Rich Yannaco and Fran DiChiappari
Meet Daily Point of Light Award honorees Rich Yannaco and Fran DiChiappari. Read their story and nominate an outstanding volunteer or organization as a Point of Light.
Rich Yannaco and Fran DiChiappariEach year around this time, Fran DiChiappari starts planning a special year-end tradition at the Boston office of Oliver Wyman. She marshals as many of the management consulting firm’s new recruits as she can to help, and together they begin brainstorming ideas on putting together the cocktail party, raffle, silent auction and – best of all – live auction that will precede the office holiday party.
Meanwhile, colleague Rich Yannaco starts practicing his rat-a-tat patter. A voluble sort, that latter duty comes easy.
“I just keep talking,” he says of his auctioneering style. “If you make it entertaining, you’re ahead of the game. I have a hat that lights up, all kinds of noisemakers and props.”
For more than two decades, Yannaco, chief admin officer, and DiChiappari, director of office administration, have been the dynamic duo behind the annual Oliver Wyman Charity Auction. Most donated items come from within the firm and range from business-class air tickets to hand-knit caps, from dinners with executives to babysitting services.
Rich Yannaco plays auctioneer at the annual Oliver Wyman Charity Auction.The first time Yannaco and DiChiappari spearheaded this holiday effort, in 1994, they staged an impromptu happy hour and raised $21,000.
Last year, nearly everyone at the 250-person office participated, helping raise $112,000 that was distributed to local charities such as Boston Cares (part of Points of Light’s HandsOn Network), which connects volunteers to area nonprofits; Children’s Literacy Foundation, which donates books and offers literacy programs across New England; and One Acre Fund, which helps farmers in Rwanda maximize their arable land.
All three of those nonprofits were founded by former consultants at Oliver Wyman.
“We work with bright people, we’re well-compensated, we’re lucky,” Yannaco says. “I look at it as part of my job to show the staff how easy it is to contribute no matter if they’re baking a dozen chocolate chip cookies or paying $25 for them. They’re having fun, while making a real difference with their contributions.”
Sonal Kapoor
If Sonal Kapoor’s life were a novel, she’d only be a few chapters into her story. Just 16, the bright student at Flintridge Prep near Pasadena has a whole world of possibilities ahead of her. Yet while her personal narrative is still unfolding, Kapoor has made it her mission to promote literacy and reading through her grassroots start-up Rescue A Book, which she founded in 2013.
Always encouraged both by her parents and her school to be community service minded, Kapoor had an ‘aha’ moment at the tender age of 13. “I love to read, and it occurred to me that while there are places to donate clothes and food and furniture, there’s no real place to donate books,” she explains. “People always want to get rid of books and they don’t really know where to put them.”
With the help of her mom Kalpna, Kapoor started putting feelers out with friends and neighbors. As books started pouring in, Kapoor got busy cold calling non-profits, hospitals, daycare centers, homeless shelters and hospice agencies. “I’d ask what kinds of books they needed and how many they could use,” she recalls.
Sonal dropping off books at Placerita Junior High School in Santa Clarita, CA.Before she was able to drive, Kapoor’s mother was her chauffeur, making it possible for her to pick up and deliver books. Kapoor devotes much of her summer break to Rescue A Book and works on her non-profit as she can during the busy school year. Her commitment speaks volumes, with more than 5,000 books recycled and donated to date.
“It’s really cool to see books with little notes in them, a book is such a personal thing to share,” says Kapoor, now in her junior year. Her books make a difference to people of all ages who might not have access to a library, spend countless hours at dialysis or in chemotherapy or have English language books at home.
“Honestly I don’t know where Rescue A Book will go next, it’s already so much bigger than I ever expected thanks to the incredible community support I’ve gotten,” she says. “I’m going to keep at it through high school and see where that takes me.” A happy ending to this tale of stories shared and donated seems assured.
David Wickham
The Boy Scouts of America, one of the nation’s largest youth development organizations, have been mentoring future leaders since 1910. In over 100 years of its existence, there have been countless individuals who have paved the way with their service and selflessness.
David Wickham is one of those individuals who regularly sacrifices for the good of others. He has been volunteering with the Boys Scouts of America (BSA) for over 23 years. Wickham, out of Melbourne, FL, has assisted, promoted and funded BSA during his tenure, and shown a willingness to go far and beyond the duties of an ordinary volunteer.
