Jordan Feldman
Madison Heldt
Last year, Madison Heldt of Hillsboro, Oregon decided she did not want any toys for Christmas. Instead, she decided to do something for other children. Therefore, she rallied her community, found a corporate sponsor and donated more than 1,500 coloring books and 1,500 sets of crayons to Doernbechers Children’s Hospital. Additionally, she was able to purchase DVDs, toys, and wagons for the patients with the donations she received from her community.
Maria Menounos
For bringing stars, producers and others from the entertainment industry together to help others, “Extra” host Maria Menounos received the Daily Point of Light Award today in Los Angeles. The ceremony was part of the One America campaign, led by Points of Light and Chase, to unite people in volunteer service. Read Menounos’ story and nominate someone you know as a Daily Point of Light.
Hospital Los Angeles during an annual event that lavishes
patients with beauty treatments and gifts.
Maria Menounos – best known for her entertainment reporting on “Extra,” “Access Hollywood” and the “Today” show – remembers her first assignment as a television reporter well. It was far from the glamour of the red carpet.
Menounos, fresh out of college, traveled to South Africa to cover the AIDS epidemic for that 2001 assignment. The suffering she witnessed left her determined to do more than report the news. When she returned to the U.S., she used the last of her savings to found Take Action Hollywood! (TAH!), an all-volunteer organization dedicated to using the power of the entertainment industry to raise awareness of society’s greatest challenges.
“I think many actors, directors and producers want to use their talents and power affect positive social change,” says Menounos. “Social media and instant connectivity helps a great deal. So while there are an infinite number of causes, there is hope.”
with a young hosptial patient.
Menounos knows hardship herself, as the daughter of Greek immigrants who could not speak English. Her parents scrubbed floors in Boston nightclubs for a living; they had to bring Menounos and her brother along because they could not afford a babysitter.
While their parents cleaned, the Menounos siblings collected empty cans in the street to make extra money for the family. Menounos hasn’t forgotten those days of struggle and is focusing on helping people in need improve their lives.
Since starting TAH! Menounos has rallied many of her colleagues in Hollywood and formed partnerships with several corporations. The organization focuses on HIV/AIDS awareness, prevention of diabetes and childhood obesity, and educating the public about subjects as diverse as racial segregation, autism and pet overpopulation.
TAH! has sponsored college film competitions – awarding prize money to the most “socially aware” entries – and partnered with Cosmopolitan magazine to create the CosmoGirl Film Contest. The organization also discovered an independent film made in 2004, “Paper Clips,” about a student project to create a Holocaust memorial built from six million paper clips. The film had remained virtually unknown for a year. TAH! arranged for a prominent Hollywood screening and funded promotion of the film. “Paper Clips” has since been distributed worldwide by Mirimax and has given rise to the Paperclip Campaign to honor Holocaust victims.
Menounos with a Daily Point of Light Award.
Menounos is especially active in the cause of diabetes treatment and awareness. Her father suffered from type 1 diabetes, and Menounos often cared for him around the clock as he endured severe pain. For TAH!’s work raising funds for the Hallmark Health System’s diabetes programs and services, Menounos received the Hallmark Health Hero Award.
Menounos also traveled to Capitol Hill as a representative of the Entertainment Industry Foundation’s Diabetes Aware campaign. Menounos spoke to members of Congress about the importance of using funds raised to fight diabetes not merely for treatment but for prevention through education.
Menounos hopes that as TAH! takes action to increase media attention to social issues, the public will act as well.
“I think it’s so important to speak up and make your voice heard,” says Menounos. “When narrative films or documentaries come out, watch them, digest them and form an educated opinion. Then, be sure to discuss them, rate them and comment on them via the many digital and social media platforms out there. Hopefully, you’ll be inspired to do even more for a particular cause, too, based on what you see.”
The Darrow-Eystad Family
Four years ago, Katelyn Darrow-Eystad founded The Angels Clothing Closet. Since then, the Clothing Closet has become a family affair. It is set-up like a store, but the only difference is clients do not pay a penny for their items. Everything at the Angels Clothing Closet is free to homeless shelter residents, low-income families, house fire victims, or anyone who cannot afford necessities.
In addition to the clothing closet, the Darrow-Eystad family operates a food pantry and distributes toiletries. They hold monthly outreach events like a Back to School Drive , a Easter Basket Project, a Angels Holiday Toy Box for Christmas, a Halloween Costume Collection, and a Prom Dress Drive just to name a few.
To date, the Clothing Closet has provided clothing to more than 5,000 families. Their monthly outreach events like the Back to School Drive has provided more than 430 kids with filled back packs. The Easter Basket Project has provided more than 600 kids in need or living in homeless shelters Easter Baskets, and the Angels Holiday Toy Box has provided over 710 kids toys for Christmas.
