Frederick Bramante

Today’s Daily Point of Light Award winner, Fred Bramante, had a difficult time in school, but didn’t let his scholastic experience get in the way of his eventual success. A former middle school science teacher, Bramante had a vision to revolutionize education in America by allowing students to earn school credits anytime and anyplace.

A quarter of American high school students drop out before graduation. So Bramante asked, “What if the problem isn’t teachers or schools, but how we measure learning itself—as “seat time” spent in a class?” Says Bramante, “School taught me that I wasn’t very bright. Life taught me that school was wrong.”

In 1972, after leaving his teaching job, and with $600 in his pocket, Bramante opened the first Daddy’s Junky Music in New Hampshire, which grew from a hole-in-the-wall shop into a $35,000,000 music retail business.

In 2003, the governor of New Hampshire asked Bramante to become chairman of the State Board of Education. This was the opportunity Bramante needed to combine his experiences as a teacher and an entrepreneur to help revitalize education.

In 2013, Bramante founded the National Center for Competency-Based Learning (NCCBL), a nonprofit that works to institutionalize real world, hands on, learning opportunities for students by serving as the prime catalyst in harnessing mentors at the local, state and national levels. The NCCBL works to transform public education from a system anchored in time and place, typically a traditional academic year with all classes in a school building, to a competency-based system that is “anytime, anyplace, any how and any pace.”

Through his organization, Bramante is giving students the opportunity to learn how and when they want. Says Bramante, “why would anyone drop out of school?”

Do you know someone who is helping making their community a better place? Nominate them for a Daily Point of Light Award today!

Danielle Stryker

For Danielle Stryker, serving the needs of others has been an important part of her young life for many years now. For more than 14 years, Danielle has volunteered for Kare for Kidz (K4K) a charity, of which she is currently the President as well as a board member. Danielle helps lead this team, and because of her dedication, so many children are receiving the help they desperately need. Since 1999, she has spent more than 4,527 hours volunteering, an amazing achievement for such a young person.

“It’s always been a part of my life,” says Danielle, explaining how K4K has impacted her life. “We work with families that are unable to provide for their children. And we’ve partnered with the local Salvation Army, too.”

Kare for Kidz provides families in Winchester, Virginia, with necessities like warm clothes, decent shoes, adequate school supplies, personal grooming items or educational toys. K4K provides these to each child they assist at Christmas, Easter or the start of the school year. It is hard for children to learn when they are cold, hungry or embarrassed to go to school for lack of hygienic supplies. K4K helps fill this community need, giving hope as well as help to each family. This year, K4K added a program to give cars to single moms so that they can get to work and take care of their kids. K4K believes that each family, given the chance to take care of themselves, makes a difference to the future of their children and improves the community one family at a time.

Stryker describes the challenges she faces working with K4K, “funding is the hardest part. We get some small donations from local business. I spend at least half my time trying to find the brand name things kids ask for, without having to pay the high prices.” Despite these drawbacks, Danielle works tirelessly to make sure each child has some sort of present waiting for them.

Strykers commitment to service reaches beyond the local level. She has traveled all over the world helping others. When she was very young, she volunteered at a soup kitchen, and, when she saw how many hungry kids needed food, she raised money for the local food bank. Soon, she extended her helping hands overseas, in both China and Africa, helping build homes with Habitat for Humanity.

Says Danielle, “the most rewarding experience was my second trip with Habitat. We were there two weeks. There was nothing when we go there. When we left, there was an entire house that we built.”

Because of Danielle’s passion and dedication K4K has been able to reach more families and children. She has touched the lives of families in other countries with her work with Habitat for Humanity. She is constantly searching for her next project and spends her time organizing clothing drives, raising money for abused animals or fundraising for supplies.

Danielle is a testament to the power of a single individual. She is an example of how to take the time you have and put it towards something good. Danielle explains, “at Kare for Kidz, we can get so much help from a person who donates just two hours of their time. It’s not difficult to do much, it’s such a large help to us.”

If you know someone like Danielle striving to aid the needs of others on a daily basis, nominate them today for the Daily Point of Light Award at https://www.pointsoflight.org/programs/recognition/dpol/nomination

June Barrett

Many of us cannot fathom the idea of a loved one of friend suffering from a brain injury. But for friends and family of an estimated 1.7 million people each year, this is a reality. June Barrett, a Tennessee native, become all too familiar with this number when her 14 year-old daughter suffered from a traumatic brain injury after a car accident.

