Sister Carmen Community Center
The Sister Carmen Community Center has been providing emergency assistance to people in need since the early 1970's. Originally started by a group of volunteers headed by John Fiorini and named for a Catholic nun named Sister Carmen, the Sister Carmen Community Center provides emergency assistance and works with community members to achieve self-sufficiency.
Ingelis Jenson
Whether it is the Special Olympics, the Disney VoluntEARS program, or the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Ingelis Jenson is deeply involved and following that philosophy. In 2009 alone, she spent the equivalent of 18 weekends of the year volunteering.
Ingelis paid her own expenses to attend the Special Olympics World Winter Games, spending her vacation there to volunteer for seven days in a row, eight hours a day, in freezing temperatures with duties which included shoveling snow. She truly embodies the passion and indomitable spirit of the late Eunice Kennedy Shriver, who founded the Special Olympics in the 1960s.
Ingelis leads volunteer projects and helps promote and recruit volunteers for the Disney VoluntEARS program, with which she has been involved for 17 years. She began when the program was launched in Los Angeles.
As a wish-granter and an escort, she interacts directly with the seriously ill children and their families visiting Disney parks through the Make-A-Wish Foundation. With the utmost professionalism, respect, and compassion, Ingelis ensures that each child has the time of their life. She personifies both the joy and impact of serving others; she never stops doing her part to change the world for the better.
Emily Kubin
When Emily was 17 years old, she saw how the economy was affecting her community and decided to help those in need by using her skills with yarn to make them wool hats for the winter. As a result, she started the Emily's Hats for Hope Initiative in December 2011. To date, Emily has made and collected over 5,350 winter hats.
Lauren Hontz
Lauren Hontz started Lauren’s Luggage when she was nine years old because of a devastating fire at her home in which her family lost most of their belongings. Amongst all the items they received as result of donations, Lauren and her older brothers found comfort in the blankets and stuffed animals they were given. As time went on, the family began to receive more donated items than they could use. Therefore, Lauren came up with the idea to save the extra items and give them to other kids affected by fires. Over the past year through Lauren’s Luggage, Lauren has collaborated with fire departments and other local organizations collect and deliver a blanket for each child and necessities to families affected by fires and other disasters.
Amanda Moore
For more than 15 years, Amanda Moore has given of herself tirelessly by dedicating her time and talent to volunteering with local charities and events to make a difference in the world. Most notably, Amanda serves in various capacities as a volunteer with the non-profit organization, Manataka American Indian Council, to preserve and educate others about the American Indian culture. Since 2006, she has been the drum keeper and ceremonial drum leader. Each year, she travels to a considerable number of locations in United States and makes annual pilgrimages to drum, sing, and teach others to do traditional beadwork, shawl making, and dream catcher creation along with many more American Indian cultural practices. Amanda also serves as fundraiser and works with the Manataka American Indian Council and the Arkansas Native Plant and Wildlife Center to raise funds annually for their Feed Our Friends fundraiser to assist with the rehabilitation of injured wildlife so that they can be released back into their natural environment.
In addition to her work with Manataka, Amanda serves as a board member for the Hot Springs Farmers Market in Arkansas where she plans and executes events with the purpose of broadening people's awareness of health related items. Amanda volunteers her time with other non-profit organizations including the American Red Cross, Habitat for Humanity and the Women's Foundation of Arkansas.
Steven Cooley
Steven Cooley started the STRAP program to provide mentoring and life skills to at-risk youth. As a deputy sheriff, Steven provides courtroom security for a juvenile court. Through his days spent in the courtroom, Steven realized a tremendous need to provide mentoring and life-skills training to teenage males, primarily those living in single-parent households.
As a result, Steven organized a group of lawyers, judges, and other members of his community he met through his work as a deputy sheriff to obtain the use of an office building and enlist volunteers to develop a mentor program. The program assigns mentors to young men, many of whom have been involved with the juvenile court and are at risk to become repeat offenders. In addition to the mentoring functions, the participants receive training in basic life skills as well as assistance in developing the maturity and self-control needed to make better decisions and stay out of trouble.