The Darrow-Eystad family works with the local homeless and domestic-violence shelters. They are also in contact with the local schools and the American Red Cross for more people they can help. Each month, the family holds clothing drives were they invite the community to come and donate their unwanted clothing. Many locals volunteer help sort the clothing at the Clothing Closet and hang it on the clothing racks so it looks nice just like a store. The Clothing Closet gives community members a chance to give back and pay it forward.
Edgar Gutierrez
Corona Plaza in Queens, N.Y., is a pedestrian open space with moveable furniture and planted containers, programmed throughout the year with arts and culture, and family activities. New York City built it in 2012 as part of a citywide program to bring attractive open spaces to dense urban areas. Local business support is critical to the long-term success of the plaza as a clean, safe, vibrant community space, and volunteer Edgar Gutierrez has been key to informing and engaging local businesses in the day-to-day as well as big-picture activities on the plaza. (Read about him receiving his Daily Point of Light Award in the Queens Courier.)
During the past year, Gutierrez has been the “eyes and ears on the plaza,” keeping residents and businesses apprised on goings-on, and providing valuable feedback to the Queens Economic Development Corp. (QEDC) whenever issues arise. When the City or the QEDC calls community meetings, without request or prompting, Gutierrez prints and distributes notices, goes door-to-door to encourage other business managers and owners to participate, and is always at the ready to help the plaza manager with programming ideas and implementation. The plaza is located in the heart of one of New York’s (and the country’s) most diverse and dense neighborhoods. Immigrants from around the world live there, and desperately need the open space this plaza provides, as well as the cultural programming it makes possible.
Gutierrez’s outreach to businesses – many of them immigrant-owned and struggling – is in close cooperation with the QEDC. He is helping the QEDC develop long-term relationships with business owners who can then benefit from a range of other small business assistance programs.
Gutierrez’s outreach efforts are ensuring that these businesses are engaged in the city-sponsored visioning sessions for the plaza’s re-design and permanent construction. Having their voices heard in this process will ensure that official decisions are made with a balanced community input. Long-term, when these businesses feel engaged the plaza will be well cared for and better serve this distressed community.
Gutierrez grew up in Queens’ Washington Heights neighborhood and has worked at the Walgreens on Corona Plaza in Queens for the past six years. He is motivated to go above and beyond his managerial duties because he cares about this community, and he has observed first-hand that the plaza has improved business, pedestrian safety, and community interaction. He is a natural leader, an unofficial “Mayor of the Plaza” and feels both a personal and professional duty to serve his community.
The Lee Family
In the fall of 2009, when Jaylin Lee of Madison, Ind., was in kindergarten, her mother, Lindsy, read to her from the newspaper that the local Salvation Army was short of food for distribution to hungry families during the holiday season.
Jaylin’s first question was, “How can I help?”
Lindsy told her she could collect cans of food and suggested the slogan “One CAN Make a Difference.”
Jaylin loved the idea. Soon, with help from her parents, she was making flyers and traveling door to door to collect canned goods and other non-perishable food from neighbors. Before the year was out, Jaylin recruited 600 students from her elementary school to help with the food drive.
Today, just five years later, One CAN Make a Difference is one of the largest food drives in Madison. Twenty-six local businesses partner with the program—including five stores that put out food collection bins—along with 10 schools and several local churches. Jaylin, now 10, has recorded public service announcements that are played on two local radio stations and has addressed the city council and local schools about the problem of hunger in the community. In 2013, One CAN Make a Difference had its most successful year, collecting more than 6,000 food items.
Since she began the program, Jaylin has been joined in the effort by her sisters Jaymee, 8, and Jayda, 6. Lindsy says Jaylin works hundreds of hours each year on the project, and her sisters are now volunteering about half as much time.
“My sisters have been a great help,” says Jaylin. “Without them, I couldn’t do most of this stuff.”
“I’ve tried to teach my children by example,” says Lindsy, who serves on the board of the local United Way. “It’s a blessing to have kids who really get it.”
Most of the food collected by One CAN Make a Difference is stored at the Salvation Army. The Salvation Army prepares some at its own kitchen, where it serves almost 400 meals each week. The rest is distributed to food banks, shelters, and local churches with meal programs.
Jaylin, a 4th-grade honor student, stays busy year-round with One CAN Make a Difference, but the group’s main drive takes place for five days each November, and is kicked off at Madison’s annual Soup, Stew, Chili, and Brew festival—a cooking and cider-making competition. The even draws around 2,000 local residents, many of whom bring food donations.
“It feels good to see what Jaylin and her sisters have done,” says Jaylin’s father, James, a local police officer. “I feel I was born to serve. I’ve given as a Marine and now as a police officer. This is their way, and they’ve definitely shown their love of community. They’re so compassionate and they want to help everyone.”
