Sherrill Cooke

Sherrill Cooke’s father battled skin cancer for many years, and this led Sherrill to investigate skin cancer prevention efforts. She was dismayed to learn that although it is the most common form of cancer, affecting one in five Americans and killing one person every thirty-three minutes, it is a poorly funded area of cancer research. In addition, because it is one of the most treatable forms of cancer, people often underestimate its potentially life-threatening consequences. When her father passed away from skin cancer in 2003, Sherrill wanted to educate and help others affected by skin cancer, and also to honor her father’s memory and the courageous battle fought by him and so many others against this disease.

With these goals in mind, Sherrill became Founder and Executive Director of the Bob Cooke Memorial Trek Against Skin Cancer. The Trek seeks to raise money for skin cancer research and to educate participants about skin cancer prevention. Sherrill single-handedly started from scratch in this endeavor. She used her marketing skills to attract major sponsors, enabling her to hold a silent auction and raffle at the event for additional fund-raising, offer prizes to the participants who raise the most money, and provide free lunch, beverages, entertainment, and skin care samples to all Trek participants.

Sherrill has generously and tirelessly volunteered her time to this event which raises funds specifically for skin cancer research. For many months of the year, this is a full-time job; yet, in its third year, Sherrill has yet to draw a salary for herself from the funds raised. Instead, all funds have gone directly to skin cancer research and growing the event.

The Skin Cancer Trek is now a Foundation with a Board of Directors, Advisory Council and numerous volunteers. Sherrill’s goal of taking this to the National level will be realized on March 31, 2007 with The Bob Cooke Memorial Run/Walk Against Skin Cancer in Jacksonville, Florida. In addition other annual events are planned including a Ski Against Skin Cancer and The Bob Cooke Skin Cancer Foundation Winter Gala on March 1st. Future goals will take this to other cities throughout Florida and eventually across the country.

For the past 3 years, Sherrill has visited numerous schools – Lauralton Hall, Platt Tech and Jacksonville University and organizations throughout Connecticut and Florida speaking about sun safety and the dangers of tanning beds. Most recently, she was invited to speak to the Florida Society of Dermatologic Surgeons.

In addition to her work with the Foundation, Sherrill has also been a volunteer at The Connecticut Humane Society in the Pet Therapy Program. She visits Seacrest Retirement Home with her Basset Hound, Peaches. She also gives of her time with the Connecticut State Animal Response Team.

Shaniece Thomas

Shaniece Thomas is currently in the tenth grade attending Cardinal Dougherty. She has many hobbies such as Reading Club, baseball, basketball, jumping rope and socializing with friends but she chose to make volunteering a priority in her life.

She wants to give back to society and gain knowledge and experience of dealing with all walks of life. When she was younger, she was curious and wanted to find out how disabled students adapt to everyday life. She had the pleasure to volunteer at Overbrook School for the Blind during the course of the summer. She says she found it interesting because she was unaware of all the devises that they are exposed to by way of making their lives easier.

Shaniece continues to have a big heart and hold her hands out to help disabled and mentally challenged students. Her objective is to make a difference in their everyday lives by exposing them to happiness, comfort, knowledge, freedom and independence and by displaying love kindness, respect and dignity regardless of their handicap. She assists disabled students with their individual needs which will give them the greatest opportunity to experience activities and fulling live. She will provide invaluable expertise by exhibiting essential caring support and advice to those in need.

Lucy James

Approximately 30 years ago, Lucy James began the “Ms. Lucy’s Kids Foundation” a tutoring and safe haven program for children in her home. Today, more than 1,000 youth have moved into productive lives and professions due to the support and tutelage acquired through the program as nutriments for their academic growth and development. She was recognized by her community service peers and in1998, she was awarded for outstanding community service by the Nation of Islam, and in 2005 the YWCA honored her as “the woman who makes a difference” in Shreveport.

As founder of the Ms. Lucy’s Kids Foundation, Lucy has mastered the art of engaging both parent and child in the pursuit of academic excellence. Her tutoring program focuses on reading, math, and social studies for children in grades K-12 whose academic performances are weak or below grade level.

The tutorial program re-teaches reading skills as a gap stopper to the academic deficits; as well as to provide practice and affirmation in areas of study such as math logic/reasoning problems and social studies. Students attend one-hour sessions twice a week during the school year and four days a week during the summer; which includes Saturday and Sunday.

