Paulina Maida
Paulina Maida is a very motivated and caring young woman. Though only a sophomore at Seton Catholic Central High School in Binghamton, NY, she displays great aptitude in her studies, besides an impressive volunteer record. Paulina teaches Sunday school, participates in plays, sings in Chorus concerts, volunteers at a local hospital, participates in the Catholic Character Council and reads and serves at Mass.
One of the most enriching activities in her busy schedule, Paulina says, is helping out at Barnes Kasson Hospital in Susquehanna, PA for a couple of hours every week. She gives the nurses a much needed break by passing out and collecting dinner trays, filling up water pitchers, taking orders for evening snacks, organizing papers and making beds.
However, Paulina’s favorite part of the job is interacting with the patients at the hospital. Many of them are elderly and lonely, and Paulina has noted that it can be very meaningful to just sit and talk with a patient. Paulina witnesses first hand that the adage is true: it’s really not fun to be sick. People in hospitals often feel disconnected from the outside world and have no one to talk to. That is why Paulina makes sure to talk with the patients about their lives and interests.
The patients are also happy when Paulina takes them outside in a wheelchair so that they can enjoy nature, when she reads to them, and when she helps them with their personal toiletries. Paulina always carries a makeup bag with her containing different brightly colored nail polishes, nail files, and nail clippers. Many elderly ladies have gotten a kick out of having their nails done in the hospital, “just like at the salon!”
Samantha Luscombe
For eleven of her sixteen years, Samantha Luscombe has been a Girl Scout, focusing on service to the community and others. Samantha recently designed a project that she felt would serve the community on several levels. Although the project spanned only four months instead of the suggested six month duration for this award, she worked for more than 144 hours of that time.
Samantha identified a need to comfort children in painful and stressful situations where police, fire or rescue services are required or in hospital or homeless shelter environments. She remembered how reassuring her stuffed animals were to her when she was younger, and she decided that these children could benefit from having animals of their own. She also felt that this project could promote positive relationships between the children who receive the animals and the police officers, firefighters or rescue workers who ultimately give them out.
On yet a third level, Samantha decided not just to collect stuffed animals, but she wanted to use this project to teach younger children the joy of helping others by having elementary school aged children come to stuff an animal for another child in need. Samantha created a website, wrote newspaper articles, and made fliers to place in local stores and restaurants to advertise the event. She solicited donations of supplies and asked individuals to “Adopt a Bear for the Fair,” by purchasing an unstuffed animal and donating it to the fair. She found 27 adult and teen helpers for the event through Girl Scouting, church bulletins and school newsletters.
In all, 155 animals were donated to the Westfield, NJ Police, Fire and Rescue departments, the Hospitality for the Homeless Network through Church of St. Helen in Westfield, and the Children’s Specialized Hospital in Mountainside, NJ. The animals are being distributed to children present at police calls, home fires and accidents, and to those in the hospital and homeless networks.
During her project, Samantha received an e-mail from an eight year old boy with brain cancer. He had seen her website and loved the project. He told her how much his animals help him in the hospital and during his chemotherapy sessions. He “adopted’ five bears to help other children. Samantha was so impressed with this caring child that she has kept in touch with him and his mother ever since. Her latest project is to collect picture post cards from all 50 states and as many foreign countries as possible to show him “the world” and how many people care about him. She says that he’s often stuck in hospitals and at home after treatments, and she wanted to let him “travel” during those times.
Samantha is further continuing her work to help others with plans of running a Hepatitis C awareness day, working at a Breast Cancer Awareness Day on October 14th, and helping at a senior/teen dance planned for later next year. She will also be running a Brownie Girl Scout Troop for the next 2 years as a Girl Scout Leader in Training.
Sheila Molden
Sheila Molden has been a volunteer with the March of Dimes in Sioux City, IA for over 17 years and through her continued support and leadership has personally raised over $78,000 in just the last nine years. While employed at Gateway Computers, Molden served as a team leader helping her team to raise more than $435,240. She has held various volunteer positions through the March of Dimes such as Team Captain, Walk Chair, Honorary Walk Chair, and Siouxland Division Board Member. She was awarded the Distinguished Volunteer of the Year Award at the March of Dimes National Volunteer Conference in Pittsburgh in 1998.
