ANNE MACKIEWICZ

Anne Mackiewicz has always been concerned about the youth of Carbon County. She is a graduate of Saint Mary’s College, Notre Dame, IN and taught for many years at Notre Dame School in Price, Utah up until the time it closed its doors in 1999. At that time Mackiewicz elected to return to school and obtained a Masters Degree in Early Childhood Development. Mackiewicz has been the director of the Price office of ChildCare Resource and Referral since that time. Mackiewicz has been involved with Castle Country’s Promise since 2002, a volunteer organization delivering the Five Promises to local youth as follows: caring adults; safe places after school; marketable skills; opportunities to serve; and a healthy start and future.

In 2002 Mackiewicz served as Committee Chairman for the Healthy Start Group and established the goal of educating parents of free area services and how to get help for their families. Mackiewicz and her group designed a booklet showing all county resources and contact numbers. Funding secured by Mackiewicz and her group members resulted in the printing of 5000 of the booklets through the Utah State Prison. The booklets were distributed through the health dept. as public nurses made their visits to future parents through Head Start & other community agencies. They were also distributed through churches, sent home from school with students and through Castleview Hospital.

In 2002 Mackiewicz and her group also initiated a project to provide parents in Carbon County with information on how to teach young children to interact with other children and to teach young parents how to interact with their children. These are termed “play groups.” Mackiewicz also chaired this group with other members from the Family Support Center, Carbon County School District, Castle Valley Center, and Southeastern Utah Health Dept.

In the summer of 2004 Mackiewicz accompanied four youth from the Carbon County Youth commission, enabling them to attend the three-day event at the Utah Youth Summit in Salt Lake City. She was also a key figure in the formal development of the Carbon County Youth Commission. This organization was formally approved by the Carbon County Commission on April 7, 2004 and provides leadership opportunities for a maximum of 17 selected youth of Carbon County, Utah. This commission is designed to give local youth a chance to share their opinions, working with local government, on a variety of issues that affect youth in their county.

AMERICAN RED CROSS OF CENTRAL FLORIDA TEEN CORPS

The American Red Cross (ARC) Teen Corps is a group of students between the ages of 11 and 18 years old from all over Central Florida. They gather every Saturday morning to participate in community service projects, peer facilitated classes, and disaster training and response. Teen Corps members donate in excess of 15,000 each year as a group and average of over 200 hours per member. These youth are trained in CPR/AED and first Aid, as well as fully trained and certified as disaster responders. They work with local shelters, Green-Up projects, local food banks and more. They are peer facilitators and routinely teach Basic First Aid, Disaster and Fire Prevention education, and leadership development to youth within their community. During the 2004 Hurricane season, these youth donated in excess of 10,800 hours to hurricane preparedness, response and recovery. From Hurricane Charley through Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne, Teen Corps members staffed shelters and delivered needed meals, ice and water. They worked in communications centers, operations centers and every other phase of disaster operations. Wherever help was needed Red Cross Teen Corps members were there.

As a result of the efforts of Teen Corps members, thousands of young people receive free safety training that includes CPR/AED and First Aid, as well as disaster training and fire prevention education. Teen corps members have helped move playgrounds at local YMCA’s, plant new trees and beautify depressed neighborhoods and rejuvenate community parks and right of ways. They collect, sort and box food items with 2nd Harvest Food Bank for distribution to local families. Their activities before, during and after the hurricanes that devastated our community were selfless, compassionate and committed. These young people represented the best of what Florida and Central Florida communities have to offer.

Teen Corps members choose to volunteer. They choose and plan all of the community service projects they participate in as well as their training in disaster preparedness and response so that they are ready when they are needed. Teen Corps does not discriminate, and it does not matter if the need is that of an individual, a family, a neighborhood, or an entire community. Teen Corps members are there willing, committed and ready to take on any task, large or small. As far as they are concerned, they are Red Crossers first; they are today’s leaders, tomorrow’s leaders and our future. Teen Corps members spent every hour that they were out of school during the hurricanes working the response. They did so with great attitudes, great compassion, and with a sense of community that few people would think them capable of. Nothing was impossible to them. As the Teen Corps Creed says they “accept any task large of small, and can at it’s conclusion look at their image in the mirror and truthfully say I gave it 110%, I am Red Cross Teen Corps.