She is a graduate of two police auxiliary programs—Caddo Parish and The City of Shreveport; where she volunteers to patrol the urban streets of Shreveport. When she is not tutoring, feeding, clothing or nurturing community children, she is working to rid the streets of guns, drugs, drug dealers, and crime.

Cieu Lan Dong

Cieu Lan Dong is dedicated to improving the lives of HIV-positive people in Botswana as well as helping the country’s growing population of AIDS orphans. At the age of 15, Cieu served as an assistant in a Botswana Harvard Partnership survey of HIV-infected mothers. The results opened her eyes to the country’s chronic poverty and poor health and compelled her to work to change these conditions.

Although many of the results shocked her, Cieu was especially distraught by the high rate on unemployment among the participants. She thought the upcoming generation could benefit greatly from vocational guidance and training. Soon, Cieu began working with Stepping Stones International, an after-school center that helps teenage AIDS orphans develop critical job skills and maintain physical and mental health. With her perseverance and talent, she raised more than $25,000 for the center and plans on raising more for the children in the near future.

The health status of the women Cieu interviewed also left a deep impression. She was intrigued by the women’s low rate of post-pregnancy multivitamin consumption and promptly began to investigate the benefits of a government-led distribution program. After thoroughly researching the benefits of multivitamin consumption by HIV patients, Cieu met with several of the country’s public health officials to advocate for widespread distribution of multivitamins.

She is now working with the Public Health Department in Botswana as they adopt her recommendation to prescribe multivitamins to all HIV positive persons. This recommendation will become part of the Nutritioni HIV Guidelines. This summer, the Botswana Harvard Partnership implemented a survey that Cieu helped design and she hopes will yield more insight into the health needs of HIV patients.

Cieu’s last venture in Botswana was a two-month exchange program at the Maru-a-Pula (MAP) School, where she volunteered at several local orphanages and even helped one start a new library with donated books from American schools. She returned with a renewed love for Botswana and awe-inspiring enthusiasm for the work that lies ahead.

Tulsa County Medical Society

In Tulsa County, OK, they have created a very simple program using existing resources, including retired volunteer physicians, to address a huge nation concern. After seven years of advocating with the Oklahoma Legislature, enabling language was signed into law that allows us to recycle all unused, non-narcotic medications, from nursing homes. As a result of this innovative program, what was once discarded as useable waste is now providing tangible medical benefit, free of charge, to thousands of people in need.

The Director of Nursing (DON) at one of the 33 donating nursing homes boxes up the unit-dosed medications and creates a manifest. The DON then calls to have the medications transported. One of the 22 retired, volunteer physicians safely transports the medication to the Tulsa County Pharmacy for redistribution at no charge to indigent citizens of Tulsa County. In 2005, these physicians transported 241 donations of medications. As of the end of 2006, these same dedicated volunteers have transported medications 181 times. These physicians receive no compensation or expense reimbursements for this service.

It is certainly doubtful whether Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry and the Oklahoma Legislature would have been willing to pass enabling language to create the program had it not been for the critical involvement of these physicians. Safety, security and accountability for the donated medications were paramount to lawmakers and these volunteer physicians gave the program measurable credibility.

In 2005, the Tulsa County Pharmacy was able to fill 6, 114 prescriptions for indigent members of the community with this recycled medication. The Average Wholesale Value (AWP) of this medication was $1.3 million. By the end of 2006, they were able to fill 10,952 prescriptions with the AWP of $873,668. Not only have they been able to fill prescriptions for individuals, but they have also been able to fill prescriptions for clients of many of the local nonprofits, thus having a positive impact on these agencies’ limited budgets. They have also supplied over-the-counter (OTC) medications to all indigent health care clinics, homeless shelters and to too many local nonprofits in the county to list. Boxes of OTCs have been provided to survivors of Katrina in Louisiana and Mississippi, sent on mission trips to Mexico and Russia and eye care products have been routed to Iraq and Afghanistan to benefit the United States Armed Forces.

These physicians have spent a lifetime in the field of health care, healing one patient after another, and some might suggest that they have given enough. These incredible volunteers actually complain because we do not have more opportunities for them to pick up the medication. The program has had meritorious accomplishments, there is no doubt that it would not be functioning without these volunteer physicians.

Lisa Joyner

Lisa Joyner has had a tremendous impact on serving the homeless in the Phoenix area for the past 10 years and has been a diligent volunteer with many of the area shelters and homeless outreach centers.