Wickham has held well over a dozen positions through several levels of rankings. He has helped on a multiple of fronts – mentoring children, teaching courses and organizing events. From his early beginnings as Den Leader, to one of his more recent roles as Eagle District Nominating Chairman, Wickham has displayed leadership in every task in which he is involved.
BSA cannot exist without the dedication of volunteers like Wickham. His creativity has helped the scouts with some urgent fund raising needs. Wickham’s idea of using a vacant lot to sell trees to the public, with proceeds going to scout activities, helped BSA meet their much needed demands.
“Opening a tree lot shows David’s astounding ability to think outside the box,” said Belinda Goldberg, the Unit Commissioner in Satellite Beach, Fl. “He gladly sacrifices his precious free time for causes that are right and just.”
Whether he is planning a camping trip with the children, helping with fundraising efforts, or teaching ‘Duty to God’ classes, Wickham’s involvement with the Boy Scouts has truly been a treat. With over two decades of influence, Wickham’s actions have impacted thousands of children and positively changed the future scope of America.
Jordyn Schara
At 14, Jordyn Schara created Helping Our Peers Excel, or HOPE, which recognizes, educates and inspires youth to grow by utilizing community service and volunteerism as tools to encourage them to take action and make a difference in the world. Through HOPE, Schara has inspired teens by creating community service projects like Comics 4 Change, Project Reading Equipment for America’s Defenders and Wisconsin Prescription Pill and Drug Disposal (WI P2D2).
After reading about the contamination of water from drugs being dumped down the drains, Schara created WI P2D2. But she discovered that these same drugs, if left unsecured in our homes, are causing the overdose deaths of teens. Our medicine cabinets are the new drug dealers. The prescription drugs that we leave unsecured in our homes are fueling the newest drug problem among America’s teens.
Schara and her first 24/7 pill and drug disposal drop box that was installed in the police station at Reedsburg, WI.WI P2D2 has held numerous drug collection events, created more than 10 permanent drug collection programs, hosted a flu shot clinic, a free mercury thermometer swap, raised more than $40,000 and has helped keep more than 1,200,000 pounds of drugs out of our groundwater and the hands of children and teens. Her work has served more than 100,000 people in Wisconsin and she has spread awareness of the importance of proper prescription drug disposal.
Proving that age is just a number, Schara has achieved a great amount through her grassroots movement. She has addressed a serious problem and has helped keep thousands of teens and children safe in doing so. She is a source of knowledge for other communities who now turn to her for help with their own drug collection programs. Schara has inspired other teens to take action and become the problem solvers and change makers of their generation.
Lulu Cerone
Lulu Cerone, a 16-year-old dynamo from Los Angeles, is the founder of LemonAID Warriors, an organization that mobilizes young people to host parties for charitable causes. Cerone was in the fifth grade when an earthquake devastated Haiti. Heart rending images shook her nine-year-old world, and she proposed a boys versus girls lemonade smack down fund raiser to her class. The two teams collected more than $4,000 for earthquake relief.
“At nine I learned I had the skills to impact my world and even save lives,” says the uber-motivated teen. “It empowered me and made me feel useful and important.”
Cerone is committed to mentoring younger kids, helping them connect with causes that touch their hearts and then create an age appropriate plan to turn compassion into action.
“Kids as young as nine and 10 get fired up about service. They dive right in with passion, creativity and energy. If I can reach them young, there is a much better chance of them continuing with their service goals through their teen years and hopefully forever.”
Lulu at a Tijuana orphanage with her LemonAID Warriors August 2015 One of LemonAID Warriors’ signature projects is raising money to bring sustainable water solutions to people in need. For her 11th birthday, Cerone had her first PhilanthroParty, a “water walk” that helped raise $4,000 to bring clean running water to rural Uganda. Cerone’s website offers planning checklists for hosting a PhilanthroParty and her upcoming book, “PhilanthroParties: A Party Planning Guide for the Social Activist,” will provide more inspiration when it is published in 2017. It’s an idea with heft: to date Cerone’s PhilanthroParties have raised more than $80,000 for global and local causes.
A Global Teen Ambassador for education, Cerone will join other young ambassadors to deliver the #UpForSchool petition to UN leaders in at a Town Hall meeting in New York September 28. Although she is keenly interested in the United Nations, Cerone isn’t sure what path her life will take after college.