Barrett was a teacher, nutritionist, and later, a real estate developer when her daughter was in her accident. “I saw that there were no facilities that really had what they needed. I saw so many people like my daughter that did not have the services that they needed. So I said we were going to start a rehab center.”

Because of her involvement in her community, Barrett was able to leverage support from many people. A building was donated, land was offered and funds slowly trickled in after much work. Barrett gave up her career and devoted herself full time to the founding of The Crumley House Brain Injury Rehabilitation Center. “I felt I had a calling from God to do this,” she explains.

Barrett worked tirelessly writing, grants, reaching out to community leaders and organizing fundraising events to build The Crumley House Brain Injury Rehabilitation Center. Because of her work, the center was able to meet the needs of patients from all over the United States. But eventually, the program outgrew its original building. After more grant writing and fundraising, The Crumley House was able to build a $3 million residential building. The residential building houses 25 residents. Another 10-20 patients come in during the day to receive care and rehabilitation.

The people that come to The Crumley House Brain Injury Rehabilitation Center are given a second chance. “We have put hundreds of people back to work. Maybe not in the jobs they would have had before their injury, but try to place them in places that will interest them.” The program treats its patients as individuals because everyone has different needs and levels of disability. They work to create a family-like atmosphere for the patients. Barrett and all of those working at The Crumley House Brain Injury Rehabilitation Center strive to make their patients feel self-worth. Barrett explains, “What they need is someone to love them and to care.”

Today, its day program offers classes in academic learning, computer training, physical training, household management, budgeting skills and personal hygiene. Those in residential living receive 24/7 care. In the past decade, Crumley House has served over 3,000 brain injured members and their families in nine Tennessee counties.

“It’s so rewarding to see these people get a second chance. Just to see the projects come together is rewarding. That’s what it’s all about,” Barrett describes. “You cannot imagine how rewarding it all is.” Barrett goes on to share how all the volunteers involved feel so touched and are greatly rewarded by helping make the patients’ lives happier.

If you know someone like June Barrett who took matters into their own hands, nominate them today for the Daily Point of Light Award at https://www.pointsoflight.org/programs/recognition/dpol/nomination

Melanie Hammet

When Melanie Hammet was first called to volunteer at the Georgia Innocence Project, she was willing to do anything to help, including cleaning the bathrooms. Soon, she began coming in every week to assist with casework. When she heard the team talking about needing a creative solution to help spread Georgia Innocence Project's (GIP) message, Hammet jumped on the opportunity.

She met with Clarence Harrison, exonerated after 18 years in prison, intending to write a song that told Harrison’s story of wrongful conviction. Over the next two years, that first conversation inspired 13 original songs, a CD, ongoing live performances and a team of volunteers producing events and selling volunteer-designed merchandise.

”Life Sentence,” the music project Hammet created to raise public awareness and funds for GIP, presents an innovative fundraising platform for a donation-based nonprofit legal aid organization and provides a unique opportunity to share GIP’s message. The Georgia Innocence Project is a nonprofit that advocates for the use of DNA testing to free the wrongly imprisoned and advances practices to prevent others from meeting a similar fate.

Hammet's music and compelling storytelling bring attention to wrongful incarceration, transforming it from a dry legal issue into a human one that hits much closer to home.

To date, the project has raised more than $70,000 for GIP, including $20,000 in in-kind donations, and produced an album for GIP to sell at a 100 percent profit. The song "DNA" was licensed for Robert Redford's series "Death Row Stories."

Clare Vosberg

When children at schools in Dubuque, IA are feeling lonely or wanting someone they can talk to or a friend play with, they head for a special place on the playground: the Buddy Bench. It’s there because of the work of a special 9-year-old on a mission to change the world by building friendships and putting an end to bullying so her community can thrive.

Clare Vosberg heard about the benches and how they were used to foster kindness in children. She worked with local companies to get 35 benches installed in schools across Dubuque, Guttenberg and Galena, IL. Children are taught through their school to help others who seek refuge at the bench.

