When a long-unused World War II victory garden in north Chicago – created to stave off a food shortage during the war – was converted into a community garden in 2010 by the nonprofit Peterson Garden Project, retiree Barbara Kirchner was one of the first to rent a plot.
Hear Barbara Kirchner talk about the joy of volunteer gardening. (Click image to watch video.)
She got to work planting vegetables, but she didn’t stop there.
Kirchner, who lived just across the alley, was so excited by the Peterson Garden Project that she became an almost daily volunteer: helping staff, greeting new gardeners, bringing snacks and iced tea, allowing construction workers to use power outlets at her home and even opening her home to anyone who needed to use the restroom.
Her enthusiasm and countless contributions quickly led the project’s founder and director, LaManda Joy, to proclaim Barbara Kirchner the “Garden Mom.”
“I didn’t know I’d get so involved,” says Kirchner. “But I had wished for years that the city would turn that old lot into a new garden or a park. It was like an answered prayer when the garden project opened, and I just gradually began spending more and more time there, doing anything I could to lend a hand.”
Barbara Kirchner
Kirchner also helped to tend the garden’s large Grow2Give plot, a section set aside to provide fresh vegetables to the city’s food pantries. Grow2Give has produced thousands of pounds of food since the Peterson Garden Project’s first year.
While the original garden site was forced to close in 2012, fortunately by then the Peterson Garden Project had expanded to five new locations – including a workplace garden for employees at Chicago’s prestigious Field Museum.
Kirchner has continued as a regular volunteer, helping with Peterson Garden Project exhibits and shows throughout the city.
“I was sad, of course, when the first garden closed,” says Kirchner. “But I’m more involved with the project than ever. And I can’t believe how the Peterson Garden Project transformed our neighborhood. Before 2010, the people on my block didn’t know each other. We all met through the garden. And now we’re a neighborhood of good friends.”
Cyndi Nguyen
Cyndi Nguyen serves as the co-founder and executive director of the first Vietnamese nonprofit organization targeting the Vietnamese community in Louisiana (Vietnamese Initiatives in Economic Training – VIET). Nguyen spearheads the New Orleans efforts at VIET, which works to develop educational and economic training programs and act as a resource center for minority residents in Louisiana. VIET was created in 2001 to help mainstream the minority communities into the American society and the organization also serves as a bridge to help fill gaps for working families. Through her work and involvement in serving communities, she stands out as a humble civic individual with continuous and restless efforts to rebuild her community.
The organization is so deeply rooted in the community that they are involved in some way in nearly everything. When Nguyen started VIET in 2001, one of the first issues they addressed was creating the “Afterschool Academy” to ensure that children from grades Pre-K – 8 had a safe and structured environment after school hours. Currently, the program serves 350 children every day. In 2002, she spearheaded the creation of VIET’s Summer Adventure program, which is one of the longest-running active programs in New Orleans with Nguyen managing to keep the program in place even in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
VIET provides a family resource and assistance program to provide technical assistance, counseling and referral assistance to families in the area, including classes on English as a second language and classes to help guide parents through the local school district education process. VIET maintains a fitness program for seniors in the area, provides free tax preparation for low-income tax payers, citizenship assistance services, translating and interpreting services, assistance with food-stamp programs – the list is nearly endless. More than anything, Nguyen and VIET are champions for the Michoud neighborhood in New Orleans, which is frequently overlooked as an area in need of governmental and non-governmental resources.
Emma Leuschen
Emma Leuschen has fulfilled all the expectations of her High School Service Program’s mission statement. Her fundraising efforts with Donate A Life, the American Cancer Society, the Ronald McDonald House and Walk-A-Thons have raised needed funds for research, care and compassion for those in dire need of assistance. Her efforts have impacted the southcentral Pennsylvania region and all those who have been connected with needed assistance in the areas of her contributions.
Leuschen has pulled more than her weight in inspiring others to volunteer and has assisted the program as a contributing volunteer, student director and student coordinator the past four years. She has assisted the more than 21,000 residents in her township and the more than 2,500 students in her school district with the various volunteer works she has completed.
Her community involvement has been extraordinary for a young lady. To name a few, she assisted in setting up a promotion booth to hand-cut brochures containing information regarding kidney transplants and organ donation for Donate a Life/Kidney Foundation, as a member of the Junior National Honors Society she proposed and managed a dance-a-thon that raised $4,000 for the American Cancer Society, during the summer of 2009 and presently she assisted the Visiting Nurses Association setting up booths to reflect the work of nurses and the need for nurses. She volunteered to assist with the East Pennsboro Elementary Field Day and to help with the West Creek Hills Elementary Field Day. She is a member of Kallan’s Klan to help pediatric cancer victims. She is presently organizing a fundraiser/memorial for a fellow classmate who was in cyber-school and recently passed away and is a member of Levi’s Love to assist with fundraising for the cystic fibrosis organization. The list goes on and on.