“I don’t want to see anyone go hungry,” says Jaylin. “When I help people, it’s like a light at the end of the tunnel, and it keeps getting brighter and brighter. Groups thank us and tell us they couldn’t fill their food pantries without our work. I want more people to understand that a little help can make a difference. If we all work together, the difference just keeps on growing.”
The Howard Family
In honor of Family Volunteer Day, which was Nov. 23, Points of Light and Disney are recognizing families with the Daily Point of Light Award. Meet today’s winning family, the Howards of Florida, and nominate someone in your community.
Tim visit the Ronald McDonald House to volunteer.
Tim and Patty Howard wanted to introduce their children to community service, so six years ago they began participating in a Boys and Girls Clubs program that brings holiday gifts to local families in need. The kids enjoyed the experience so much that they began looking for new volunteer opportunities themselves.
“It was amazing,” says Patty, of Broward County, Fla. “The kids began doing their own research and found the HandsOn Broward website. … They dove right into several projects. It’s funny – six years ago, I was the one driving our family volunteer work. But now our kids are definitely the driving force.”
Over the past three years, Jonathan, 16, and Sydney, 13, have become regular volunteers through HandsOn Broward at the Ronald McDonald House, the Children’s Service Council and other organizations. They also participate with their parents annually at the Back To School Community Extravaganza – which provides backpacks and school supplies to kids from low-income households – and events such as the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service and the 9/11 Day of Service and Remembrance. Since the siblings linked up with HandsOn Broward, Jonathan has logged more than 1,000 hours of community service, and Sydney has volunteered almost 600 hours.
volunteers to make dog treats for an animal shelter.
The two find time to volunteer even while pursuing other interests. Jonathan is a football player and member of the school orchestra and choir, and Sydney studies dance, performs with a dance company and plays in the school band. Both teens play piano as well.
A favorite program of theirs is Movies, Muffins & Beyond at the Ronald McDonald House. Once a month, Jonathan and Sydney and about 10 other volunteers prepare muffins and cupcakes for families staying at the house, which provides temporary living quarters for families who have children receiving treatment at a nearby hospital. They watch a movie together and everyone joins in decorating, then eating, the cupcakes.
It started as a temporary project sponsored by AmeriCorps. When Jonathan learned it was scheduled to end, he offered to be trained as project leader and has kept it going. It was even his idea to add cupcake decorating to the event. Sydney enjoys it so much that she wants to take over as leader when Jonathan graduates from high school.
“I love to bake, and I love to meet the kids who come down to visit from the hospital,” says Sydney. “They’re really sweet, and I think the fun helps get their minds off all the hard things they’re going through.”
Sydney is a project leader in her own right at HandsOn Broward’s Kids Care Club. Once a month, she leads a group of about 30 young people in a service project. It’s always something new, such as making beds and treats for the animal shelter, packing first-aid kits for local nursing home residents, decorating and filling care packages for a family shelter, and preparing peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for a homeless shelter.
Jonathan’s personal favorite service project is the Back To School Community Extravaganza, which has been so successful that it’s moved to a local hockey arena for more space. This year it provided 4,000 kids with backpacks and school supplies.
“I’m able to play many roles in the project, from calling families in need to remind them that the event is coming up, to actually handing out the backpacks,” says Jonathan. “It’s a great feeling to hand someone something they probably couldn’t afford.”
Jonathan also loves volunteering at the International Game Fish Association, where he teaches kids how to fish responsibly and care for the wetland environment. He also supervises the touch tank at the association’s aquarium, where kids can play with sea creatures such as horseshoe crabs and turbo snails.
Mom Patty says she’s beyond proud: “Proud doesn’t even begin to describe how I feel about my children. I’m proud, humbled and so fulfilled by what they’ve done. They never quit. They find a new project, and they just run with it.”
The Louie Family
In honor of Family Volunteer Day, which was Nov. 23, Points of Light and Disney are recognizing families with the Daily Point of Light Award. Meet today’s winning family, the Louies of California, and nominate someone in your community.
during a visit to the Keiro Intermediate Care Facility.
When Steve Louie’s alma mater put out a call for volunteers, Louie decided to make it a family outing. For the University of Southern California’s Alumni Day of SCervice, the family headed to the Keiro Intermediate Care Facility, which serves elderly Japanese Americans in the Los Angeles area.
Steve, his wife, Julie, and son, Matthew, enjoyed the experience back in July 2012 so much that all three went through formal Keiro training and have volunteered at Keiro one or two days a week ever since.
Every Thursday, the Louies of Montebello, Calif., prepare snacks and then push snack carts through the facility, delivering coffee, tea and sweets to the residents. And almost every Sunday, the family volunteers to accompany residents – most of whom require walkers – on an hour-long walk.