Molden has been quoted as saying, “I volunteer for the March of Dimes because I believe in their mission. Every baby deserves to be born healthy. Together with the March of Dimes and their research, community services, advocacy and education, my hope is that one day all babies will be born healthy and have a fighting chance at a healthy life.”
Because of Molden’s influence many people have become involved with the mission of the March of Dimes. While employed at Gateway, Molden has been a dedicated volunteer who has planned many events that has raised money and mission awareness for the March of Dimes.
At the 2004 Walk America Awards ceremony, the Siouxland Division of the March of Dimes initiated the Sheila Molden Walk America Volunteer of the Year Award. This award has been given each year to a volunteer who exemplifies leadership, lasting dedication and determination, and the compassion to inspire others. Ted Waitt sent a personal message in 2004 to help them honor Molden, “Sheila is simply a wonderful person, and her passion and dedication to the March of Dimes inspires me to contribute every year.”
Molden serves on the Board of the March of Dimes, currently she is the co-chair. Each year she serves on the Walk America steering committee and has helped this annual fundraiser grow over the years.
Matthew Wettach
Matthew Wettach has created an ongoing program to provide the basic school supplies for kindergarten children in the Mt. Pleasant area who have been identified as economically disadvantaged.
The need for the program was identified by area educators, the community Action Program and the Southeast Iowa Head Start Program. These entities provided Wettach with suggestions on what type of supplies were needed, how to implement the project, and identify the group of students who would be attending kindergarten in the fall.
With this information, Wettach began his “Write Smart” project in August of 2005. Using the proceeds earned from his summer lawn mowing job, he decided to provide each student with a back-pack filled with the materials listed on area school supply lists. In addition to the supplies, he enclosed a hand-written note encouraging the child to do their best in school throughout the year.
A total of 32 back-packs were filled with materials by project volunteers at the Tolson Community Action Center in Mt. Pleasant. The cost of each pack with materials was $71.42 and the total cost of the project was $2,285. Extra back-packs were sent to Louisa and Des Moines County for distribution by their Community Action Directors.
In October, Wettach followed up on his “Write Smart” project with a Halloween book, stickers, pencil, small treat and a personalized note, which cost $2.95 per child. Community Action Director, Sheila Church, suggested with fall approaching, that a coat drive may also benefit area children.
In December, Wettach held a coat drive at his sister’s store in Mt. Pleasant and collected more than 150 coats of all sizes. The coats were taken to the Community Action Center for distribution. In addition, “Write Smart” provided each of the project students with mittens and hats, a hard-bound Christmas book, additional crayons, pencils, glue and a personalized Christmas card, which cost $4.55 per student.
In February each kindergarten student in the program receiving a soft-cover book, Valentine stickers, paints pencils, and a small treat, which cost $1.95 per student. He also polled area school secretaries for input as to how the project could be improved.
Matthew Wettach’s “Write Smart” project is being continued this school year. This is a result of his commitment to enhancing the early impact in individual students who may otherwise not have this positive influence in their early educational life.
The 10,000 Hours Show
The Iowa Commission on Volunteer Services report indicates a strong volunteer base, but a significant drop in the college-age population. The mission of The 10,000 Hours Show (10K) is to mobilize young people to meet community needs and to develop the next generation of engaged citizens.
10K was founded by Iowa college students and has been entirely organized by young Iowa volunteers. 10K is a student-led effort to recruit and recognize volunteers who serve nonprofits, culminating each spring with a free concert just for volunteers.
During the past three years, 10K has celebrated more than 71,000 volunteer service hours by 3,500 volunteers at hundreds of Iowa nonprofits. It has featured nationally-known performers Ben Folds, Guster, and Cake at concerts in Iowa City and Des Moines.
