Parth Chopra
Parth believes Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) are the driving forces in the advancement of our society. Therefore, he founded Project BEST (Building Excitement for Science and Technology), a student-led, non-profit organization dedicated to providing students with education, enrichment, and a joy in learning and understanding the exciting science and technology advances happening around us. Parth has led Project BEST to create eight different chapters at middle school locations all around Northern Virginia. These chapters meet regularly every other week and conduct STEM sessions provided by Project BEST. In addition to his work in creating chapters, Parth created a regional STEM conference called Science Innovation and Inspiration Youth Conference (ScI2YC) that brings together middle school students from eight different schools for a daylong event. The event allows students to immerse in STEM for a whole day and hear from professional researchers and CEOs in the STEM field. Parth has changed the community by helping create a new generation of STEM-centric students that will have the passion to pass high school and excel in college.
Michael Richard
Michael saw the growing childhood obesity problem, and in fact overcame a weight problem as a young child. He decided to do something about it and used his own money to create a Double Dutch Jump Rope Program at two middle schools with about 70% free or reduced lunch demographics. The Double Dutch Jump Rope Program has been a rousing success. It runs at the two middle schools in Fitchburg, Massachusetts and is popular with the students Michael and Dennis not only conduct the Jump Rope portion, they also serve as positive male role models to the participants. The young students get physical activity, and they get to discuss healthy living and the importance of education from these excellent high school students.
Rick Kelson
Rick Kelson attended his first meeting as a member of the KaBOOM! Board of Advisors in 2008 and from that moment, his incredible work ethic, passion, leadership and commitment help propel the organization in achieving new heights in realizing its vision of a great place to play within walking distance of every child in America. Since joining the board, Rick has helped KaBOOM! guide communities across North America in building more than 750 playgrounds with more than 150,000 volunteers with those playgrounds serving 1.2 million children. Via our online tools, thousands of additional communities have built playgrounds across the world, and Rick deserves a significant amount of credit for KaBOOM!’s enormous global impact in these last four-plus years. His unwavering commitment to KaBOOM! stems from the simple fact that he has always been a family man. As the former CFO of a Fortune 50 company, Rick could serve on nearly any board of any corporation or non-profit in the country, but he chooses to devote his time and talent to KaBOOM! because he understands the importance of play in the development of children and wants to help ensure that every child has access to a safe and engaging play space.
Ellen Brown Landers
Ellen Brown’s leadership, wisdom, generosity and dedication are what make her an indispensable member of the Boards of Directors for the Georgia Justice Project. In 2008, the Georgia Justice Project began facing substantial organizational challenges when the economy took a sharp downturn. Ellen spearheaded the charge to safeguard the Georgia Justice Project’s viability and sustainability. Through this time, she consistently leveraged her talents and vast community contacts to turn the organization around and ensure that it was able to keep its doors open to offer free legal, social, and employment services to the community.
Kelsey Sigman
Madeline Bethea
Madeline Bethea started Stuffed with Love in 2006 when she became involved with a youth development organization that required community service. At the age of five, Madeline found there to be limited opportunities for youth her age to engage in community service opportunities. . No one had a place for her on their project because she was "too young," therefore she started her own project. As a result, she founded Stuffed with Love, which takes gently loved stuffed animals, cleans them up, and donates them to those in need of a new fried.
Six year later, she has collected, cleaned and given away over 4,500 stuffed animals to nursing home residents, ill children in hospitals, and emergency first responders. Madeline has expanded her project to include younger girls. She accepts girls aged five and up to be on her team where her mantra is, "Even little people can give big!"
Life Enhancement Through Education in Music
Katy is a junior at Central Valley High School in Spokane Valley, Washington, and is passionate about music, leadership, soccer, and academics. After high school, she hopes to attend Harvard or Stanford and pursue medicine or social entrepreneurship. Below she describes how and why her and her friend Philip Howard created Life Enhancement Through Education in Music:
One day on the bus on the way to a band trip, my friend Philip Howard and I were trying to find a way to make a difference, and the rest is history. That day, we decided to combine our passions for music and community service and create Life Enhancement Through Education in Music, or LETEM play.
Our organization was founded because our musical experiences changed our lives – from the constant camaraderie in the band program to the lessons on dedication and teamwork, we felt that music should be part of every child’s life. From a personal perspective, band has really made me the person that I am. I never realized how important that one period per school day would be, but the memories I have made in my band room will stick with me forever. As I gained positions of leadership in our band program, including Drum Major of our award-winning marching band, I learned so much about the great game of life – I truly believe that music is the only way I would have experienced these lessons. I could speak for hours about the benefits of music, and that is what I realized when we came up with the idea for LETEM, which aims to solve a crucial problem: as we have experienced, music can be extremely expensive. Costs can range upwards of $1,000, especially when instruments have to be purchased.