Lisa started a 501©3 corporation called Kitchen on the Street and is mobilizing people in her community to help go out to those who cannot make it to a shelter for a meal. The “bag of hope” is comprised of non-perishable foods and a beverage, some information on where to get help in the area, and most importantly some inspiration hand written by local elementary school students.

This is a grass-roots effort by a person who realizes that serving the needy is a very important calling in life, and has in many cases put herself second to help others. Lisa has put forth the effort to assemble a group of people who will be going out and putting food in the hands of those who in many cases would not have any, and offering inspiration and help for a segment of the homeless community that are often forgotten.

The future plans for Kitchen on the Street are to go to other cities and develop the same concept, introducing young students to a growing problem and allowing them to interact through a written format, giving a homeless person a reason to feel wanted and cared for, and at the same time, giving this national issue a platform in our schools.

Lisa has provided an on-going solution to a situation that seems to be getting worse; the people who are dropping off the “bags of hope” are volunteers who care about meeting with the homeless and proving that someone cares. By involving local students, the program inspires young people to put their thoughts on paper, and gives them an opportunity to fill a void in our community. Other items such as blankets, clothing and most importantly information is also available.

Chloe Lewis

Chloe Lewis is dedicated to serving children with HIV/AIDS. Despite her age of only 17, Chloe has served almost half of her lifetime to help secure a healthy start and a healthy future for her peers worldwide.

Having survived a near fatal disease at a young age, Chloe chose to become an advocate for children who are dying from a disease they acquired oftentimes through no fault of their own. Her focus has been to develop and use her voice of leadership to create awareness about HIV/AIDS and to educate her generation on the importance of prevention. Chloe has taken her call to action to communities across the United States as well as to villages in South Africa, Tanzania and rural China.

Undaunted by the challenges of the third world, Chloe has twice negotiated twelve days off from school and raised $30,000 to donate to the global outreach efforts of the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation. Her time in South Africa and Tanzania afforded her the opportunity to connect with her peers and their families, to learn of their struggles, and to explore ways to break the barriers and stigmas that deny access to health care for the young. She returned home to connect with and motivate her classmates and other youth nationwide through speeches, presentations, and media interviews, enlisting her audiences to become part of the health care solution through service to others.

Chloe saw the increased need to raise awareness of the epidemic in China and to connect children and families toward the services available. In response, she created her own volunteer opportunity in rural China, where she provided education and services to those living with HIV/AIDS. As an activist, Chloe appeared on Chinese television and challenged the country’s health care providers to make more drugs available for children.

Chloe believes the solution to decreased transmission lies in the empowerment of women. Through her creative fund-raising ideas, she has effectively mobilized members of her age group to become engaged in global issues through service. Chloe calls her peers to action by reminding them that “if you stand at a distance, it is impossible to make a real difference. Waiting for the world to change only makes us older. For those people in my generation who are struggling simply to live a childhood there is no time to wait. Gandhi’s message that we must be the change we wish to see in the world is more true now than ever before. Get involved and change the world.”

HOPE worldwide

HOPE worldwide-Jacksonville volunteers began here in 1995 providing health and education services to aid the elderly, poor, & children with a variety of services. Some of these activities include the establishment of a Saturday Academy Program providing education, nutrition, and positive mentors for at risk children; Positive Choice, an abstinence based program for teens; regular blood drives; a clothes closet; feeding the homeless & refugee families; partnership with the annual Children’s Christmas Party of Jacksonville; Lap robes and days of service for the elderly; the Ronald McDonald House; Serving Senior programs; a partnership with Lutheran Social Services for a summer camp for refugee children and much more. Five HOPE worldwide – Jacksonville volunteers also served in Thailand for Tsunami Relief work in June of 2005.

HOPE worldwide – Jacksonville received the 2005 Volunteer Jacksonville Heart of Gold Award for faith based organizations. Two of their volunteers were also recognized with the Heart of Gold Senior Award at the same celebration by Volunteer Jacksonville.

In addition, their six regularly scheduled Blood Drives have been recognized as a Best New Program among faith based / church groups as well as twice receiving the Chairperson of the Year for faith based / church groups.