CHERYL HONEY

In 1992, Cheryl Honey gathered a group of neighbors together at a local elementary school and created a way for people to connect, share resources and care about one another. They gathered weekly and learned about topics and issues impacting their lives and community. The families helped each other out, organized social and recreational activities, volunteered at local agencies and spearheaded community improvement initiatives. Over time they felt like an extended family and referred to this phenomenon as a “village effect.”

In 1993, the group formed the Family Support Network, a nonprofit organization, and began recruiting Good Neighbor volunteers and training Family Advocates who provided one on one peer support to those needing assistance. The capacity of the FSN grew as more volunteers pooled their resources on web-based technology, developed by Max Stalnaker, a VolunteerMatch volunteer. This technology gave people immediate access to resources to help themselves and others.

Ms. Honey has volunteered for over a decade and has moved from a Welfare Mother to Pioneer of Community Weaving, a volunteer mobilization strategy that engages citizens to take responsibility for what they care about and spark village effects in communities. The Seattle Times featured Ms. Honey’s effort on two front page stories. The first ran on March 2, 1996, entitled, “A substitution for welfare? Volunteer help a better way?” and the second, “Bothell volunteer grew her group into 800 pairs of helping hands,” ran on February 8, 1997. Two years later, the Lifetime channel featured the Family Support Network on the New Attitudes program that brought national attention to this extraordinary community building effort.

From its inception, the Family Support Network has been supported through private donations. Ms. Honey trains Community Weavers how to start-up Family Support Networks in churches, schools, organizations and businesses. Community Weaving is featured in the Change Handbook, 2nd Edition. Ms. Honey continues to volunteer in her community and has devoted her life to helping others create their own Family Support Networks.

If you would like additional information about the organization, please contact Cheryl Honey, C.P.P. Ambassador for Peace at 206.240.2241, [email protected], www.familynetwork.org or www.communityweaving.org.

MAXINE RICE

Every Thursday morning at Missoula Food Bank, staff and volunteers alike look forward to the moment Maxine Rice walks in the door. Her appearance means they are all assured a giant hug. What a fantastic way to start the day!

The love Rice exudes through her hugs is the same love that she shares with the Missoula community on a daily basis. Rice not only volunteers for Missoula Food Bank, but has volunteered for a tremendous range of other agencies and projects as well. These agencies and projects include but are not limited to the City Police Department, the YMCA, Smokejumper’s Visitor’s Center, Life’s End Institute, MAS Elderservices, Montana Campus Compact, Montana Natural History Center, the Carousel, March of Dimes, the Word Program, Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks, the United Way, the Historical Museum at Ft. Missoula, and the Salvation Army.

Rice also helps at countless one time community events. Because of her lifestyle of service, most people in Missoula either know her personally, have been touched by her service or know of Rice. She has been volunteering in the Missoula community for the past 15 years and has contributed an excess of 2,277 volunteer hours. She is truly a bundle of energy, enthusiastic about what she does and has a genuine desire to make a difference in the lives of others.

Rice is an integral part of the collection projects at the Food Bank and takes part in organizing and leading their various projects. She is extremely organized, efficient, and diligent. She has been recently dubbed “Maxine the Machine,” which a testimony to her amazing ability to keep all of the Food Bank’s projects running smoothly. In fact, many of the projects are scheduled around Rice’s schedule to assure she is available to lead the team.

Rice is amazingly strong and energetic. Just the other day,she stubbornly hefted a large, heavy box of bananas as if it were a box of marshmallows. She regularly stocks the shelves at the food bank, assuring that they are organized and neatly prepared for the clients. The care and consideration she puts into every task sends the message to the clients that they are important.

Rice’s work in the community is lasting, important, and meaningful. For example, Rice has participated in such projects as a radon abatement project, during which she delivered radon kits to community members who wanted to test their homes. With her help, more than 900 kits were delivered. At the Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, she is also highly regarded as an integral part of their team.

The clients and staff at the Food Bank are encouraged by Rice’s laughter and dedication along with her tireless efforts. She truly exemplifies what it means to care about others, and serves as a role model to the staff and volunteers at Missoula Food Bank.

