stations and training for the Area Fire Service both Volunteer and Professional. His efforts were responsible for securing five new Fire Stations and five new trucks over the past 50 years helped to deliver high quality emergency services to the Citizens of the Tri State Area.

As President for the past 40 years of the Tri State Fire Academy, three years ago the property was lost to a new development for Marshall University. There was $1,200 in the bank and no Fire School. It is a non-profit 501c3 school owned by those who use it. During the past 3 years a new Academy has been developed with funds and goods and property donated from the Industry, Citizens and County and State Commissions. Now there is Safety Training Academy which is first class and recognized around the country for its Computers Labs. Also, the Community College of Marshall has over 23 different classes there on Marine Fire Fighting, Pilot & Radar Training, Deck Hand Programs for new well paying jobs for a cost of $400 for a 10 day course the student has a job of $30,000 waiting following certification. Its new name is the Robert D. Carpenter Training Center, Tri State Fire Academy. There is no paid staff operating the Academy just a Board of 5 people.

Also during his year as President of the Tri State Boy Scouts a new office building and major rebuilding of the Scout Camp took place.

In the 1980’s he served as the Disaster Chairman for the National Funeral Directors Association which developed into the D-Mort National Program. Robert received its highest award from that association for his volunteer service. In Rotary International after service as District Governor he served as National Polio Chairman and received the two highest Awards from Rotary International (there are only 50 awards presented annually in the entire Rotary World).

FREEDOM HOUSE “ADOPT-A-ROOM” VOLUNTEERS

Freedom House, formerly a walk-in shelter in a small rural community in north central Illinois, has sought ways to house clients for more than a short-term or crisis stay. The Board and staff of the Freedom House put out an urgent plea to the communities it served in February 2003. They requested Assistance in the renovation of a two-years’ dormant building and the eventual creation of Freedom House’s new crisis shelter and long-term residential units for victims of domestic and sexual violence and/or their children.

The response was overwhelming. Several civic organizations, churches, businesses and individuals stepped forward to create the Adopt-a-Room program at Freedom House in Princeton, Illinois. Volunteers included members of the Princeton Junior Woman’s Club, the Bureau County Republican Women’s group, the Bradford Beta Sigmas, the Princeton Beta Sigmas, employees from Citizens First National Bank, Wal-Mart Distribution Center and Wind Power Electric in addition to two mother-daughter teams.

These 35 volunteers attended informational meetings and assisted in the planning of each of the 16 rooms, working in close conjunction with Freedom House. All rooms were painted, carpeted and furnished once Freedom House concluded its phase of the work, but all other amenities of the room became the responsibility of the volunteers. Each “adopting” individual or group purchased all bedding, lamps, rugs, window treatments, borders, pictures, frames or floral arrangements for the bedrooms and living rooms, and all towels, towel racks, shower curtains, toilet paper holders, cabinetry, rugs, soap and all other hygiene products for the bathrooms.

The volunteers were responsible for taking barren cinderblock walls, inescapable bullet-proof windows and industrial strength carpet and turn this room into a “home” cozy enough for a traumatized family to move into and feel safe and comforted.

The Adopt-a-Room was officially completed in February 2004 following more than 500 hours of community service. Freedom House clients moved into the facility in December of the prior year in anticipation of the final touches being added. Because of the volunteers’ efforts, Freedom House now is an entity that virtually no other shelter in the state of Illinois is complete with long-term residential units and capable of housing three families for a period of two years. With this new 89-room site, this concept affords clients with multiple obstacles more time to heal and to craft a new life for themselves and their families.

PEEKSKILL HIGH SCHOOL INTERACT CLUB

The Peekskill High School (PHS) Interact Club continues to distinguish itself at PHS and in the Peekskill community.

Based upon their desire to help young children and to serve as role models, members are hosting the 5th annual “Safe Halloween” in conjunction with Make A Difference Day. Members decorate the 1st floor of the high school and children are invited to trick or treat in the classrooms, make a Halloween craft and play games in the cafeteria. This event continues to be a success with over 250 children attending each year. Members also volunteer with the Uriah Hill and Oakside PTO’s at their holiday fairs, Valentine’s Day dance, and Family Fun Day.

For the Past 4 years, members visit Drum Hill Senior Living on the 3rd Thursday of the month to do arts and crafts projects. They also host a “senior, senior prom”. This year’s proved to be the best one yet with 22 members and 65 seniors dancing the night away.

Members put their culinary skills to work preparing an entire meal for the Salvation Army Soup Kitchen. On the first Friday of the month, members prepare a meal of bake ziti, meatball, tossed salad and brownies. The following day, members deliver and serve the meal and socialize with the participants. This has been going on for six years. During the holiday season, the club participates in the Salvation Army’s bell ringing. Members ring outside the local Wal-Mart and have been able to raise over $1,000.

