Laurie Hood discovered countless animals were being euthanized due to the lack of a no-kill shelter/adoption organization in the Walton County area. Hood formed Alaqua Animal Refuge in 2007. Since that time, Alaqua Animal Refuge has helped find homes for thousands of animals. Currently, up to 100 animals are adopted per month from this unique rescue facility, which serves as a true refuge for more than 250 animals at any given time.
Starting his freshman year of high school in 2012, Luke Donovan of Alpharetta, Ga., learned that the number of local students relying on free school lunch programs was on the rise – 90 percent in some schools. Luke figured he’d start a food drive for a local school. But after talking to the principal of Mimosa Elementary School in the Atlanta suburb of Roswell, he learned that with winter approaching, the students really needed warm clothing.
That’s all Luke needed to hear. He founded the Warm Clothing Drive with the St. Vincent de Paul club at his school, Blessed Trinity Catholic High School in Roswell; the club develops volunteer projects to serve others. Luke set about contacting schools, churches and individuals to solicit donations of winter clothes for students at Mimosa Elementary.
With some transportation help from his parents and delivery assistance from the St. Vincent de Paul club, Luke collected almost 300 winter clothing items in his first drive. Mimosa Elementary set up its own thrift shop and distributed the clothes to students just before its 2012 Thanksgiving break. Every item was claimed.
In 2013, after learning that Mimosa students needed clothes for other seasons as well, Luke launched a second drive in April for summer clothes and collected 700 items.
“Anyone can make a difference if you really try your hardest,” says Luke, who collected almost 1,000 items during his freshman year. “Once I realized how much need there was so close to where we live, I thought, ‘How could you not do something about it?’”
This past fall, Luke – now 16 – expanded the Warm Clothing Drive to serve a second school, Roswell North Elementary. This month, he delivered more than 850 winter clothing items to Mimosa and Roswell North – almost tripling last winter’s total.
Mary Jo DiLonardo, Luke’s mother, is proud of his efforts.
“I am amazed,” says DiLonardo. “I don’t think he thought it would skyrocket into such a big project that would help so many kids and their families. But I can tell, when we drop off the clothes, that he is really moved by what he has accomplished and can’t wait to get started again. Luke has a wonderful heart and is a really great kid.”
Looking to the future, Luke is optimistic that once he graduates high school and goes on to college, others will step up to keep the clothing drives going.
“I think the St. Vincent de Paul group at my school will continue collecting warm clothes,” Luke says. “Roswell North has asked us to mentor some of their students, so I think this will be a continuing relationship.”
At 75 years young, Whitey Smith of Rogers, Arkansas is known for saying "I do it for the kids."
In high school, Smith played football for the Rogers High School Mountaineers. Although he graduated in 1956, he continues his involvement to this day with the Mountaineers sports programs.
Immediately after graduating, Smith began his volunteer work with the Mountaineers by working the chains on the sidelines at home football games. He did this for three years before moving up to the press box where he kept score, ran the clock, and kept stats for “his” team. Smith continued to run the clock for the next 46 years. In those 46 years, he rarely missed a football game, home and away, as he would travel to watch his team. During these same 46 years, Smith also volunteered in the gym, keeping the stats and running the game clock for the basketball teams.
Furthermore, just after Smith graduated high school, someone needed a fundraiser, a kid’s sports team. Hearing of the need, Smith arranged a “chicken cook.” He set up a 47-foot long cinder block pit to cook donated chicken halves. Once cooked, the sports team sold the chicken roadside. Smith did not charge for cooking, he did not ask for a dime. All the money raised went to the sports team. Thus, began Smith’s weekly chicken cook fundraisers.
Now, some 50 years later, you can still find Smith, and his chicken-cooking crew, early on Saturday mornings firing up the pit and preparing to cook 300 to 500 donated chicken halves. His "Whitey's Chicken" has become a local favorite meal for people on Saturday mornings, and his chicken cooks have become as a fundraisers for several community groups in Rodgers including school sports teams, scholarship funds, and Boy Scout troops. Smith has even help to raise money to offset medical expenses for community members. In 2001, it was estimated Smith had helped raise over one million dollars for various groups in Rogers.
In the 1960s, Rogers was a small town. Jobs were mostly farming and ranching and money was tight. Kid’s sports and activities needed funding. Sports uniforms and equipment were expensive. That is when Smith stepped up to raise money for such endeavors. Even now, with a population right around 60,000, funding for such items as uniforms, equipment, and camps, are still hard for the schools and community groups to budget.
