Mary Ramirez Cook

As owner of the A-Marika Dance Company in Cincinnati, Mary Ramirez Cook has taught ballroom dance, ballet and tap for more than 27 years. In 2007, Cook took on a new and personal teaching challenge. Inspired by her youngest son Mathew, who has Down syndrome – and who loved practicing dance moves from a young age – Cook launched a free dance class for students with Down syndrome. The course has become so popular that Cook has 40 students enrolled, from age 12 to 62, and many more on a waiting list.

“None of this would have happened without Mathew,” says Cook, who teaches a full roster of 400 students in her standard courses. “He grew up in a dance studio, watching me teach. When he was around 4, I could already see that he enjoyed moving to the music. Soon he was copying ballroom dance moves he had seen, and it occurred to me that I should try teaching dance to Mathew and others with Down syndrome.”

Cook began with a pilot class of four students, including Mathew, who was 5 at the time.

“The students loved it,” says Cook. “Very quickly, others learned of the course by word of mouth, and soon I was teaching a regular ballroom dance class for students with Down syndrome.”

Cook says the dance program has had positive effects that go far beyond anything she expected.

“The dance experience is just the beginning,” says Cook, who plans to launch a dance competition this year for people with disabilities. “From the start I noticed that my students were also delighted to be socializing with others. After seven years of teaching the class, I think the social experience has been more valuable to them than the dance lessons. They’ve formed lasting friendships, and I’ve watched them grow in self-esteem.”

Cook says her studio has also become a bonding place for parents and other caregivers who accompany the students to class, some of whom have gone on to form support groups. The class has also inspired dozens of Cook’s other students to become volunteers.

“From the time I announced the first Down syndrome class in 2007, students from my other classes began asking if they could help,” says Cook. “I was very touched, especially as the number of student volunteers began to grow. At times, for a class of 40 students, I’ve had 30 other students volunteering to assist as dance partners. Over the years, former students have told me that they first learned community service from this experience. I think inclusion has been the greatest result since I started this.”

For her efforts, Cook has received several awards from local Down syndrome associations as well as Cincinnati’s city council.

But Cook’s greatest personal reward, she says, came just last week when Mathew, now 12, won first place in a national Dancesport competition, with Mom as his dance partner.

“I was very proud that Mathew has been able to get to this point,” says Cook. “This was a standard competition, not one for people with disabilities. His dance skills have boosted his all-around confidence in life, and his social skills are much better because of it. As a mother of a 12-year-old who can do this, I am in awe.”

Kamilah Tadlock

Kamilah Tadlock’s passion for the environment and youth with special needs inspires her to serve.

During the summer of 2010, Tadlock began volunteering at the Volunteer Center for Anne Arundel County in Annapolis, Maryland. She began her service as a Summer Serve Volunteer through the organization’s Youth Volunteer Corps program. Throughout the summer, Tadlock worked with special-needs youth and their able siblings. She assisted with arts and crafts, music, dance and sports activities. In addition, her summer service experience involved park clean ups and landscaping for the opening of an adaptive baseball field. Inspired by her brother who has Down syndrome, Tadlock volunteered more than 114 hours that summer assisting campers with disabilities.

In August 2011, Tadlock joined the Volunteer Center’s team as an intern. While working at the center during the day, Tadlock volunteered during her off hours on evenings and weekends at the center to write grants and lead environmental projects. Tadlock’s leadership generated excitement among her peers and many community members motivating them to volunteer with the environmental projects she led at Anne Arundel County parks. Among her volunteers, Tadlock made a special effort to encourage and engage youth with mental and physical disabilities to volunteer for the environmental projects.

Now a freshman at the University of Maryland studying engineering, Tadlock remains active in the Volunteer Center’s environmental projects when she comes home from college, as well as participates in Special Olympics and other adaptive sports activities at Anne Arundel County parks. Through her involvement with the Volunteer Center, Tadlock has engaged more than 120 youth volunteers (including youth with disabilities) in volunteer projects.

Even while attending college during the year, Tadlock continues to serve her surrounding community. As a freshman, she has already joined Terps for Change, a community service organization connecting University of Maryland students with the local community through sustained, collaborative, and meaningful community service learning. Additionally, she has become a volunteer for University of Maryland’s crisis hotline.

Landon Reid Worsham

The Monday before Christmas, his most recent emergency call, 89-year-old volunteer firefighter Landon Reid Worsham of Chatham, Va., and his crew saved part of a family’s house from flames.

It was all in a day’s work – one of many. Worsham, who will turn 90 on May 1, has been battling blazes as a member of the Chatham Volunteer Fire Department for 60 years. For 50 of those years, he has served as fire chief.

“It doesn’t seem like it’s been that long,” says Worsham, a native of Chatham who joined the department shortly after returning from military duty in the South Pacific during World War II. “I wanted to serve the community and firefighting seemed like something I could do.”

More than a half century later, he’s still going strong. The Chatham Volunteer Fire Department receives between 250 and 275 emergency calls each year. Worsham goes out on around 80 percent of these calls. He also helps train new recruits.

When he’s not volunteering, Worsham works full time, six days a week, at an appliance store he owns.

“I guess some people see my age as elderly or too old to work, but I don’t feel old,” says Worsham. “The Lord has blessed me, and I feel as strong as ever.”

Because of his longevity with the department, Worsham is often asked how many fires he has helped put out.

“I have no idea,” he says. “I’ve never tried to count them.”

For his commitment to service, Worsham has been honored on multiple occasions. Seven years ago, when Chatham built a new firehouse, Worsham was surprised to find that it featured a plaque engraved with his name. This past November, he was surprised again when he was summoned to a town meeting. He arrived to discover the meeting was actually a party in his honor at which he was presented lifetime service awards by the state, county and city.

“I appreciated it so much,” says Worsham. “It was an honor to know that the community is thankful to me.”

For decades, Worsham’s community service work has extended beyond firefighting. Together with Mildred, his wife of more than 65 years, Worsham is an active volunteer at the Chatham Presbyterian Church. Worsham has been superintendent of the church Sunday school for 50 years. He has also been active for almost 50 years in the Chatham Lions Club.

“I’ve always enjoyed helping people,” says Worsham. “If you enjoy helping, you’ll get paid for it. Because when you help someone and they are grateful to you, that is its own reward.”

Jake Cohen

Jake Cohen of Brookline, Massachusetts worked with the Kidney Disease Screening and Awareness Program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School to assist with the prevention of Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD), through free health screenings and awareness workshops at Brookline High School.

Cohen discovered he had Crohn’s disease while a junior in high school and spent a year coping with the diagnosis. After wrestling with Crohn’s for a year, he returned to school passionate about helping patients with chronic diseases and decided to devoted himself to working with the Kidney Disease Screening and Awareness Program (KDSAP).

Cohen became the president of his school’s KDSAP chapter. In addition, he initiated and worked with the central chapter, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, to organize a health conference to help patients suffering with kidney disease understand how to manage their disease.

The conference, the Boston Kidney Health Series 2012, made all of this information accessible in one place. Additionally, due to the success of the first event, KDSAP continues to hold an annual Boston Kidney Health Series each year.