The club participates in several fundraising projects to help several non-profit organizations. One fundraiser is for the Heifer Project. Members have raised monies to purchase 4 llamas and a flock of chicks, which have been sent to a third world country. Daffodils were also sold to help the American Cancer Society. Over $1,000 has been raised. Once a month the club works with Habitat for Humanity of Westchester. Over the past 6 years, members have worked at three different sites and are presently working on a training center and home in Peekskill. The club has also been placed on the student advisory board for Habitat for Humanity.

Members volunteer at the Keon Center, a non-profit agency that provides life skills training for the developmentally disabled, at their BINGO nights and holiday parties. They also visit the New York State Veteran’s Home on a monthly basis to play cards, read and socialize with the residents. Members have sorted clothes for the school district’s warm clothing drive and provide the set up, food and clean up for the Honor Roll breakfasts. Members also took part in the National Read-Aloud and Children’s Book Week by going to Aunt Bessie’s Day Care Center, Uriah Hill and Woodside Elementary Schools to read their favorite books to the children.

A major project that the club took part in this year was Hidden Heroes. This intergenerational living history project was a collaboration with the Paramount Center for the Arts and Westchester Community College. Members put in 60 hours each researching, interviewing and editing tapes of 13 “Hidden Heroes” who they selected in the Peekskill community. It was a positive interaction between teenagers and the senior citizen population in Peekskill.

The members of the Peekskill High School Interact Club are dedicated to serving others and through their continued efforts the lives of many people are touched.

OLETA HOWE

Oleta Howe is the kind of volunteer every organization wants. She has been a Foster Grandparent Program volunteer for 19 years, working with the same teacher at the same school tutoring and mentoring children from 1st to 5th grade in a resource classroom. She works with children with special needs helping them learn to read and to comprehend what they are reading. She also helps the children with mathematics quizzing them on times tables, or holding flash cards. Learning spelling words is another area where Oleta is able to assist teacher and the students. She is a great help with children who would otherwise “fall through the cracks” and be unable to learn the basics of education. She seeks out games and plans to help reach the students in the class where ever they are in the education system.

Oleta has served an average of 20 hours each week throughout the year, a big 19,836 hours of service helping over 400 students. During the summer seasons she has served the children through school reading programs to help them retain and learn to be able to succeed in school. She receives a stipend, for her service to the youth at Broadway Elementary School, helping her to live an easier life as a low-income senior. Her presence in the classroom has made life long friends of the children and their parents. Oleta receives graduation announcements, wedding invitation and birth announcements from former students. Oleta says her greatest reward is knowing that “her students” have graduated from high school (most of the students Oleta works with have learning disabilities).

In addition to her services as a Foster Grandparent, Oleta is an active member of Beta Tau, a philanthropic sorority who raises funds for “Danny’s Kids” as well as support for the Senior Companion Program, Foster Grandparent Program and other youth programs in the valley, the Salvation Army and Catholic Out-Reach. Oleta has served several 3 year terms on the Foster Grandparent Program and Senior Companion Advisory Council. She is active in the social scene at the apartment complex where she lives helping with receptions, dinners, and programs sponsored by Volunteers of America who won the apartment building.

She also serves at her church, helping with funeral dinners and with refreshments for youth programs. Often baking cookies for the youth group and for bake sales for fundraising the youth at her church holding.

Oleta How has one of seven recipients of the Colorado Cares Outstanding Volunteer award in 2004. She was able to travel to Denver to receive her award and be recognized as an outstanding Colorado Volunteer for 2004.

Mesa County School District #51 recognized Oleta as outstanding school volunteer in Mesa County in 2003 at a recognition luncheon for all school volunteers that included parent volunteers, local business and organizations as well as Foster Grandparent Volunteers. Oleta has volunteered in the Foster Grandparent Office folding letters, stuffing envelopes and serving at socials as the need arose. Her unfaltering service to the many people of Mesa County is outstanding.

ID THEFT SERVICES

Identity theft is the fastest growing crime in America with the Federal Trade Commission reporting that over tem million people were victimized last year. Besides the fraudulent and criminal activities that identity thieves can commit once they have your personal identifiers, they can ruin your credit and cost you time and money to repair the damage with retailers, collection agencies, banks, and police departments.

Since becoming victims of identity theft themselves in 1988, Bob and JoAnn Hartles have worked tirelessly to prevent others in the community, and indeed the nation, from becoming victims of this crime. The Hartles took the initiative to work with the Arizona lawmakers to get the first identity theft law passed in 1996 and again to work with Senator Jon Kyl and me to get the federal Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act of 1998 passed.