Smith is a champion of kids and an outstanding neighbor to the City of Rogers. He has coached little league baseball and football teams for more than 20 years. The local chamber of commerce has recognized Smith and the Rotary Club has honored him with its Harris award. In addition, the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association recognized him with an Unsung Hero award that included two monetary prizes, one for an organization of his choice, and the other to Smith. In Smith’s fashion, he donated both of them to the Rogers School system's athletic fund.
Smith has proven to Rogers that you can accomplish anything when people come together for a cause. In Smith's case, the cause is youth and school sports. By Smith providing fundraising for these different groups, they are involved, as they know it takes teamwork.
Each week for the past six years, Marilyn Serrano volunteers at PS/MS 57 James Weldon Johnson Leadership Academy in New York. Serrano, along with the help of her family, serves the academy by building a strong relationship between the school and the community.
Serrano serves the parents and school community in various ways, including providing additional assistance and support to staff in the building and on trips, working with local businesses and nonprofits to build community partnerships, participating in the parent teacher associations, and representing parents at a district level. For example, this year, she engaged more than 50 parents to participate in school wide events and to support parent/home connections as well as recruited 50 parents in voting for our school to receive new laptops, which the school acquired.
Serrano is a humble leader whose goal is to serve the school. She enjoys working behind the scenes to ensure that goals are met and students receive the best the community has to offer.
Taylor Leong has spent the past eight years serving sick-disadvantaged youth in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
When Leong was seven, her best friend, Erika, was diagnosed with cancer. Leong knew she could not take the cancer away, but worked hard to help bring a smile to her friend’s face. Leong would make homemade gifts and deliver them to her. Once Erika started feeling better, she spoke of the joy Leong’s visits and gifts brought, and the two girls decided to create their own toy drive; their mission was to visit with other children at local hospitals and provide gifts.
Unfortunately, Erika passed away two weeks before their first delivery was to start; it was at this time that Taylor decided to continue with her mission, and created "For the Love of Erika."
Now at the age of 14, Leong has since expanded her toy drive. She works hard to bring joy to more than 8,000 children and families through her annual holiday toy drive, holiday parties, and visitations to children at local hospitals and shelters. Additionally, Leong supports other organizations that help disadvantaged children, including participating in the annual Boston Marathon Jimmy Fund Walk and donating her hair to Locks of Love and a non-profit that provides hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children suffering from long-term medical hair loss.
Over the years, Leong has enlisted the help of her family, friends, schools, community, and other local businesses to support her drive. She has collected more than $170,000 worth of toys that she has personally donated to six hospitals and 15 shelters throughout Massachusetts and New Hampshire. She has worked with local businesses to host two holiday parties for six homeless shelters. Additionally, Leong has financially supported the victims of the tornadoes in Massachusetts, by raising $2,000, which she personally delivered to families hardest hit.
The Harvest House Committee, a subset of Valley United Way's Corporate Volunteer Council, tackles hunger by collecting food in a unique way throughout Shelton, Connecticut.
The Committee organizes food drives in the corporate community each month. Moreover, every two years they extend those efforts and construct a house made out of food by joining forces with the community and local corporate and nonprofit partners to collect 100,000 items of food.
Local corporate partners who are members of the Corporate Volunteer Council conceived of the project, including one of the members, an architectural firm, developed the designs for the original house. Looking for ways to engage others in the community, the Committee turned over the design and construction of the fourth Harvest House to faculty and students at a local technical school.
Additionally, the Committee invites the entire community to participate in the actual building of the house by bringing their food items and placing them on the walls. As a result, an entire community festival has grown around the building of the house, which stands as a symbol of the community's caring and sharing. After two days, the Committee dismantles the house and distributes all the food collected to area food banks. With each house built, the project engages more than 30 corporations, hundreds of employees, area high schools, a youth leadership program, and hundreds of community members to collect 100,000 food items.
This year, marks the eighth year for the Harvest House, and the Committee has done remarkable work in spotlighting an important community issue and working to resolve it. As just one of the unique projects conducted by Valley United Way's Corporate Volunteer Council, it has harnessed the good corporate citizenship of area corporations for the benefit of the entire community.