Mackenzie Greer
Mackenzie Greer began by working as a volunteer counselor at the American Cancer Society’s pediatric cancer weekend Camp Reach for the Stars, as a logistical supporter for the annual gala and a leader for the quarterly Day At The Ranch pediatric cancer day camp. In 2011 she formed an American Cancer Society Youth Club at Oak Park High School and recruited dozens of teens to support teens with cancer. While visiting Ventura County Medical Center Pediatric Oncology Department with an American Cancer Society representative, she noticed a need and formed her own project called, “Fashion with Compassion.”
Greer noted that there were multiple services available for children with cancer but there was virtually nothing that addressed the unique needs of adolescents and older teens going through cancer treatment. Teens who had lost their hair, who suffered compromised bodies and whose families were struggling to meet the medical costs of these treatment had few, if any, resources to purchase new and stylish clothing, clothing that would help them fit in as these teens tried to return to school.
Reaching out to several well-known clothing manufacturers, Greer wrote letters outlining the need and requested donations of beanies, hats, backpacks and outerwear. She included a donation form and asked that any donations be sent to the Ventura office of the American Cancer Society.
Much to her surprise, shipments totaling more than $25,000 have been received to date of name brand clothing suited to the teen market. The generous donations from Greer’s project have been shared with not only VCMC, but cancer centers in Santa Barbara and Oxnard, and some items will be given to patients attending the pediatric cancer camps. An additional 11 oncology hospitals across the country have been reached and more than 800 patients have received donations.
Michaela West
Michaela West has been co-presenting safety awareness programs since she was 4-years-old. Last summer at 5-years-old she started taking the lead and teaching children the response techniques to recognize danger. She invented the character of SuperKid that protects kids by give them the power to protect themselves through knowledge, not fighting, manipulation or weaponry. She also taught self-defense techniques and Kung Fu to at -risk children during a six week summer camp program held at the Good Knight Enchanted Kingdom's Castle headquarters location.
One of the main difficulties she faced were having adults take her seriously. The kids loved her as soon as she stepped onto the stage. She captured their attention and woke up their imagination so they could learn and retain the information. She overcame the difficulty of the adults not taking her seriously by not giving up. As soon as the adults started to listen to the words coming out of her mouth instead of just seeing her age they knew she was addressing serious issues like bullying, abduction and crime against children.
Bethany Komie
In 2009, Bethany Komine viewed a live presentation of "Rachel's Challenge" and was deeply affected by its message of showing kindness and compassion to fellow students. "Rachel's Challenge," named for Rachel Scott the first student killed in the 1999 Columbine High School shooting, calls on a student body to actively show kindness, inclusiveness and respect and to implement anti-bullying practices. Komine was one of the first students to be nominated to participate in the "Friends of Rachel" club and be a "Rachel's Trainer" from its inception at the Medfield High School in 2009.
Komine has made a personal commitment to the values of “Rachel’s Challenge” in and outside of the “Friends of Rachel” club. She has worked hard to integrate the club’s mission of friendship, compassion and kindness into the Medfield High School student body and outside the club with peers on a one-on-one basis who have struggled to find a place to belong or adjust to a new environment. She is a natural leader in social groups and has taken this position to heart by trying to be a positive role model for others by leading through example.
The “Feel Good Festival” is the “Friends of Rachel” club’s largest annual event, held to show the Medfield community positive things teens are doing and to promote happiness and kindness. For two years, Komine has been actively involved in planning and marketing for the event and has been the co-coordinator for the festival’s music line-up.
Additionally, through the “Friends of Rachel” club’s sponsorship, Komine has also been very active in encouraging, participating and performing in the high school Library’s “Showcase Café.” This monthly event, gives musical students an opportunity to perform individually for their peers. The event builds self-confidence for the student performers, but also gives students in the audience an opportunity to see their peers in a new way and de-stress through music, food and social interaction during their school day
ExxonMobil Community Involvement Through Employees
ExxonMobil Community Involvement Through Employees (ExC!TE) was founded in 1992 by a group of employees with a desire to support worthwhile community organizations and projects in our area. ExC!TE is aimed at enriching the quality of life in the Baton Rouge area through volunteer involvement. The group offers a variety of volunteer projects to ExxonMobil Baton Rouge area employees, retirees, their family members and friends. These community projects are supported by both individual and group volunteerism.