Clare's inspiration to end bullying is her older sister Madie, who battles epilepsy. Madie’s episodic seizures at school have caused her to become bullied. Clare knew she wanted to do something to help Madie and every kid who needs a voice.

She founded Clare Cares at age 8 with her mom, step-dad and others who rallied around her goal to place a Buddy Bench on her school's playground.

In Clare's words, "if you are busy building friendships and making the community a better place, you'll feel good, you'll make others feel good and the world will be a better place."

Sayva

The youth population in the United States possesses immense potential to help solve some of the social issues our nation faces. When a group of young adults band together, the possibilities are endless. At a young age, Arjun Fischer, of Oakton Virginia, recognized this potential and has since worked to encourage his peers to get involved in the community and help make a difference.

“I saw all my friends doing community service with their churches, and some of my friends and I didn’t really have this same opportunity. So I was trying to get opportunities for kids like myself to do community service,” Fischer explains.

And with that small idea, Sayva was created by Fischer and his peer Rhea Sofat. Sanskrit for “to serve selflessly and with dedication,” Sayva was created by teens that wanted to help make a difference in their community. Now, kids from all over Northern Virginia and Maryland have joined Sayva for an opportunity to help serve others. For the past three years they have packed meals every May for Stop Hunger Now, which sends food all over the world to help alleviate world hunger. They spend the whole year working on fundraising events to finance the meals they make. By doing simple things like having a change drive or encouraging local business to donate money, Sayva has been helping the world’s hungry. Every year they work to get more kids involved so they can continue to provide thousands of meals for families all over the world.

Says Fischer, “Last year we were able to send 20,000 meals to Zambia. And this year were going to try and do that again!”

They also work with Connerstone’s Toys for Tots in the winter to package and deliver gifts for underprivileged families. The group volunteers at the D.C. Central Kitchen, which prepares and serves meals daily to the people of the D.C. area. And multiple members have volunteered at City Year's MLK JR National Day of Service in DC the last three years.

Because Sayva is made up primarily of young adults, they are keenly aware to the reasons kids have for not being involved in their communities. Fischer reflects, “Many of the people my age don’t realize even a small impact matters. An hour or two here and there can really help someone. And this can be a tough message to get across to people my age.” In this day and age, instant gratification is the norm. But Fischer and the team and Sayva are working to show young adults that lasting and impactful change doesn’t always come instantly.

Sayva is inspiring a generation. They are showing young people how to get involved and the importance of serving others. Because of Sayva, the youth community in Oakton is actively seeking opportunities to get involved and make their mark. They are generating ideas for more Sayva events and involvement in the community.

Fischer and Sofat know it can be hard to get started, but they urge everyone to get out in his or her communities and find a way to help. “Start small, and look for anything you can do. And from there just build upon it. We are so privileged and it can be hard to see what others don’t have. Just try and dedicate small amounts of time and really make a difference any way you can.”

If you know and organization like Sayva helping others get involved in their community, nominate them today for the Daily Point of Light Award at https://www.pointsoflight.org/programs/recognition/dpol/nomination

Jordan Somer

After volunteering with the Special Olympics, Jordan Somer of Brooklyn, NY founded Miss Amazing when she was 13 years old. The former beauty pageant competitor drew on her experiences to start a movement for people with disabilities to realize their abilities on and off the stage. After staging her first pageant in 2007, Jordan realized the impact Miss Amazing could make in her community and beyond.

Miss Amazing provides girls and women with disabilities the opportunities to build self-confidence in a supportive environment. This new pageant circuit is changing the lives of girls and women with disabilities and highlighting the numerous abilities they bring to the table.

Now a full-time student at New York University, Jordan has worked tirelessly in her time outside of class to spread the word about Miss Amazing. Eight years since her work began, there are pageants in more than 25 states, including a season-ending national pageant. Jordan volunteers her time fundraising, recruiting and coordinating volunteers, and seeking sponsors nationwide.

Jordan helps participants gain self-confidence by teaching them life skills through the interview, introduction, evening wear and talent competitions. “What began as my way to share my experiences with girls with disabilities has become my passion and future career,” she says.

There is no fee to compete in the pageants, other than a donation of five cans of food for local shelters. She encourages participants to give back, as proceeds from the pageant are given back to the community. To date, the pageant has raised more than $50,000 and 750 pounds of food.