The true “Show” of The 10,000 Hours Show is its year-round, peer-to-peer effort by 10K volunteer staff to reach peers and involve them in volunteering. With volunteer fairs, class presentations, tabling events, and an all-out effort to spread the word, 10K students recruit new volunteers and recognize existing ones.
The 10L model has been adapted at the University of Wisconsin and Michigan State University, where students are organizing their own 10K’s. Further, 10K has also partnered with United Way of America to adapt the model for other communities.
10K meets community needs by offering a unique volunteer recognition concert, recruiting new volunteers to serve nonprofits, and ensuring young people become involved. It is unique in that 10K builds vital connections between young people and nonprofits, young people and their communities and between institutions.
Since its inception, 10K has continued to flourish as an ongoing project. Student founders realized a single year of peer-to-peer efforts on volunteering and nonprofits was not enough. 10K has taken steps to become a permanent part of its communities, and its founding members have taken national responsibilities with 10K in outreach, organization, marketing, alumni connections, and management.
More than 3,500 volunteers fulfilled the 10 hour requirement for 37,000 total volunteer hours to date. In addition, 100% of 10K2 volunteers and 95% of 10K3 volunteers plan to serve again. 10K has also helped to build volunteer fairs into standard programming at the University of Iowa where volunteer fair attendance increased from 100 to 1,300 in three years. In addition, Drake University and Iowa State University have added spring volunteer fairs as a result of 10K.
One Warm Coat
One Warm Coat is a national, grassroots, all volunteer organization that helps local groups collect coats for people in need. Started in 1992 in San Francisco as a Thanksgiving weekend activity, One Warm Coat expanded nationally in 2002—in four short years, more than 1,000 coat drives have been held, resulting in more than 300,000 free coats going to those in need.
Winter is approaching—thousands of individuals will feel the impact of the cold. Whether someone is poor, homeless, working poor, mentally ill, socially isolated—everyone needs a coat to protect them from the cold. A One Warm Coat drive draws on the resources of the local community to solve this need—the volunteers who organize the drive, the donors who recognize that their unused items are needed, and the local agencies that distribute the coats.
We use the phrase “warming communities…one coat at a time” to capture the connection that happens. Not only are warm coats being distributed, but people of all ages are learning how to care for those less fortunate.
We have the statistics that show the impact of One Warm Coat in terms of coats collected, but perhaps more importantly, we have hundreds of messages from people telling us about their experiences—the young man doing his “Mitzvah” project in 2004 who felt so compelled that he did the coat drive a second year; the little girl who gave up her favorite coat because she saw a girl at the agency that it would fit; the hospital employees who found out just how much space 500 coats take up. But the best message we’ve received was from a nine year old girl at Hope House in Wisconsin, “I’m just glad I’m not cold no more.”
With an operating budget of less than $50,000 per year and the ‘magic’ of the internet, we’ve been able to bring warmth into the lives of thousands.
Christian Thomas Lee
In 1996 Christian Thomas Lee established the Arts In Schools program to directly benefit and inspire children in rural and inner city schools. Through this unique and one-of-a-kind program, Christian has reached thousands of children across the United States by bringing original works of art into the classroom for children to see, study, and even hold in their hands. These original works of art include pieces by Pablo Picasso, Peter Carl Faberge, Giovanni Battista Pasqualini, and many others, acquired by Christian, from the great auction houses of the world including: Sotheby’s New York, London and Wilnitsky Fine Art, Vienna, Austria.
This privately owned collection of fine art is believed to be the only collection of original, museum quality art collected and used solely for the inspirational benefit of children in America’s classrooms. In recent years, school districts all over the United States have experienced an increasing shortage in available funding, as the student population continues to dramatically increase, thereby stressing school budgets. Superintendents and school boards, in an attempt to maintain balanced budgets and provide the best education for America’s children have been forced to make painful cuts. More often than not, these cuts are in the areas of the fine arts.