Meet Jim McIngvale, who was awarded today’s Daily Point of Light Award in Houston by President George H. W. Bush, Points of Light’s founder, and Neil Bush, chair of Points of Light’s board. Read McIngvale’s story and nominate someone you know as a Daily Point of Light.
He’s known as “Mattress Mack” for his successful furniture business, but it’s Jim McIngvale’s longtime commitment to public education, military personnel, natural disaster victims and programs supporting those in need that has endeared him to fellow Houstonians.
In 2000, McIngvale began his most personal service mission when his daughter Elizabeth – 13 at the time – was diagnosed with severe obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). For more than a year, Elizabeth had been hiding behaviors such as compulsive hand-washing from her family and friends. Elizabeth was admitted to the Menninger Clinic in Topeka, Kan.
As Elizabeth slowly began her recovery, McIngvale devoted himself to supporting her and other OCD sufferers, raising public awareness of OCD and donating millions of dollars to organizations devoted to treatment and prevention of mental health disorders. He began ongoing support of the Menninger Clinic, including a multimillion-dollar donation that helped the clinic relocate to Houston.
In 2006, as she continued to get better, Elizabeth became the first spokesperson for what is now the International OCD Foundation. That same year, the McIngvales created the Peace of Mind Foundation to provide support and resources to OCD sufferers and to educate the public about the condition. Subsequently, the family launched a website for OCD sufferers, ocdchallenge.com. Elizabeth ultimately attended college, earning her master’s degree, and is now a Ph.D. candidate.
“We believe Elizabeth has been instrumental in helping move towards the removal of the stigma associated with mental illness,” says McIngvale. “We see more awareness, understanding and acceptance of those with mental illness of all kinds. We definitely see many who personally reach out to us, either as sufferers or caregivers.”
McIngvale also has a special interest in public education – particularly in helping students in low-income areas of Houston. In 1992, he assisted actor and former karate champion Chuck Norris in funding KICKSTART KIDS at four Houston middle schools. The program uses martial arts training and personal guidance to help kids avoid drugs and gang participation, and encourages students to remain in school and attend college. McIngvale continues to support KICKSTART KIDS, which is active in 40 middle schools and has served more than 70,000 students throughout Texas.
“The program is great as it teaches discipline, a good work ethic and gives the kids great mentors,” says McIngvale. “It has changed many kids’ lives and made a real difference to so many, and the most impressive thing is how the staff members and instructors dedicate themselves to these kids.”
In 1994, McIngvale provided startup funding for Houston’s Knowledge Is Power Program, known as KIPP, a nonprofit that helps students from low-income households develop the academic skills and character traits necessary to graduate from high school, attend college and succeed professionally. Nationally, KIPP is a network of 141 public charter schools serving 50,000 students.
McIngvale has also furnished USO facilities around the world and provided furniture to thousands of veterans and victims of Hurricane Katrina; provided housing for several hundred Katrina evacuees; bought and distributed 10,000 holiday toys for children in need; and provided Thanksgiving dinner for thousands of people.
McIngvale says his commitment to community service is grounded in family and faith.
“First, my father was a shining example of giving,” he explains. “He taught us to care about others. Second, my greatest satisfaction, outside of my children and family, is seeing the faces of children and adults when they receive services or needs. I have been so greatly blessed in my life and feel you owe helping others while you can.”
Marian Gallipo (Grandma Marian) serves at Lincoln Elementary School in Aberdeen, South Dakota to improve student-reading scores through extra one-on-one and small group assistance and support.
Grandma Marian is a member of the Volunteers of America, Dakotas’ Foster Grandparent program, which provides community service opportunities for seniors to work one-on-one with children giving them individual attention to promote physical, social, emotional and mental growth. The Foster Grandparent program has had an ongoing relationship with Lincoln Elementary since 1974. Grandma Marian became a Foster Grandparent on October 1, 2005 and has volunteered at Lincoln Elementary the entire eight years that she has been involved with the program.
As a Foster Grandparent, Grandma Marian serves as a role model, mentor, and friend to children with exceptional needs, thereby allowing her to stay active by serving youth at Lincoln Elementary School. She works with students identified by the classroom teacher as needing assistance to improve their reading, and focuses on reading and literacy skills using games, worksheets, reading and writing assignments, and books supplied by the teacher.
The assistance that Grandma Marian provides to the students empowers them to do their best, and helps them develop the skills, confidence and strengths to succeed in life.