After working to get states and federal identity theft laws passed, the Hartles have continued to offer their free assistance to victims in straightening out the credit problems that follow in the wake of this crime. They have counseled over 3,000 victims thus far and have held hundreds of free seminars and classes for neighborhoods, businesses, colleges, and law enforcement agencies on how to minimize their risk of becoming victims and what to do if they do get victimized. They not only have maintained their ongoing outreach program to members of our community, but they have provided their assistance to individuals around the state and nation to those who have been able to get assistance from city, county, or state agencies.

The Hartles have had a continuing impact on legislative activity at the state and federal level as additional identity theft laws have been passed since 1998. I think Bob and JoAnn are unique in that they have sacrificed so much of their personal time without any compensation whatsoever, without any staff or organization, without any financial assistance from government or private grants, and without concern for personal advancement or aggrandizement. They simply shine as a point of light for all to see.

MALLORY KATE POTOCK

Mallory Potock, age 17, consistently demonstrates outstanding commitment to volunteerism through her work at the Colorado Therapeutic Riding Center (CTRC). The CTRC provides a variety of equine therapies for adults and children who have cognitive, physical and/or emotional disabilities. Over the past 3 years, Mallory has devoted over 325 hours volunteering as the youngest member of the CTRC barn team and schooling team.

The CTRC is the oldest therapeutic riding center in Colorado, one of the largest in the nation, and serves as a “best practice” model for other centers across the country. The CTRC’s mission is “to promote the physical, psychological and social well-being of persons with disabilities through their interaction with a therapeutic team consisting of a horse, and instructor and volunteers.” Although innovative and unique, equine assisted therapy is researched based and can improve balance, coordination, communication and other daily life skills. But the innovation is not limited to just the therapy classes, for it is Mallory’s specialized knowledge of equine behavior that impacts the safety and success of each therapy class.

When Mallory began volunteering at the CTRC, she started by assisting in the riding classes as a “side-walker”, providing physical and emotional support to the rider. However, Mallory’s unique knowledge of equine behavior provided a distinct opportunity for her to impact the success of the classes in an exceptional way. She was soon asked to be a member of two specialized teams: the Barn Team and the Schooling Team. As the youngest member of both teams (the other members are adults), she works behind the scenes to prepare the horses both mentally and physically for the stressful life of a therapy horse.

Although her current volunteer work at the CTRC is not witnessed by the CTRC parents or their children, Mallory knows the vital and specialized care that she provides creates a positive, safe environment for the riders to accomplish their therapy goals.

In her modest way, Mallory has become connected to a cause while remaining behind the scenes at the CTRC. However, the extraordinary care that she devotes to the therapy horses and her expertise in the specialized area of equine behavior impacts the tiniest rider and their families. When a child has acquired a new skill with one of Mallory’s horses, she does not get to see the child’s smile, or watch his mother greet his accomplishment with a great big hug. But the news trickles down the CTRC grapevine, and the connection to Mallory is made. And, as is typical of Mallory, the credit will be given to her horses…with an extra treat, a thicker bed to lie on, and some tender moments just one on one with Mallory.

She sets the pace for the youth in the community to embrace the spirit of giving.

CECIL STANTON

Cecil Stinson is a long time member of the Happy Valley Community. Happy Valley is a small wide spread rural areas where many elderly people live.

Cecil does many acts of kindness for his neighbors in the following areas of service.

· Community Needs and Solutions: The need is for low-income families in the southeast portion of Shasta County to receive food commodities three times a month. The Brown Bag Program involves making up to 90 phone calls three times a month to each recipient making sure they will be able to pick up their groceries, if they cannot Cecil will deliver to them.

· Connection building: Besides running the Brown Bag Program he makes contact with neighbors to make sure they are okay. Cecil also keeps an eye out to make sure the upkeep on their houses and yards are done. He does everything from digging ditches to making sure their air conditioners and furnaces are in good working order.

· Ongoing Involvement: Cecil has been on the job for over 22 years. He picks up the commodities in Redding and returns leftover foodstuffs and paperwork to the S.S.N.P. Food Bank Warehouse using his personal vehicle and gas. The only stipend he receives is RSVP mileage reimbursement of $23.25 a month for the first 75 miles. He has only received this amount for the last 6 months.

· Impact: The overall health of the seniors and others in the community is better nutrition and a closer tight knit community.

· Innovation: Cecil is on the Happy Valley Community Center Board. This Center is a focal point for activities in the area and they are involved in fundraisers that support local volunteer fire department and the community in general. The Happy Valley Strawberry Festival of which he is also a board member is an annual event in the community. The festival brings the entire community together to raise funds to make their community a better place to live.

The Shasta County Retired and Senior Volunteer Program recognized him as the “Volunteer of the Year” for his many contributions to the community in April 2004. The Shasta County Board of Supervisors also lauded him at a public ceremony for his many activities this year.

Cecil is truly a volunteer extraordinaire, and worthy of your award. He does not ask for any recognition he just does what needs to be done.