As a result, many schools today, and especially rural and poorer inner city schools, have no fine arts programs. Christian Thomas Lee, as a private collector of art, responded to this community need and began making his remarkable personal art collection available to schools. To date, it is estimated over 50,000 school aged children across America have experienced the joy and the reward of the fine arts through Art In Schools. Art In Schools is not a ‘show-and-tell’ approach to art. Rather, it is an intensive effort with the art collection visiting a single school for up to one week. During that time, Christian teaches upwards to 25 art master classes to groups of no more than 25 children. These small size groups allow the children to be close to the works of art and even handle and touch certain pieces.
During the week Christian is teaching art master classes, teachers in the school will borrow certain pieces from the visiting collection and use them in their own classrooms as a teaching school. As an example, many teachers have borrowed the royal and presidential documents and used them to teach history. The collection is also used to demonstrate to children the value of staying in school, working hard and not becoming involved in drugs. By demonstrating firsthand the creativity of some of the greatest artists in human history, Christian has inspired thousands of children to awaken their own creative abilities and to express those abilities in a constructive way.
Due to Art In Schools, dozens of schools have been reintroducing fine arts back into the school curriculum. In most cases, the schools pay only the travel costs included in the project. No school is ever turned away for lack of funding, and Christian does not accept donations for his work.
In the last ten years, it is estimated that Art In Schools has reached upwards of 50,000 children between first and twelfth grade from schools in Florida, Georgia, Virginia, Illinois, Ohio, Maryland, Washington DC, California, Washington, Arizona, and Texas.
George Novinger
George Novinger has volunteered as the Swimming/Aquatics coach for the Seoul American High School in Seoul, South Korea since September of 2005. In support of youth, he spear-headed the aquatics youth program swim team. Through his leadership, Novinger lead a fund raising campaign to help raise money. These development efforts resulted in numerous young people participating in the Boys and Girls Tokyo Junior Olympics. This was the first opportunity these youth had to participate in such an event.
In addition to supporting the High School Swim Team, Novinger volunteered as a coach for the Starter, Stroke and Turn Judge for all swim meets. His coaching skills inspired youth in team play, and he worked to instill a sense of pride and accomplishment. Novinger’s dedication to youth swim programs resulted in increasing the number of youth participating in the program by 35%. As a swim coach, he arrived early for all events, meets and practices to help set up, organize and ready the day’s events.
While working with the swim program, Novinger also volunteered his time and talents with the youth choir. He established an on-base community wide program that was a success. The Seoul Singers choir quickly expanded from an on-post event to a community-wide program. Novinger encouraged youth, active duty military, family members, embassy personnel from other diplomatic missions, Korean local musicians, and participants from five other countries to join the program. Together, the group put on two well-attended concerts. The first concert took place in June of 2006 on the Yongsan Army Base, Seoul, Korea. Soon afterwards, the choir performed for the Korean public in Gangnam. The all-volunteer youth and adult choir became a quick “hit.” Since its inception, the group has grown from six members to well over 120 participants. They have used their time and talent to sing for people in chapels both on and off post, nursing homes and community events. This is all a result of the dedication George Novinger has to make his community a better place for everyone.
Katie Boyd
Why “Take 5”- An Underage Anti-Smoking Campaign, and why now? Tobacco prevention programs do not reach every student, and Take 5, an original program by Katie Boyd , takes the message to a more personal level where students are not afraid to participate and ask questions.
The mission of Take 5 is to enable all students to resist tobacco usage, thus, equipping them with the necessary information to avoid the peer pressures of ever beginning to use tobacco.
As an advocate of a tobacco-free lifestyle since the age of twelve and through her research on underage smoking, Katie Boyd determined that fifth grade students are the most neglected from tobacco-free media. Take 5 – An Underage Anti-Smoking Campaign is a program she created in June 2003 to address this critical social issue. Take 5 Challenges fifth grade students to take five minutes and learn the dangers of tobacco and to focus on the ingredients of a healthy lifestyle. This program equips children with the necessary information to resist tobacco usage and turn the negative peer pressure of experimenting with tobacco into positive peer pressure.