RUTH CLEARFIELD

Ruth Clearfield embodies the spirit of service. Her name is recognized in the College Station area as a result of the lifestyle of service she lives day in and day out. Because Clearfield knows everyone in town, she is many times called upon as a” point person” when there is a community need and for neighborhood events. She volunteers as a Board member and supporter of various organizations and is also very active in her faith community.

The United Way of the Brazos Valley is a volunteer-driven, nonprofit organization that brings people and resources together to build healthier communities throughout the Brazos Valley. Clearfield is an active United Way volunteer and gives of her time, talents and finances to the Brazos Valley group. She supports their mission of impacting the regions critical health and human care needs by mobilizing community resources and promoting charitable giving. Clearfield is helping the United Way in leading the way for the people in the Brazos Valley to care for one another. She is asked to plan many of their events because of her extensive knowledge of the town. Clearfield knows what community members would like to see occur, who can be the most help and even people’s eating preferences. She excels in every aspect of planning events for the group and utilizes her organization skills and meticulous attention to detail to ensure every United Way function is a successful event.

Clearfield is also active with the arts in the community and an ardent supporter of them. She not only purchases season tickets to the symphony and other events, but she is active in the trenches to ensure that the community will be able to continue to enjoy the arts. Clearfield mobilizes her resources and networks to raise funds for many of the Arts Council of Brazos Valley’s projects. Her efforts helped to raise money for the new home recently constructed for the local Council. In addition, Clearfield and her husband, Abe, support the performing arts through Board membership and financial generosity.

In addition, Clearfield is serving as the Vice President for Congregation Beth Shalom and a member of the Search Committee for a new Executive Director of the Arts Council. She is the Chair of the Bluebonnet Girl Scout Council Women of Distinction Banquet and Award Ceremony, host on KAMU FM’s “Voters Choice” weekly show for the League of Women Voters of Brazos Valley and the Publicity Chair for the League of Women Voters, Congregation Beth Shalom and Congregation Beth Shalom’s Sisterhood. Clearfield is also serving as a Planning Committee Member for the Prenatal Clinic’s “You’re The Tops” Luncheon” and a Board Member, Marketing Committee Member and a Safety and Planning Committee Member of the United Way of the Brazos Valley.

Clearfield is a trailblazer in her College Station community, and her efforts will continue to impact generations to come. Service and giving are not merely words to Clearfield but a lifestyle and part of her daily routine.

GRACE MINISTRIES

Dave and Kim Smith are the parents of a daughter with a chromosome deletion condition and also the founders of Grace Ministries. They know what it is to have a special needs child. They have a very supportive family, but many parents, with special needs children, do not have any support at all.

Grace Ministries has helped more than 20 families and an excess of 50 children have participated in this respite night since its inception. This ministry is supported by the Smith’s local church, Jubilee Family Church (formerly Sonrise Church of God.) Many of the church’s congregation help in this respite night. The Smith’s have also enlisted the help of professionals in the community that have specialized training in working with special needs children.

The Smith’s have created a respite night for families with children with special needs. The child and all siblings are able to attend this special night of fun, food, games, and crafts, while the parents can spend time with each other dong whatever they want to do. This night is open to children in the community. The Smith’s pass out fliers through the schools and contact the radio and television to let them know when a respite night is coming.

One parent said that this is the first time they have been out since the child was born. It is very difficult to get proper care for their children so many families decide to just stay home, many of them, for years. The respite night provides one-on-one care for the child with special needs and their siblings are cared for with a 4-1 ratio of adult/child care. There are usually 25 workers at our respite night. These respite nights are offered the first Friday of the month bi-monthly. These nights are open to the children in the community on a first come first served basis. The members of the church usually provide snacks but many times the Smith’s have paid out of their pocket for these items.

Dave Smith has spoken with many churches in the area encouraging them to start a respite night of their own and so far there has been one that took the challenge, they held their first respite night last month. The ministry that the Smith’s have started is a great opportunity to help special families. The respite night is only the first step in their plans. The Smith family plans on continuing to love and nurture each other as well as working to help others in need.

THE DEMLAND FAMILY

Raising Special Kids is a Parent Training and Information center (PTI) that provides families bilingual workshops for both parents and professionals free of charge. Their mission is to support families as they navigate systems (medical, social, school) so they feel empowered to advocate for their child with a disability or special healthcare need. All three members of the Demland family have been volunteers in the family faculty program at Raising Special Kids for more than three years.

