Calista Pierce

Calista knows how much her brother struggles to do the things most kids can do with ease. She also knows how much he loves being able to go to Special Olympics competitions and how great he feels when he wins an award. She has wanted to become an official Special Olympics volunteer ever since he started participating in the program in 2005.

Calista decided that since she is only 7 and still too young to be an official volunteer, she would try to help out in another way. When she found out that the local Special Olympics program lost their largest fundraising event and was worried about having the funding to be able to take athletes to competitions, she decided to make and sell crafts to help fundraise for the program. She used her own craft supplies to start her project and has helped pay for more supplies so that all money raised from the craft sales could go directly to Crawford County Special Olympics. She started her project in December 2006 and has spent over 180 hours making and selling her crafts. Since her crafts are priced at $1, $2 and $3, she initially hoped to raise $100. To date, Calista has raised $527for the program! She says her new goal is to raise $3000! She also made and donated 40 bowling picture frame magnets to be given out as awards at the Crawford County Special Olympics bowling party! She named her project Calista Cares in the hopes of getting the word out and raising more money for Crawford County Special Olympics. She has received small cash donations and a craft supply donation thanks to her website.

Calista is learning how much funding is needed to run the local Special Olympics program each year and wants to help out as much as she possibly can. She has shown the community that despite her age, she is making a difference for Crawford County Special Olympics. The program is receiving more donations and thanks to Calista’s efforts, they are gaining a little more media coverage.

Not only has she done all of this, but since the age of 5, Calista has helped out as much as she possibly can at all of the Special Olympics events she goes to. Whether it is keeping scores in bowling, timing during track and field, ball chasing during the softball throws or simply cheering on the athletes, she has been ready and willing to lend a helping hand! She is her brother’s biggest cheerleader both in and out of competition! She is an amazing little girl who spends many hours working on her crafts and is constantly trying to find more places to sell them. She never expects anything in return; she just wants to bring in as much money for the program as she possibly can! She has been an inspiration to her family, friends and Crawford County Special Olympics!

Colonel Russell Opland

Colonel Russell M. Opland, CAP has been the commander of the Delaware wing of Civil Air Patrol since August 2003. During his tenure as commander, Col. Opland has volunteered in excess of 8,000 hours, averaging 38 hours weekly in addition to his full time career as Chief Privacy and Information Security Officer for the University of Pennsylvania Health System.

During his Civil Air Patrol career, Col. Opland has been recognized for his contributions and achievements with four Exceptional Service Awards, three Meritorious Service Awards, the Gill Robb Wilson Award, Delaware Wing Senior Member of the Year, Air Force Association Award for Outstanding CAP Achievements, rated “Outstanding” as Commander, 2005 Wing Compliance Inspection and rated “Outstanding” as Incident Commander, 2003 Evaluated SAR/DR exercise

In addition to his personal awards, the Delaware Wing was the recipient of many awards and recognitions under of Col. Opland’s leadership. Also during Col. Opland’s tenure, Delaware Wing, despite its small size, logged the most average flying hours per aircraft of any CAP wing in the nation, resulting in the wing receiving three new aircraft. Delaware cadets annually participated in national competitions for drill team and/or color guard and placed third or above nationally each year.

Civil Air Patrol is the official auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force, and is comprised entirely of civilian volunteers. The wing commander is the senior corporate officer within a Civil Air Patrol wing and is responsible to the Civil Air Patrol Corporation and to the region commander for ensuring that corporate objectives, policies, and operational directives are executed within the wing.

CAP performs 95% of inland search and rescue missions in the continental U.S. as tasked by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center. CAP volunteers also perform homeland security, disaster relief, and counter drug missions at the request of federal, state, and local agencies. CAP has three missions: Cadet Programs, Emergency Services, and Aerospace Education. The cadet program provides youth (ages 12-21) the opportunity to serve their communities and develop into responsible citizens, inspiring them to become the next generation of pilots, engineers, mechanics, and aviation enthusiasts.

Civil Air Patrol had its beginning in Delaware and southern New Jersey in the first days of World War II tasked with patrolling coastal waters for enemy submarines. It was formed on December 1, 1941 and chartered as a non-profit, benevolent corporation by the U.S. Congress in 1946. Today, CAP continues to support federal, state and local agencies and communities with nearly 60,000 members, both cadets and officers.

Rabbi Larry & Gerri Kaplan

When Jewish Family Service of Greater Wilkes-Barre told Rabbi Larry Kaplan of Temple Israel Wilkes-Barre that the organization would be honoring him with its annual service award, he quite justifiably could have responded: “it’s about time,” the rabbi and his wife, Gerri, have been tireless servants of the community since moving to Kingston 10 years ago.