The 2005 goals for Take 5 were obtained by producing and distributing an original Take 5 Video to all schools in Alabama for use in fifth grade classrooms, distributing colored wristbands for Tobacco-Free Kids, organizing a Kick Butts Day event for youth in Hoover, Alabama, and representing DARE for Red Ribbon Week in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The primary goals for 2006 that have been accomplished include creating an innovative classroom competition to challenge students not to start smoking, implementing the Take 5 Challenge pilot mentoring program for fifth grade students challenging junior and senior students to avoid tobacco and make wise decisions, developing a t-shirt art design contest promoting Clean Indoor Air, and committing to work in partnership with the Alabama Department of Public Health promoting Clean Indoor Air statewide. Through the completion of these goals, Katie was recognized nationally by USA Today for her work with youth tobacco prevention.
Katie works tirelessly in the communities of Alabama for the health of our children. Future plans for Take 5 traveling through Alabama as state spokesperson for Department of Public Health-Clean Indoor Air Campaign, representing Tobacco Free Alabama, implementing statewide mentoring program in every city and county school system, offering national mentoring program for youth tobacco prevention to every board of education in all 50 states and partnering with the American heart Association and American Cancer Society for adult tobacco prevention.
Take 5 is an original program ready to address the nation as to the facts of underage smoking. Katie will not wait another year nor day to confront our youth about the dangers of tobacco. Katie Boyd is confident that her message is ready to go, ready to make a positive impact and ready to have a lifelong influence on our children, thus, securing a healthier nation for all of us.
Colonel Wayne Clark
During the past year, Colonel Wayne W. Clark unselfishly gave approximately 900 volunteer hours of his coveted off-duty time to serve the Area II and Korean communities through service organization such as the USFK Good Neighbor Program (GNP), the US Ski Patrol-Asia, various Youngsan community events and the Area II Youth Services Sports Program.
In support of the GNP and local community events, Col. Clark directly enhanced the ROK-US bond performing countless services. These include but are not limited to acting as an English language proctor and sports coach for elementary level Korean children, serving as a critical “helping “ hand for establishment and execution of various on post community festivals and being an active participant in numerous GBP and Korean American events. In addition, he led soldier and civilian educational programs to enhance better understanding of both cultures. During 2005, he donated 630 hours of service to these programs.
As a member of the US Ski Patrol-Asia, Col. Clark energetically used his certified medical skills to directly better the well-being of the ROKUS snow skiing public. In support of numerous USFK, Area II and Department of Defense Schools Youngsan Korea snow ski events, he provided ski and safety instruction, on-site event coordination and emergent medical care services. Using his vast knowledge of the Korean culture, he was able to professionally integrate into the Ski Resort’s Korean Ski Patrol as an accepted member, teaming with the Korean patrol to enhance the healthcare for all ROK and foreign skiers. Through tenacious effort, no adult or child under his watch had any significant injury, all leaving with fun filled memories. For those that were slightly injured, he ensured they received the best emergency are available at these remote mountain sites. Col. Clark volunteered in excess of 150 hours with the Ski Patrol.
Col. Clark also works with youth as a swim coach and assistant soccer coach. He helped to mold the individual-team esprit and coordination skills of the children, many of whom had never played the game of soccer. As a result, the team had a successful year, which, by definition, was in having all kids participate with smiles and sense of pride. As with many of the sports programs, there is always a shortage of volunteer coaches and parents. Col. Clark, once again, stepped up to serve as a part time assistant coach at the 0530 hour swim practices, and full time Official Swim Meet Time Keeper for all Yongsan swim meets. Although his son might have been a team member, these jobs took away limited parenthood time that most others used strictly for their child’s benefit. Instead, Wayne spread his heart to all kids without favoritism. During the swim meets, he managed the extremely difficult task of establishing and certifying the lane time clocks, the training to standard of over 15 new time keepers per meet, and the analysts of hundreds of data to determine standings. He accomplished these all with outstanding results and gave more than 100 hours of service in this area.