The family faculty program of Phoenix, Arizona consists of families raising children with disabilities and or special healthcare needs going through training and hosting physician residents in their home. The family faculty families go through initial volunteer training and then complete training related specifically to hosting a physician resident in their home.

Debbie, David and Clark Demland have been dedicated volunteers in the family faculty program. They host on average two residents a month in their home for two to three hours each visit. Clark has Duchene Muscular Dystrophy and is in 7th grade. The Demland family welcomes residents in their home and they share the parent perspective, the family history, daily routine, the impact of the diagnosis on their family and the adaptations they have made to cope and to be the special family they are.

Debbie also volunteers as a parent-to-parent connection with Raising Special Kids. When a family has discovered their child has Duchene Muscular Dystrophy they connect them Debbie to talk over the phone about their new reality and adjusting to it. She assists the family in resources and services that are available to them and how to access them. This connection assists the newly diagnosis family to feel less alone, to accept what is happening to their family and to make progress. Clark has also been a great volunteer when interacting with the residents. He speaks openly with them and enjoys spending time with them on his game systems. He is a VIP volunteer at Raising Special Kids.

The Demland’s volunteer efforts with family faculty allow physician residents to see first hand the effect of diagnosis on a family, to interact with the child with special needs and to get the parent perspective outside of the clinic setting. This program builds parent/professional collaboration and gives a new frame of reference for the resident.

The Demland family’s volunteer efforts have also assisted in preparing future doctors to treat and collaborate with families raising children with special needs. Debbie’s parent-to-parent efforts have enabled parents to access services, to make progress and eventually take action and becoming active and involved in the community.

DARON SHARPS

Daron Sharps is the consummate volunteer, participating in a wide variety of activities. Her most significant contribution has been as the initiator, program director, and energy behind the Governor’s Mentoring Program – Teen Trendsetters, at the Yulee Elementary School. She spoke at a local educational conference promoting the Governor’s Teen Trendsetter program.

Even as a teenager, she is the energy behind the annual Crop Walk fund drive at her church. She has done this for several years and the drive is always highly successful. She also participates in a variety of other church related activities. She participates in the local Teen Court program and is active in the Nassau County Young Republicans organization. Designated as community “Florida Bright Futures Scholarship” ambassador, Daron was elected as her school’s student council president.

Her teen trendsetters program started with eight students struggling in reading and has grown to twenty-nine. 78% of the students in the program score at least promotion levels on the FCAT State Assessment. The success of the program was clearly due to her leadership and dedication to the program. She has been noted by name in articles written by the Florida Times-Union and the Fernandina Beach News Leader newspapers. She received the Rayonier Good Citizen award in April 2002 at the Nassau County Volunteer Center’s Annual awards Luncheon, which included a $250 cash award, which she donated to Micah’s place, a domestic abuse shelter. She was designated “Top Fund Raiser” for the Church World Service Crop Walk for fighting world hunger. Received Nassau County’s Teen Court “Outstanding Youth Volunteer” Award. Honored as “Nassau County School System Student Volunteer of the Year.”

Daron has been an outstanding contributor to the spirit of volunteerism on Amelia Island Florida and the community at large. She has been a role model for her fellow teens showing how to humbly commit to a good cause and encourage personal growth in others. The Principal at Yulee Elementary School said that Daron’s character and citizenship far exceeds today’s standard teenage behavior. Her caring for others, kindness to everyone and qualities of leadership and service makes her invaluable to their community.

Daron has volunteered in many capacities since childhood in her community. She was the recipient of the 2002 Rayonier Concerned Good Citizen Award, which is co-sponsored by the Points of Light Foundation Volunteer Center National Network Nassau County Volunteer Center. She is an exemplary representative of youths’ commitment to volunteerism.

THE PAINTER FAMILY

The Painter Family of Yucaipa, California is a team in more ways than one. During the past eighteen years, they have been especially involved in making their community a better place. They believe everyone should give back to make the place they live better day-by-day, and they serve because of that, not for recognition.

The family is innovative and self-directed. Mrs. Painter started “Food For Love” eighteen years ago when they found themselves in need. Mrs. Painter did not have an income and was raising two babies. She struggled to get by and discovered coupons as a way of life. They know how it feels to need some help and Food For Love provides that for those who find themselves in need.