The rabbi’s reaction was humble and humorous, however, and he laid the bulk of the credit on his wife.

“Dear friends, it was bound to happen,” Kaplan wrote the following week in a newsletter to his congregation. “When you are in the public eye and haven’t been arrested or indicted for insider trading, you eventually may be honored by a charitable organization. I had hoped that Gerri and I could remain ‘newcomers’ to the community for a few more years before being so honored, but maybe the folks at Jewish Family Service figured they should act now in case I am arrested.”

Rabbi Kaplan went on to explain that Gerri deserves the bulk of the credit for the award. That is Larry Kaplan: a person more interested in lifting others up than giving himself credit.

Jewish Family Service honored Rabbi and Gerri Kaplan at the group’s annual luncheon on May 7 at the Woodlands Inn & Resort for their distinguished service to the community.

“He goes above and beyond the definition of rabbi, and on top of it all he’s very funny,” said Lisa Morgan, administrative assistant and special programs coordinator for Jewish Family Service.

The Kaplans will also be honored for their outreach as foster parents, in the course of which they have taken more than 40 children into their home.

“We tend to serve the neediest in the community,” said Howard Grossman, executive director of Jewish Family Service. “That’s another reason we’re honoring them; they’ve ended up helping the neediest youngsters in the community.”

Sylvia Hicks

Sylvia Hicks is a Transplant Claim Analyst at Aetna in Cranbury, NJ. Volunteering and providing to others who are in need is a way of life for Sylvia, she is often surprised when she is recognized for efforts. Her response is usually that this is what she taught by her parents. Sylvia has taken the lead to schedule quarterly blood drive and has invited spokespeople from various organizations like NJ Sharing Network and the Kidney Foundation to raise awareness of becoming an organ donor. She was responsible for organizing a “lunch and learn” at the Aetna offices in 2005 to raise awareness about the need for organ donors. With the help of her co-workers they have signed up a total of 77 organ donors during Organ Donation month in April 2005 –2006. In cooperation with the Aetna Foundation, 13 bone marrow donors were registered with the National Marrow Donor Program in May 2006. For the past 6 years Sylvia has headed in blood drive and over 575 pints of blood have been collected at the Aetna facility in Cranbury. Recently, Sylvia received permission to use one of the glass cases in Cranbury to set a display for March/April medical awareness for Chronic Kidney Disease, Colorectal Awareness and Donate Life Month. For the month of August she has set up a new display for National Immunization Awareness and National Minority Organ and Tissue Donor Awareness.

Although Sylvia organizes many events for Aetna employees and the Cranbury site, her giving goes beyond her time in the office. She allocates time to other organizations within her community such as the North Shelton Food Bank, Teen Mentor and Tutoring, Senior Citizens helper and an active member of St. John’s Baptist Church. Other organizations where she was a part of are The Dorcoss Scholarship Committee, A. Ross Brent Scholarship Committee and Union County Teen Mentoring.

Sylvia quietly goes about “her business” in helping others; whether it is a friend, co-worker or a stranger in need, Sylvia does not ask questions, she takes action. Her selflessness and dedication to several causes her probably saved lives and for others, provided a ray of sunshine to their day.

Samantha Jo Taylor

Samantha is a student at Maplewood High School on a mission to remove thousands of waste tires that were creating an environmental hazard in the community. Pennsylvania has millions of waste tires that are the perfect breeding grounds for disease-carrying mosquitoes as well as creating a very dangerous situation if those tires were to ever catch on fire. She wrote grants and acquired funding in excess of $7,000 to help fund this massive waste tire cleanup project. On October 6, 2006, Sam led 200 high school students to a small woodlot in Townville, PA to load over 5,600 waste tires onto tractor trailer in less than three hours. Those tires were then hauled to Enviva Materials in Youngstown so they could be recycled.

This waste tire project has spawned several other tire recycling efforts throughout the county. Maplewood High School is already planning another tire reclamation project for the fall of 2007 in collaboration with two other area high schools. Sam Taylor worked hard to overcome many obstacles to prove to the community that waste tires can be dealt with in an effective and environmentally conscientious way.

Peggie Russell

Peggie Russell is definitely a “Daily Point of Light.” She routinely clothes, feeds, assists and welcomes those in need. In her role at Nike Inc., she works as a full time Business Analyst in Delivery Planning, but she also serves as the Chair of the Nike TN African American Network. Under Peggie’s leadership, the 126 Nike TN AAN Network members sponsor diversity events throughout the year to educate and entertain the Nike employees.