Intermediate Care Facility.
“It gave me a good feeling from the start,” says Julie. “It’s family-oriented, so it’s a way for Matthew to learn about compassion. But it’s important for me, too. I work a full-time job and I’m sometimes very tired when I get home. Every Thursday, I know we’re scheduled to go back out to Keiro, where I see all the friends I have made. They’re very appreciative of what we do, and I always feel very good afterwards.”
At the Day of SCervice event, Matthew was worried he wouldn’t fit in, but he quickly got caught up in the activities.
“I played blackjack, poker and worked on puzzles with the senior citizens,” says Matthew, now 15. “I thought I wouldn’t be good at it, but it was a lot of fun. It was just like being with my own grandparents. Plus, I have learned to be more patient and understanding of people when they get older.”
On Sundays, Matthew enjoys sitting and talking to seniors who remain at the facility because they don’t have walking partners for the day.
“Many of them are lonely, and they love the chance to talk,” says Matthew. “They tell me amazing stories of life in Japan, life in California long ago and about living through the internment during World War II. Their stories have been an education for me. Some of them don’t speak English, but they still sit and talk to me in Japanese. I can’t understand them, but I don’t feel there’s a language barrier. They just want to talk to someone, and I feel totally connected to them.”
Matthew adds that he never feels an age gap when he visits the seniors: “The most valuable lesson I’ve learned is that ages don’t matter when it comes to friendship. They are always happy to see me, always grateful for anything I do, and they always like talking to me. I love being there for them.”
Steve, whose parents endured great hardship both before and after emigrating to the U.S. from China as 12-year-olds, says volunteering at Keiro has reconnected him with the tradition of respect he learned as a child.
“I’ve been fortunate,” says Steve. “My parents worked very hard and gave me a good life, but they also taught me respect, volunteerism and appreciation of life. I’m proud that I have the chance to give back at Keiro, and I want to pass the things I was taught on to Matthew.”
The Campos Family
In honor of Family Volunteer Day, Nov. 23, Points of Light and Disney are recognizing families with the Daily Point of Light Award. Meet today’s winning family, the Camposes of California, and nominate someone in your community.
Years ago, Javier and Lori Campos of Burbank, Calif., promised themselves they would teach their two daughters, Amanda and Alexis, the value of community service. But they wanted to wait until both girls were old enough so they could volunteer as a family.
and Lori, before heading to a Disney VoluntEARS event
“We wanted to be good role models for the girls, letting them know we help in the community and teaching them the importance of doing the same,” says Lori.
For the past six years, starting when younger daughter Alexis turned 5, the family has been involved in numerous projects, serving people at home and abroad. Javier, who works full time as a machinist, joins in whenever possible. But it’s difficult to keep up with Lori, who works part time and sets an ambitious volunteer schedule for herself and the daughters.
Lori, Amanda, now 24, and Alexis, now 11, are most actively involved in Disney Blanketeers, a project of Disney’s VoluntEARS program. For three years, the Campos family women have volunteered weekly to knit and crochet everything from blankets for children, warm hats for the homeless and for cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy, and scarves for U.S. military personnel deployed around the world.
Two years ago, Lori founded a branch of Disney Blanketeers in nearby Glendale, and the group is already 80 members strong.
“Javier doesn’t knit or crochet, but he sure pays for the yarn,” jokes Lori. “Blanketeers is my favorite activity. You can only knit so many things for friends and family, and it’s nice to have a creative outlet to help people in need.”
For the past three years, the entire family has participated in an annual river cleanup sponsored by Friends of the L.A. River, and for four years they’ve volunteered on Coastal Cleanup Day. They’ve also helped out each year at a local food pantry on Family Volunteer Day.
“Personally, the L.A. river cleanup is the most fun for me,” says Alexis. “It’s important to protect animals and the environment, and it feels really great to know that I’m helping. I think more people should work to help the environment.”
When she was only 7, Alexis got the family involved in yet another service project. After discovering she had a knack for design, Alexis began coloring placemats. Each year, she donates her creative output to Meals On Wheels, which distributes the placemats to the elderly.
Amanda, who is now a middle school science teacher, began her community service career while in high school, volunteering to participate in outings with an adult special needs group. She admits that today, as a full-time teacher, she has trouble keeping pace with her mom’s volunteer schedule.
“She keeps me active,” says Amanda. “My mom is really the heart and backbone of our volunteer work. She’s definitely a motivator, and I feel that she gives so much of her time that I can give a little bit of mine.”
Lori adds: “I’ll keep volunteering forever. When I was growing up, we had some rough spots, and people were there for us. I always remember that, and I want to keep giving back.”