Steven is an example to others and his local community that concerned citizens can start programs that have a positive impact on the lives of children.
Jeffrey Richardson
Jeffrey D. Richardson is an AmeriCorps Alum and the Executive Director of Serve DC – The Mayor’s Office on Volunteerism. Serve DC is the DC Commission on National and Community Service. In his role as Executive Director, he guides the organization in achieving its mission of promoting service as an innovative, sustainable solution to the challenges we face as a community and a nation. Serve DC awards more than $500,000 in grants each year to nonprofits, faith-based organizations and universities to strengthen organizational capacity, and create and expand programs that fight poverty and advance economic opportunity and academic achievement.
A graduate of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and The Howard University School of Social Work, Jeffrey shares with the Commission, a commitment to compassion for the low-income populations they serve and to inclusivity of youth populations (foster care, youth in care, and other non-traditionally served groups). Prior to his work at the Commission, Jeffery served as an AmeriCorps member in Windsor New Hampshire at Wediko Children’s Services’ Summer Fresh Air Experience Program; focused on at-risk children whose emotional and behavioral symptoms interfere with their ability to function in school, at home, or within the community.
Lisa Tatum
Lisa is the Senior Manager, Disaster Preparedness at the Volunteer Center of North Texas. She coordinates volunteer recruitment and management for a local high-impact collaboration called the Mass Care Task Force. In addition to her daily life of service, she leads the AmeriCorps Alums of North Texas local chapter and serves on the Board of Sustainable Education Solutions, an effort to launch an environmental charter school in the Great Trinity Forest area.
Lisa's work with the Volunteer Center goes above and beyond her role managing volunteers for disaster preparedness. She liaises with local VOAD, COAD, Citizen Corps, and Regional Emergency Managers to ensure that the collaboration extends across all networks. Additionally, she supports her work by maintaining her standing as a Red Cross volunteer for fifteen years and serves in a leadership role with the Red Cross DFW's Volunteer Services Department. By building cohesiveness between AmeriCorps programs and AmeriCorps Alums, North Texas has been able to work to host a coordinated MLK Day of Service Project, Life After AmeriCorps Seminar, and various AmeriCorps Week activities. Lisa has been instrumental in establishing this foundation for collaboration.
Lisa is wholly committed to service. Her work with the Volunteer Center helps to meet a great need for disaster preparedness in a community like North Texas with such high risk for being affected by a disaster. As the leader of AmeriCorps Alums of North Texas, she is responsible for planning and strategy, and creates a vision for the leadership team to execute on. Her work to create the vision for a North Texas community of committed national service alumni encompasses local AmeriCorps Programs, nonprofit organizations, and AmeriCorps Alums. She has worked to engage One Star Foundation on a state level to ensure support for all chapter activities. As a Board member for Sustainable Education Solutions, she provides her expertise in nonprofit management. The need for environmental education and the void that the organization can fill by creating an environmental charter school that takes advantage of the Great Trinity Forest is great.
Lisa has a heart for service, and this commitment can be seen in every facet of her life. Even greater is her willingness to see strong collaboration in communities and work to build that in every situation she is faced with. Lisa inspires all of us work towards a better community together, and her spirit of collaboration and her ability to organize people and bring them together to effect change is unique.
Alexa Kraft
Alexa Kraft has made service the backbone of her life. She excels in finding creative ways to engage young women in community service projects that match their specific interests. She organized and led an innovative 5-day service trip addressing the needs of the underserved population, often-overlooked pockets within her own community in Atlanta, Georgia by distributing food to the poor, assisting the elderly with home repairs, providing blankets for children in crisis, and delivering cards and kind words to those living in nursing homes. Additionally, each year Alexa co-organizes a 5K Diabetes Walk and Run at the Georgia College and State University Campus to help fund the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Alexa is passionate about educational equity, social justice, hunger, and homelessness. As she continues her work to address the needs of the underserved, her vision is to establish her own volunteer center in the future.