In 2006, Peggie received an Honorable Mention for the Nike World Headquarters for the Community Involvement Award and in 2007 she received the Nike TN AAN Leadership Award. As the Executive Director of Stop the Madness Inc., Peggie has engaged this organization with Hickory Ridge Middle School and works diligently to recruit volunteer mentors from the community. Under Peggie’s guidance, Stop the Madness has established effective partnerships with the Memphis Mentoring Partnership; Operation Reach Coalition; Operation Safe Communities; Volunteer Memphis/Hands on Memphis; Center for Nonprofit Excellence and several other local organizations. Peggie also serves several other organizations such as an Advisory Board Member for EcOp a MLF ministry; Center Industry Council Member for the Benjamin L. Hooks Job Corps Center; an active member of the Coalition of 100 Black Women Memphis Chapter and as an Honorary Advisory Board Member for the Academy of Financial Management. She has been selected as a Leadership Academy 2008 Fellow.

The Memphis community has recognized Peggie’s work with at risk youth through numerous awards, including the 31st Annual Spirit of Giving Award from Volunteer Memphis; selection as Memphis’ Woman Magazine 50 Women Who Make a Difference; Parent of the Year Award form Hickory Ridge Middle School; and several articles in the Memphis Commercial Appeal newspaper.

In the past year, she has worked to provide 100 new winter coats to elementary children in the Hickory Hill community; trained numerous mentors to work with at risk youth; provided 70 NBA tickets to at risk youth through the Grizzlies Ticket for Kids Program; donated books to Hickory Ridge Middle School; served as the Chair of the Operation REACH (Restoring, Employing, Advocating, Challenging and Helping) Coalition which works to decrease gang involvement and employ individuals with criminal records; served as the Executive Director of Stop the Madness on a volunteer basis; mentored 14 children in the Hickory Hill area who she often escorted to church and served dinner at her home; and served as the faculty/student mentor and the University of Phoenix where she also teaches part-time. She is married; the mother of four biological children and step-mother to four.

Jim Mulcahy

Jim Mulcahy is a valued SHINE (Serving Health Insurance Needs of Elders) volunteer whose critical leadership skills have made him essential to the organization. Even though he serves as area coordinator, which is the lead volunteer for a five-county area, he also counsels older Floridians who have questions and concerns about Medicare, Medicaid, Prescription Assistance and Long-Term Care Insurance.

Jim has shown amazing dedication to the SHINE program. He treats the position as a full-time job. In addition to working with clients directly, he makes himself available for presentation to the public and professional staff and attends community health and education events, even if the time falls outside of his normal work week. Jim works in tandem with the agency’s Elder Helpline to assist in resolving beneficiary problems or concerns. He eagerly provides guidance to his volunteer leadership team to ensure compliance with state directives, while maintaining his other duties. Jim’s managerial and leadership experience in this volunteer position are invaluable and elevate his volunteer status above all others.

He accepts responsibility for contacting beneficiaries who have the most complicated Medicare cases and resolves the issues for them. He will take the initiative to contact other agencies on behalf of a client and will work for weeks to complete a case. Jim leads seniors to a sense of empowerment by educating them about their choices. He promotes independence and enables older Floridians to live with dignity in an elder-friendly community.

Jim’s record as a SHINE volunteer counselor has brought honor both to the program and to the West Central Florida Area Agency on Aging, Inc. In 2004, Jim was awarded the Hillsborough County SHINE Volunteer of the Year Award. He was given the Volunteer of the Year Award in 2006, not for a specific county, but for the entire, five-county service area of the agency. In 2006, Jim served 573 Medicare beneficiaries who had problems with their Medicare insurance’s prescription drug needs through Medicare Part D or Long Term Care Insurance coverage. During this same year, he donated more than 460 hours of him time to clients whether face-to-face, over the phone or at community events.

During the implementation of the Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Plans, Jim was always at the forefront of every related event. He was at the first Senior Fun Fest in St. Petersburg, FL, on November 15, 2006, when Medicare Part D was first implemented nationwide. The event in Tropicana Field included 13,189 seniors who were anxious to ask questions about or wanted to enroll in a Medicare Part D plan. In January 2007, Jim was again at the Florida State Fairgrounds for another Senior Fun Fest, in which 9,875 seniors participated in the two-day event. Jim is accountable to every individual he counsels.