No matter what the circumstances were, the Painters taught their children to volunteer. Their three children grew up following their parents’ example of serving. As a family they go on short term missionary trips to Mexico to build shelter for needy families. The Painters do not just give of their time either. Jessica, who is 18 years old, gave her entire savings to build a loft house for a needy family just last summer. Ali and Elizabeth have been selling candy bars for six months and almost have enough for a loft house, too. The Painter Family’s efforts have inspired several families to donate houses in Mexico. So more people are committing themselves to helping the underserved there.

In addition, the Painter Family has organized community food drives and work closely with the Volunteers In Action on funding projects and other volunteering activities. The members are well known and Jessica has received several community service awards. During one particular year, the Painter Family has donated an excess of $20,000 worth of groceries to various organizations. This is a great feat as Food For Love donates about $10,000 worth of groceries on an average per year. It was made possible because Jessica was given $500.00 as a community service award, and she challenged herself to stretch it to $10,000. She did just that within five months of very hard work.

GEMMY BROWN

Gemmy Brown has been very active, serving the community as a dedicated volunteer on many fronts. She is a sustaining member of the Junior League of Clearwater/Dunedin and serves on the Community Advisory Board of the League. She is also a member of the Rotary Club of Dunedin, the Dunedin Fine Arts Center, and the board of the Dunedin Historical Society Foundation. While she is busy with these organizations, Brown’s primary focus is on serving the needs of libraries in Florida. She is Vice Chair of the Dunedin Public Library Foundation Board and past State Chair of the Friends and Trustees of the Florida Library Association Board. She also served on the Pinellas Public Library Cooperative Board for 3 years. Brown now serves as a member of the Florida Library Association Legislative Committee.

Brown received the History Maker Award from the Dunedin Historical Society in 1994/1996. She also received the Sustainer of the year Award from the Junior League of Clearwater/Dunedin in 1996 and Delightful Dunedin Chamber of Commerce Award in 1999. Brown served as Chair of the Dunedin Library Fundraising Task Force from 1994 to 1997 and was instrumental in the successful completion of the new Dunedin Library project. She is especially devoted to needy, rural libraries and founded the Community Libraries in Caring Project which channels support to those libraries through an informal outreach network of libraries, friends, churches, and service clubs and which share their resources, time and talents with communities in Florida that have low per-capita appropriations for their libraries. CLIC receives financial support through the Dunedin Friends of the Library.

In 2003, Brown was the impetus for the introduction of legislation by Rep. Tom Anderson creating the CLIC program in law. The bill created a grant program that will help to improve literacy and the economic viability of Rural Economic Development Initiative communities in Florida by expanding library collections and services. Governor Bush was interested enough in this project to recommend in his budget that $2,5000,000 is used to improve libraries and promote adult and family literacy in fiscally constrained counties. The Legislature appropriated $100,000 for the CLIC program in the 2004-2005 budget, and $200,000 in the 2005-2006 budget.

Brown believes the CLIC Project has proven that small steps and gestures of support can produce tremendous results in the effort to bring rural county libraries to the forefront of Florida’s conscience. The CLIC program has provided children’s dictionaries to third graders at Blountstown Elementary School with the help of the Dunedin Friends of the Library and the City of Dunedin and to Pasco County Elementary Schools with the help of Dunedin Rotary Clubs. In some families, this was the first dictionary ever brought into the home. In the Three Rivers Regional Library system, CLIC has also provided a portable library of Spanish-language children’s and adult books for the Hispanic community and has assisted some rural libraries with additional finding for their summer children’s programs.

Brown headed the Rotary International project on literacy with her “Words for Thirds” project of supplying dictionaries to third graders in District 6950, where over 600 books were distributed to five elementary schools in Pasco County. This was the same “Words for Thirds” program that was successfully completed in Calhoun County, Florida. The dictionaries will stimulate an enthusiasm and excitement for reading, improve literacy and contribute to a lifetime love of books. Brown’s efforts in her community and throughout rural Florida with the CLIC program have been an inspiration to many people. CLIC will expand much needed library services and technology in those communities where the improvement of adult and children’s literacy will enhance their economic viability and propel them into the 21st century.