LETEM works to make it easier for kids to be involved in music, regardless of financial status. We receive donated instruments from the general public, repair them for free through a unique partnership with a local music store, and distribute them to kids who have applied. Our application is simple, only requiring confirmation of free/reduced lunch status and participation in some sort of music program. Thus far, 100% of applicants have received an instrument, and we have distributed $10,000 of musical equipment through our community.
Our organization has also evolved to include an outreach aspect, and we now teach clinics and make speeches throughout the community. Notable projects have included helping to build a curriculum in a first-year charter school in our area – kids at this school were the recipients of hands-on training from high school volunteer musicians, and their teacher received advice on building his music program.
This summer, we are excited to debut a weekly music program at a local youth recreation center, which will make music fun both for younger kids who don’t play an instrument and older ones who do. LETEM has become a diverse organization that explores many paths, but we always stick to one central mission – bringing music to this community. Our experiences have taught us how important music is, both to individuals and the world, and we will work tirelessly to show others the power of our favorite passion.
Janice Crawford
Janice Crawford serves as the Executive Director of the Mt. Washington Valley Chamber of Commerce. She has managed to see continual growth in the Chamber while successfully battling breast cancer twice. As an advocate for women and breast cancer, she has created a fund for under-insured women to receive free health screenings.
Additionally, Janice is passionate about supporting a young professional community, understanding that youth making a life in the Valley is important for its longevity. She has created and facilitated Leadership Mt. Washington Valley, which is a 6-month program in which she helps mentor young professionals to become civic leaders in our town.
Apart from sitting on the board for the Mt. Washington Valley Chamber of Commerce, she is on the board of trustees for the Memorial Hospital and the White Mountain Community Health Center.
Kyle Ruffin
Kyle Ruffin’s commitment to the work of nonprofits is stellar. As a board member of the Hispanic Family Center for more than five years, Kyle consistently pursues big and important board ideas persistently and with a solid presentation followed by her own time and talent dedicated to bringing the idea to fruition. Additionally, she serves on the board of a new nonprofit in South Jersey: The Community Foundation of South Jersey. With that organization, she has also spearheaded the work of several committees.
Her work crosses many nonprofit organizations often creating connections where none existed. Although her paid work is marketing and consulting, her volunteerism is full of many hours of unpaid labor to improve the work of the nonprofit community. She is a true shining star as a nonprofit board member and gives of her time selflessly but not foolishly; always with the goal of improving the work of the organization she serves and pushing them to pursue their mission.
Terry Grahl
Terry Grahl founded Enchanted Makeovers, a national non-profit organization whose mission is to transform long-term stay homeless shelters for women and children into places that inspire behavioral and psychological change.
Terry started out as an award-winning decorator with her own business just outside of Detroit. One day, she received a call from an event coordinator at a Detroit homeless shelter asking for her assistance in improving the deteriorated shelter by painting the walls. Terry’s initial visit to the homeless shelter changed her life. Immediately, she realized the shelter’s problems went well beyond paint and bedspreads. She realized it lacked the message that everyone is worthy of more than just the bare necessities and basic needs.
Terry’s visit to the shelter moved her so much so that she took a leap of faith and founded Enchanted Makeovers to help the homeless with the goal of creating a unique model that nurtures women and children living in shelters. The various projects and programs of Enchanted Makeovers introduce women and children to a way of life, a way of thinking that helps to shift their outlook about the possibilities for the future. Terry and her team at Enchanted Makeovers transform shelters physically and emotionally into a beacon of hope.
It is not just about decorating or just painting a wall. There is great significance behind what the team of volunteers at Enchanted Makeovers accomplishes with each shelter transformation. A stronger foundation is created helping improve overall outcomes. Residents are more likely to complete programs, move to the next step of transitional housing, and ultimately re-join their communities as productive citizens.
The team at Enchanted Makeovers is different from other volunteer groups in homeless shelters because no other organization approaches or executes a process that takes care of the “vision, mind and spirit” quite like Enchanted Makeovers. It gets people locally and nationally involved in the future of their own lives as well as the people we serve.
Terry has learned through her journey that women and children do not need a superhero to save them; they want someone to walk beside them. Her heart has led her to introduce women, children and volunteers to a way of life, a way of thinking that helps to shift their outlook about their lives, how we see each other and possibilities for the future.