ExC!TE has partnered with numerous organizations to address a variety of social and educational issues in our community. These include monthly food sorting at the Baton Rouge Food Bank, monthly recycling with the local recycling office, assisting with registration for a local minority cancer awareness screening event, manning the children's village at Louisiana Earth Day, building homes with Habitat for Humanity, participation in United Way Day of Action events and much, much more.
During the last 20 years, more than 15,300 ExxonMobil employees, retirees, and their families completed more than 1300 local ExC!TE projects totaling more than 65,000 hours of volunteerism in the Baton Rouge area. In addition to their volunteer time, employees and their immediate families are earning matching grant dollars through the ExxonMobil Foundation’s Volunteer Involvement Program (VIP). Last year, $715,000 was generated in VIP grants for many local organizations. These volunteers provide invaluable experience and enthusiasm to help a wide variety of area non-profits plan and execute direct service and fund raising activities. These organizations have come to depend on these capable, committed volunteers to ensure the success of their programs, activities and events. As a result, more can be done with less. More clients can be directly impacted and more funds raised to support missions, ranging from supporting the arts to helping to meet basic human needs across the Baton Rouge area.
The group functions with a working employee board of directors, bylaws and a project nomination and evaluation process. Training is provided for volunteer project leaders and projects are selected from a variety of qualified non-profit 501(c)3 organizations and local schools. They are extremely organized and professional and serve as exemplary community ambassadors for our company.
While time off is provided by the company in support of volunteerism, the majority of these projects occurs on weekends. These caring folks give generously of their free time to support the missions and programs that are most important to them — and they have been doing it for 20 years! They demonstrate through their actions that everyone can make a difference. Their commitment and selflessness is an inspiration to their fellow employees, family, friends and the entire community.
Alanna Wall
When Alanna Wall was just 10 she started Polished Girlz, a nonprofit devoted to the health and well-being of girls with special needs or frequent hospitalizations. During fun “nail parties” the girls get their nails painted in bright colors and glitter, as they learn about the importance of hand washing to limit the spread of germs.
“I think my favorite part is getting to see the girls’ faces when we get done, doing super-cool nail art, and how excited they are,” Alanna told Ellen Degeneres recently on Degeneres’ talk show. (Click here to watch the segment.)
Through Polished Girlz, Alanna has created a culture of service among young people in her community and greater respect for children with special diagnoses.
Alanna’s clients include the Children’s Medical Center, Down Syndrome Association and Muscular Dystrophy Association. The nonprofit is scheduled to serve two of the three largest Ronald McDonald Charity Houses in the country.
Alanna encourages children who believe they are too young to make a difference to get out in the community and serve the less fortunate, changing the lives of their neighbors and ultimately their own for the better.
Paul Dillon has been a volunteer with the Surprise Fire Department Crisis Response (CR) Program for 10 years, providing field training to new CR volunteers. Dillon was the CR maintenance person who oversaw the equipment needs for the CR program. This involved communicating and documenting maintenance needs of the CR van, radios and other pertinent equipment. This role also involved solutions to problems in a timely manner. Dillon addresses needs within the community by assisting in ensuring crisis intervention is provided to people on emergency scenes.
The CR progam functions at a higher level of service because of Dillon’s storage bin design which allows the van to contain items that have been found to be very needed on emergency scenes. His experience on calls helps his fellow team members learn how to handle difficult situations and how to process calls once service is provided.
Robert W. Cradle
Master Barber Robert W. Cradle provides grooming services and products free of charge to homeless children and adults. He installs and operates full-service barber/beauty salons in local homeless shelters, trains foster parents on how to groom children of all races and provides needed grooming supplies to families.
Since March of 2000, local homeless shelters have been reporting to Cradle that 100 percent of the clients that they serve could not afford to attend the local barber or beauty salon. Therefore, they are typically ill-prepared for job interviews, employment and school. Cradle has reduced the problem creating a organization that raises funds to install full-service barber/beauty salons in local homeless shelters. This enables Cradle, volunteer professionals, and the clients themselves to have access to the equipment and products it takes to maintain a neat and clean appearance for their job interviews, employment and school.
Since Cradle created the organization in March of 2000, more than 18,000 grooming services to 6,400 individuals who cannot afford their regular personal care received haircuts, hairstyles and/or grooming products.
