American Red Cross
The American Red Cross shelters, feeds and provides emotional support to victims of disasters; supplies more than 40 percent of the nation’s blood; teaches skills that save lives; provides international humanitarian aid; and supports military members and their families. HandsOn Network volunteer action centers and Red Cross local chapters have collaborated on numerous projects across the country, including Birmingham, Ala., New Orleans and New York City. Nationally, the American Red Cross partnered with Points of Light and HandsOn Network in 2011 at the National Conference on Volunteering and Service to develop preparedness kits for seniors, and continues to be a core partner of the Good & Ready preparedness engagement initiative. The American Red Cross serves on the National Advisory Council that guides Points of Light military initiatives including the Community Blueprint Network, and sponsors one Community Blueprint pilot site.
Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.
Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated (AKA) is an international service organization founded in 1908 at Howard University in Washington, D.C. It is the oldest Greek-lettered organization established by African-American college-educated women. For the 2012 Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service, AKA's 950 chapters organized America’s Sunday Suppers across the country and abroad, engaging more than 20,000 in dinner, a movie, meaningful discussion and service projects. The sorority also engaged more than 5,000 middle school girls participating in its Emerging Young Leaders program in service projects focused on human rights and creating equal opportunities for all Americans.
Alex Gordon
Alex Gordon, 14, is a junior at Highland Park High School in Highland Park, Ill., and founder and coordinator of the Highland Park Volunteer Snow Shoveling program. The program matches willing and able volunteers with elderly and disabled community residents to help with snow removal.
Alex solicited volunteers from local churches, synagogues, civic organizations and community news outlets. He also engaged other high school students and youth. The program won’t end with Alex’s graduation, he realizes the good it is creating in his community and plans to pass the program on to a younger student. Alex is proof that no one is too young to create positive action and be a Daily Point of Light.
Andrew Appleby
When Andrew Appleby was 15-years-old he started Make A Spash in his community of Akron, Ohio. Make A Splash is a USA Swimming program started by Cullen Jones, the country’s first African-American national record holder and Olympic gold medalist. Ironically, when Cullen was just 5-years-old he almost drowned.
Andrew’s Make A Splash program provides free swimming lessons to at-risk, inner-city, economically disadvantaged kids, most of whom are minorities. The participants are between the ages of 8 and 12-years old. Each child gets a suit, cap, goggles, t-shirt, eight 45-minute lessons by certified YMCA instructors and high school varsity swimmers, snacks, and transportation to and from the pool, if needed.
According to the Center for Disease Control, approximately 10 people die from unintentional drowning each day. Drowning is the sixth leading cause of unintentional injury death for people of all ages, and the second leading cause of death for children under 14-years-old. Minority children are 3.2 times more likely to drown than Caucasian children.
Thanks to Andrew and Make A Spash, children are learning to swim who might have otherwise gone their entire lives without mastering this life-saving skill. Since the program’s inception 48 children have completed the program and an additional 100 are expected to complete lessons by June 2012.
In addition to providing swim lessons, Andrew’s program helps bridge the gap in his community between minority participants and the predominantly Caucasian volunteers, while providing the volunteers with an opportunity to share their love of swimming and give back to the community.
Andrew’s dedication to his community and devotion to spread awareness on the importance of water safety is what makes him a Daily Point of Light.
Cathy Glasheen
The RSVP Vision Screening Team of Milwaukee, Wis. has dedicated countless hours to screening preschool children throughout the community. The local office of Prevent Blindness closed due to lack of funding. The RSVP Vision Screening Team has stepped in to play an important role. The team has made five referrals for children to seek further evaluation at Prevent Blindness Wisconsin. Of those five children, three needed vision correction. Without this program these corrections might have gone undetected for several years.
Team member, Cathy Glasheen is responsible for calling local daycares, scheduling screenings and mobilizing members to give screenings. More than 12 million school-age children have some form of vision impairment. The RSVP Vision Screening Team provides a basic screening at no charge to help combat these issues at an earlier age. This is what makes Cathy and the RSVP Vision Screening Team Daily Points of Light.
Kids Care Club of the Armed Services YMCA Twentynine Palms
Kids Care Club of the Armed Services YMCA (ASYMCA) Twentynine Palms of California did incredible things in 2011. The children donated and decorated boxes for deployed Marines in Afghanistan and created cards, thanking them for their service to our country.
This year they also made pillows for Loma Linda Children’s Cancer center and took a trip to the local ASYMCA to help clean the playground. The club adopted grandparents from a local nursing home, where the children exchanged cards with the residents and did art projects. During Easter, the children made 24 Easter baskets for local children to help spread cheer.
The children are always asking what else they can do to help their community. This is what makes them all Daily Points of Light.
