Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic Community HealthCorps*AmeriCorps Members

Community HealthCorps*AmeriCorps members at the Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic alleviate poverty by improving the capacity of the clinic to provide quality health services and programs to medically underserved people in Toppenish, Washington.

Originally established as a provider of health care for migrant and seasonal farm workers, the Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic impacts the lives of thousands of adults and children each year by providing comprehensive medical, dental and social services in several Pacific Northwest communities without regard to an individual's ability to pay.

Yakima Valley’s Community HealthCorps*AmeriCorps members address health issues that affect the Toppenish community beyond the basics of medical care. AmeriCorps members support patients by providing chronic care home visits, health education, transitions of care services after hospital discharge, case management, interpreting, and access to prescription assistance programs. Each year, AmeriCorps members conduct over 600 home visits to educate patients about asthma and how to manage it, work with patients to complete over 1,200 applications to receive prescriptions for a reduced fee or free of charge, and partner with Habitat for Humanity to build homes in Yakima county for low- income families.

Additionally, AmeriCorps members plan and host annual days of service events for the community. For the past four years on Make a Difference Day in October, AmeriCorps members have assisted the Loving Sunnyside Initiative with cleaning up and painting homes of low-income, senior and handicapped residents in the Sunnyside Community. On Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, they collaborate with local community leaders and businesses to host a peace march and motivational speaker presentation for Toppenish. Moreover, for the past three years, they have joined with Seattle’s Sea Mar Community HealthCorps program during the national AmeriCorps week to hold a community health fair and service projects such as their 2013 graffiti-painting project in Toppenish.

The Community HealthCorps*AmeriCorps members at the Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic have been serving the community since 2004. They continue to make a difference in lives of the clinic’s patients and the community each day.

Alex Ricciardelli

At age 15, Alex Ricciardelli of Marblehead, Massachusetts, learned of an innovative opportunity for community service. In the nearby city of Lynn, the Lynn Community Health Center was promoting early childhood literacy right in its pediatric waiting room by asking volunteers to read aloud to children who had come to the Center for routine well-baby checkups. The program, called Reach Out and Read, immediately appealed to Ricciardelli, who soon became one of its most dedicated, energetic and imaginative volunteers. For two-and-a-half years, he has not only shown up weekly to read to kids, but has also recruited others from his high school to do the same, and once organized a drive that brought in 150 donated children’s books. This year, he took his volunteerism to a new level when he wrote and published his own children’s book in order to raise money for the Center.

“Alex is an amazing young man and a born problem-solver,” says Clare Hayes, who coordinates Reach Out and Read. “When he sees a need, he finds a way to help.”

The Lynn Community Health Center has more than 37,000 patients, including a high percentage from low-income and immigrant communities, where, statistically, children are often less likely to have exposure to books and reading at home. The Center launched Reach Out and Read in the 1990s because studies showed that children who are read to from infancy are better prepared to read and learn when they enter school.

“Our goal was to create a literacy-rich environment in the waiting room,” says Hayes. “Between the ages of six months and five years, most of our pediatric patients make 10 well-baby visits to the Health Center. When they come in, volunteers read aloud to them and they are given a book to take home. For many of the children, it’s their first exposure to reading, and they are usually delighted. Alex and our other volunteers, some of whom can read in languages other than English, are truly playing a critical role in these kids’ lives.”

Ricciardelli was inspired to write his own children’s book at a time when book donations at the Health Center had dropped off.

“They needed books, and I had enjoyed writing stories in school, so I decided to write my own and give the profits to the Center,” says Ricciardelli. “It needed pictures, so I found an experienced illustrator, Jill Dister, on Craigslist and hired her.”

His book, “A Small Tale: The Adventures of Melvin”—which is now available from Amazon.com—is about the problems, and advantages, of growing up short.

“I was a short kid back in the day, so it’s partly autobiographical,” says Ricciardelli. “You should read it; it’s the best book ever,” he adds jokingly.

Now 17, Ricciardelli is entering his senior year of high school, and wants to make sure that students from his alma mater continue to volunteer at the Health Center.

“I’m taking a course in social action next year, and the only requirement is to do three hours’ service work per week,” says Ricciardelli. “My friends and I are going to recruit as many students in the class as possible to do their service work at the Health Center. It will be a great experience for them. The children you read to get captivated by the stories, and when they find out they get to keep the book, they’re so surprised and grateful. It’s terrific.”

Natasha Thurmon

Teacher and coach Natasha Thurmon of Reisterstown, Maryland created the Mindful Mentors Planting Seeds program in September of 2012. Each day, she provides a mix of academic tutoring and physical fitness to 30 middle school student-athletes defined as at-risk of failure or dropping out of school. She runs her program during the academic year and during the summer.