HOPE worldwide volunteers have been encouraged by the opportunities they have had to serve others. They have a great reputation in the community as being volunteers who are dependable. They not only show up when they are supposed to but serve with a generous heart. HOPE worldwide volunteers are known as people who make a genuine difference in the lives of children as evidenced by the relationship built with the students at their Saturday Academy. The Director of the Magic Johnson Center where the Saturday Academy is held noted how quickly his kids developed trust in just a short period of time and the positive influence that is for the children.

Peggy Koele

Peggy Koele is a dedicated year-round volunteer who provides multiple growth opportunities for children and adults in Special Olympics.

For over 28 years, Peggy has been committed to the Special Olympics movement. In 1978 Peggy began coaching both children and adults with intellectual disabilities. Peggy coached athletes how to participate and excel in basketball, bowling and track and field. Peggy continually demonstrates the high degree of technical skill, commitment, and compassion needed to motivate and train athletes for competition and for life. Personal growth, self-confidence and physical fitness are only a few benefits obtained by the athletes through Peggy’s coaching and mentorship.

In addition to coaching, Peggy fulfills the all-important and demanding role of volunteer Area Director for Northwest Iowa. This vital position requires a person with integrity and honesty. As the Area Director, Peggy ensures that quality Special Olympics sports training programs and athletic competitions are available to all eligible individuals in the area. She plans, implements and manages all area competitions while raising funds to support and meet the financial needs of the area.

Over 830 athletes currently compete in Northwest Iowa. These athletes are given an opportunity to develop and demonstrate their skills and talents throughout the year while increasing the public’s awareness of their capabilities. Prior to each area competition, Peggy receives and reviews all athlete entry scores. She then creates divisions so that athletes of equal ability compete against each other in any given event, thus providing each athlete with a fair and equal opportunity to not only do well but to excel in their individual competitions.

Peggy recruits, orients and trains volunteers who assist with the sports competitions held in Northwest Iowa. She ensures that all National Governing rules and Special Olympic rules, policies and procedures are followed during the competitions. Peggy also establishes training opportunities for other volunteer coaches so they can and will promote the proper instruction for all athletes.

The first-ever Special Olympics USA National Games were held in Ames, Iowa in July, 2006. Over 3,000 athletes from across the United States participated in this week long competition. Peggy generously served as the Sports Commissioner of the bowling competition for the National Games. As the Sports Commissioner, Peggy completed many duties including the supervision of officials and volunteers. She ensured that equipment was properly set up for the bowling competition and that the schedules were followed. Peggy also addressed any protests made by the coaches.

Peggy Koele treats every Special Olympics athlete with the respect and dignity that they deserve. She whole-heartedly shares her time and abilities with people with intellectual disabilities.

Ansley Reagan

Over the past two years, Ansley Reagan, a recent cum laude graduate of Lee University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Telecommunications, has made a direct impact on her community. According to Ansley, she has always had an interest in and compassion for the elderly. These interests inspired her to launch Project CARE.

The mission of Project CARE is to establish community alliances that will promote interaction with the elderly, and to raise awareness for elderly citizens living in unhealthy conditions or that simply have no family support.

She created a resource website: www.projectcaretn.com. It informs Tennesseans of volunteer opportunities with elderly in their community. This website also serves as a resource page for the elderly and their caregivers. She has also instituted an intergenerational reading program with the Cleveland Public Library and the Girl Scout Council of Moccasin Bend. Participants check out books from the library and read to any elderly person of their choice. Once they read six books, they receive a “fun patch,” which she designed, that is worn on their uniform.

In addition, Project CARE schedules Beauty Days for Seniors at area nursing homes assisted living facilities. She enlists the help of students from area beauty schools to provide manicures, facials, and makeovers for the residents. The Adopt-A-Grandparent Partnership between Life Care of Cleveland Lee University is scheduled to start in the fall of 2006. Lee students are required to perform community service every semester until they graduate. This project matches a student with a resident. The pairing will involve scheduled interaction with the elderly person and student for the duration of their college career. Her efforts have instituted a permanent option for students to direct their service at her university. She is also a volunteer for the Tennessee Senior Olympics.

The most impressive component of Ansley’s program is the advocacy and support for the Volunteer Guardianship Program. For the past two years, Ansley has been the legal guardian of an elderly woman whom she visits weekly to ensure that she is being properly cared for; and Ansley meets regularly with her social worker to discuss her progress and state of well-being.

This past Spring, Ansley organized a benefit concert to raise funds and gain exposure for the Volunteer Guardianship Program. It raised $1,115 for the program and the in-kind donations totaled $7,000.