Over the years, Grandma Marian has consistently worked with students to improve their academic skills. The students and teachers she works with as well as the Foster Grandparent staff and fellow grandparents love her.
In 2011, Grandma Marian received a President’s Volunteer Service Award for volunteering over 4,000 hours during her lifetime. In May of 2013, she participated in the first-ever Mayors Day of Recognition for National Service along with Aberdeen’s Mayor, Mike Levsen, who read to first graders at Lincoln Elementary School.
Alex Gramling says a “Christmas miracle” inspired him to found an all-volunteer organization that in three years has provided more than 1,500 Christmas trees, stands, and ornaments to needy families in four states.
The miracle began in December 2010 when Gramling, a marketing executive who lives in Newburyport, Mass., discovered an artificial Christmas tree stored in his basement. His family no longer used it, so he listed it on a local website devoted to recycling.
To Gramling’s surprise, the tree was claimed by a woman who explained that because she was going through financial difficulties, she couldn’t afford a Christmas tree that year. When she picked it up, she brought along her two children, who were excited by the good fortune they had happened upon.
“I never expected someone to claim it out of need,” says Gramling. “It completely changed my perspective and showed me the value of a Christmas tree. We were in the middle of a recession, and I figured there were hundreds or even thousands of families who needed Christmas trees. I decided right then and there that this was a problem I was going to take on.”
In early 2011, Gramling founded Christmas Tree Santas with the single mission of spreading “holiday hope and joy by giving Christmas trees to families in need.” Two business colleagues based in Gramling’s hometown of Atlanta, Bob Bailey and Ted Justiss, joined him as board members.
Christmas Tree Santas purchases live Fraser fir trees between five and seven feet high from a wholesaler in Canada. The group relies on the Salvation Army and a network of smaller social service agencies to identify families in need of trees. The agencies provide families with Christmas tree vouchers and information on where and when the Christmas Tree Santas giveaway will take place.
Giveaway day, whether held in a church or school parking lot or at a farm, is always a festive affair. Santa Claus is usually present, and large numbers of volunteers from the community show up to distribute trees, stands and ornaments, to help place trees in or on cars, and to make merry with recipient families.
“It’s like a big, one-day Christmas party,” says Gramling. “Everybody gets into the spirit of the occasion, and the kids are always very excited to see the trees they get to take home.”
In its first year, Christmas Tree Santas held giveaways in Newburyport and Atlanta. In 2012, after Hurricane Sandy struck, Bailey—a New Jersey native—suggested doing something to help victims, and a Newark giveaway was launched. This year, the group expanded to its fourth state by holding a giveaway in Charlotte, N.C.
Christmas Tree Santas raises funds directly in the community, at its website, and from a growing network of social media supporters at Facebook and Twitter. It has also received generous in-kind contributions from corporations such as Jack-Post, which has donated more than 1,000 tree stands. In addition, Gramling says hundreds of community members—individually or through churches, schools, and organizations such as the Cub Scouts, Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts—have volunteered by assisting with tree giveaways, making ornaments and donating lights.
“It’s a humbling experience,” says Gramling. “None of it would be possible without our volunteers and donors—and especially the agencies who refer families to us. And it’s personally rewarding. I’m a parent. I think about the experience of my own family at Christmas. To be able to give even a small part of that experience to other families is heartwarming.”
In 2010, Sarah Dewitz of Orlando, FL founded Just 1 Book at the age of 10. After reading an article about a local community, Bithlo FL, going through hard times she thought that if they did not have money to pay utility bills, then they would not have enough money to buy books for their children.
Dewitz, an avid reader, could not imagine not having books to read. Thus, she wrote a proposal and presented it to her school principal. She proposed the school hold a book drive and collect a gently used book from each of the student’s home library, which would allow them to donate 763 books to the Bithlo community center. By the end of the drive, they had collected 15,000 books.
Additionally, Dewitz’s family arranged to have Lowes build bookshelves and Sherman Williams donate paint. After painting the bookshelves, Dewitz and her family set up a reading room in the community center where children can take home as many books as they like.
Orange County donated a bookmobile and now Dewitz and her family, with the help of Florida Kiwanis, arrange book drives in schools and book distributions throughout Florida.
Over the past three years, Just 1 Book has collected and distributed over 150,000 books in central Florida. Dewitz’s goal is to help organize children through Just 1 Book to collect and distribute books in their own communities all over the US.