Sandy Szymanski

Sandy Szymanski has dedicated many years of service to the Lehigh Acres community in Florida. She has served as a coordinator of cleanup programs for the Westminster Task Force working with the County Code Enforcement Department to cleanup blight. As result, Szymanski’s cleanup programs have removed more than 55 tons of trash from community streets.

Additionally, Szymanski assists with food collection and distribution to local families and seniors in need. She has helped families develop life skills such as teaching them to sew clothes out of old clothes, cooked for large families, and collected and assembled toiletries for nearly 400 homeless children in her community.

In July, the Kiwanis Club of Lehigh Acres recognized Szymanski and her husband George as a 2013 Home Town Hero.

Vivienne Harr

Last year, when she was only eight years old, Vivienne Harr saw a photo of two Nepalese children, burdened by large rocks tied to their backs, who were victims of child slavery. After learning from her parents that child slavery is common throughout many parts of the world, Harr became determined to make a difference. With support from her parents and school, she set up a lemonade stand and operated it for 365 consecutive days. In just the first six months, Harr was able to raise more than $100,000 for Not For Sale, an antislavery campaign.

Harr, who lives in Fairfax, California, usually set up the stand in her yard, in a nearby park, or in the town center of Fairfax. But sometimes, she persuaded her parents to take the lemonade stand on the road—and to expand the scope of her charitable donations. Earlier this year, the family traveled to Oklahoma, where Harr raised more than $1,000 for disaster relief in the wake of deadly tornados. On a trip to New York City, Harr donated her lemonade proceeds to a city fund set up to assist victims of Hurricane Sandy. Wherever she set up her stand, Harr never asked a set price for her lemonade—which is made from a family recipe dating back three generations. Instead, she just asked customers to “pay what’s in their hearts.”

“I didn’t know the project would be this much,” says Harr, who is now nine. “I just thought it would be a lemonade stand. But I couldn’t stop as long as I knew there was still slavery. I tell people that compassion is not compassion without action—it’s just feeling sorry for someone.”

“Vivienne is amazing,” says Alexandra Harr, Vivienne’s mother. “She blows me away. I’ve learned to just follow her lead. When you do good things, good things happen.”

“Vivienne has driven this every step of the way,” says Eric Harr, Vivienne’s father. “From the time she first told us she wanted to do something to fight child slavery, we told her she would have our support. We’ve kept our word, but Vivienne is determined and forward-thinking, so it has been a very surprising year for her mom and me.”

The surprises keep coming for Harr’s parents. On June 23 of this year, when Harr celebrated the 365th consecutive day of her stand’s operation, she told her parents that she wanted to continue her project by bottling the lemonade and selling it in stores. Her parents consented.

With help from her dad, Vivienne founded Make a Stand Lemon-Aid. Officially classified as a Social Purpose Company, Make a Stand Lemon-Aid now has a bottler—and 70 stores that have agreed to carry the product. Eric Harr partnered with Fair Trade USA in selecting suppliers for the ingredients. Fifty percent of all profits from Make a Stand Lemon-Aid will be donated to antislavery organizations, including UNICEF, Free the Slaves, and The International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labor.

“It’s very exciting to know we’ll be helping so many people,” says Harr. “It’s the greatest thing I’ve ever done.”

Chris Richardt

Chris Richardt of Cleveland, Ohio leads ongoing volunteer opportunities that meet community needs, strengthen community involvement, and build capacity of local non-profit organizations around the issues of homelessness and seniors. The projects Richardt leads supports the Cleveland Foodbank, the Garfield Heights Food Pantry, community centers in low-income areas, and seniors on the west side of Cleveland . He has helped to sort more than 30,000 pounds of meat distributed to local food pantries and community centers across Northeast Ohio.

Since July of 2011, Richardt has served over 475 hours of service at more than 200 projects across Northeast Ohio; this is an average of three volunteer projects per week. For the past two years, HandsOn Northeast Ohio has presented him with the Volunteer of the Year award.

Kitty Custer

Kitty Custer of Tacoma, Washington is a dedicated volunteer and advocate for seniors. Through Washington’s State Health Insurance Benefits Advisors program sponsored by South Sound Outreach, Custer volunteers her time to provide free, unbiased health coverage counseling about Medicare, Medicaid, and basic health to seniors. Not only is Custer dedicated to counseling seniors, she is also committed to fighting Medicare fraud and abuse through education.

Custer helps other volunteers by modeling best practices. She is respectful of all people and celebrates diversity in all of South Sound Outreach’s programs. She has helped coordinate more than 250 volunteers for their counseling events.