Rebekah Hammond

In 2005, Rebekah Hammond was asked to serve a two-year term on the YMCA of the Suncoast Board of Directors as the Youth Representative. Rebekah as done an outstanding job as a member of the Board of Directors, which provides direction and oversight for programs, services and facilities in Pinellas, Pasco, Hernando and Citrus counties, operating with an approximately $28 million budget. In 2002, Rebekah began participating in the Florida YMCA Youth in Government Program. The entire year-long program cumulates with a three-day trip to the State Capital in Tallahassee for participants to experience the lawmaking process first-hand. In January 2006 at the state conference, Rebekah was elected by nearly 600 of her peers to lead the Florida YMCA Youth in Government program as their governor during the 2006 and 2007 school years.

In 2005 and 2006, while Rebekah served as co-chair of both the Service Youth Engagement Project and Social Youth Presiding Officer for two terms, she helped develop and direct the Fall District Assembly all for the YMCA Florida Youth in Government Program. During the summer, Rebekah presided over the creation and development of a curriculum for a Statewide Middle School Youth in Government Program. The program’s founding came out of the goal of the State Presiding Officers to further civic and service education to younger students, as well as to foster awareness and a sense of duty to service.

Rebekah also has volunteered more than 95 hours from 2004 through 2007 for the Dunedin Youth Volunteers (DYV) and is currently serving as the group’s public relations officer. In addition, Rebekah worked with the Dunedin Public Library as a youth volunteer and has mentored youths from low-income communities. Rebekah has been a member of Clearwater High School’s Student Government Association for all four years of high school and has logged approximately 200 hours. Rebekah serves as the chair of the National Honor Society’s Peer Tutoring.

Rebekah also has served as the Executive Director of “The March for Miracles,” a project she designed and coordinated. The inaugural March for Miracles 2006 was created out of a plan of the Pinellas County Student Government Association for a multi-school, community service project. With Access Pinellas (the Pinellas County Public Access Television Station), Rebekah has served as an Intern for more than 40 hours, developing script writing, reporting and producing skills. She has helped produce several programs documenting community outreach programs, such as the Hispanic Outreach Center of the YWCA and YMCA Youth in Government Programs.

William Robert Petersen

Bill Petersen is a creative volunteer who has dedicated his services to the exhibit area of the Museum of Science and Technology (MOSI) in Tampa, FL. For more than 18 years, he has offered his time and talent to provide an interactive experience for guests to learn about science.

Bill has worked on numerous exhibits over the years, completing mechanical as well as cosmetic fixes. His consistent efforts keep the exhibits maintained. In addition, the museum has evolved tremendously during Bill’s tenure of volunteering and its staff depends on his extensive knowledge of the exhibits' history. Such longevity of a volunteer’s commitment is a treasure.

MOSI is the largest science center in the Southeastern United States. It encompasses 318,126 total square feet on a 73-acre campus with 450 permanent, hands-on exhibits. With a total of 824,208 visitors per year, the museum relies on Bill’s expertise to keep the exhibits available for its visitors.

Richard Sheridan

Dr. Richard Sheridan joined the Healthy Start Coalition in 2002. Since then, he has helped the statewide program meet its goals to reduce infant mortality. He has served as a board member of the Hillsborough County Association of Retarded Citizens for five years and as treasurer for three years.

As a neonatal specialist at St. Joseph’s Women’s Hospital in Tampa, he cares for babies who weigh only a pound or less. He calls parents of babies in critical care situations after hours. “He goes above and beyond to comfort them,” says Ellen Schaefer, Outcome Coordinator of the NICU at St. Joseph’s Women’s Hospital, “He offers a clear vision for finding the right care for those who need it most, and he has high adrenalin to keep him focused and positive. After many hours of hospital rounds, office and volunteer work, he packs a lot into a day—often with little sleep.”

With Dr. Sheridan’s guidance, the Healthy Start Coalition formed a partnership with women who are in the infirmary at the Falkenberg Road Jail. These women are a high risk group who need intensive intervention services, because they may be addicted to alcohol or addictive drugs.

Dr. Sheridan has served for four years on the Hillsborough County Fetal Infant Mortality Review Committee. He has the very difficult job of reviewing fetal and infant deaths to determine what may have been contributing causes. He also helped launch the Beds 4 Babies campaign in response to the numbers of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and suffocation deaths due to a baby sleeping with an adult. The co-sleeping was often due to socioeconomic issues, because the parent wanted to sleep with the baby. The campaign has funded a portable crib for more than 100 families within the Healthy Start and Healthy Families system of care.