But one thing is for certain; service will always in the picture. “If we start thinking this way young, by the time we are adults we will naturally want to continue to weave activism and volunteerism into the world around us.”
Anne Kubitsky
Meet Daily Point of Light Award honoree Anne Kubitsky. Read her story and nominate an outstanding volunteer or organization as a Point of Light.
Anne Kubitsky’s personal struggles led her to search for life’s deeper meaning.
The 32-year-old artist experienced a traumatic sexual assault when she was just 15. She didn’t tell anyone.
Instead, she tried to cover up her feelings of brokenness with nonstop activity that included biking 3,600 miles cross country for charity, hiking in the wilderness of Alaska and visiting the sacred places of India.
Her mother, a former Catholic nun and a war refugee, taught her to question the world around her. The problem was – she wasn’t finding any answers.
“In a way I guess I was trying to prove that I was tough, but it didn’t work,” recalls Kubitsky, who has degrees in marine biology and philosophy. “I started having anxiety attacks, questions about God and religion and my belief system. I just didn’t know why this was happening to me.”
Look for the Good volunteers staff a suicide prevention booth at the Jordan Porco Foundation’s Fresh Check Day. (Photo courtesy Corey Hudson)In 2011 on a whim, Kubitsky started leaving blank postcards around her Connecticut town, addressed to herself, with an invitation for the finder to write, draw, tape, cut, paste or sew onto each card something for which he or she was grateful and to put the card in the mail.
“It was random – I was looking to connect with other people, to find a glimmer of gladness in a bleak world,” she recalls.
Counting your blessings and expressing gratitude can improve your life, according to recent studies. From improved physical and psychological health to stronger relationships and a better night’s sleep, feeling grateful can make your world a better place.
The flood of response to her postcard project grew into a website to showcase the replies she was getting from all over the country and the world, more than 20,000 as of last count.
Always service minded, Kubitsky formed her own nonprofit, the Look for the Good Project, run on a shoestring budget dependent on volunteers.
Initiatives range from anti-bullying workshops to a photo-driven book series, postcard art installations in hospitals and joining forces with other organizations on service trips to places such as Brazil and Cuba.
The Look for the Good Project has touched some 147,300 lives, through 116 programs, with service to 4,430 students.
Finding gratitude from the stories of others, Kubitsky’s despair was replaced with grace.
“I realized that if I wasn’t acting out of a place of love, my service was coming from a place of a fear,” she says. “This work has helped me heal.”
Xavier Elliot
Meet Daily Point of Light Award honoree Xavier Elliot. Read his story and nominate an outstanding volunteer or organization as a Point of Light.
Xavier Elliott shows his stitching after practicing how to sew straight lines.Xavier Elliott has been through more than most 10-year-olds.
He spent his first five years living in homeless shelters. His father served in Iraq a year before Xavier was born and came home with severe post-traumatic stress disorder. When he couldn’t get the help he needed, he turned to self-medicating and the family lost everything.
“On top of that, Xavier had four major surgeries by the age of 8,” two of them for a club foot, says his mom, Stephanie. “He knows what pain is. He’s lived it.”
Although it’s been a tough road, the family, which now includes Xavier’s siblings Vincent Jr., 6 and Eliza, 3, is now doing much better. The Elliotts have their own place in Phoenix and Xavier’s dad has been sober for almost three years.
Both Stephanie and her husband volunteer, he with the Honor Guard and she as founder of Arizona Veteran Families, a nonprofit that helps veterans find the resources and support they need.
Xavier wanted to make a difference, too. This past summer, when he was sitting with his mom as she was sewing some items for veterans’ wives, he said he wanted to do something similar.
“He told me he wanted to start saving his allowance to buy fabric and make clothes for homeless kids,” Stephanie recalls. “I was in shock.”
She taught him the basics of sewing and he’s been making shorts, skirts and dresses for homeless kids ever since. He’s working on mastering the art of the zipper, which will expand his options. When asked if he might be a "Project Runway" contender when he gets older, Xavier says maybe so.
“I like putting things together,” he says.
The clothes he makes go to local shelters, including the Salvation Army, Crisis Nursery and UMOM New Day Center – one of the largest family homeless shelters in Phoenix.
His mom made him a Facebook page, which has inspired donations to his fabric fund.
“What I didn’t like about being homeless was not having my own stuff, my own clothes,” Xavier says. “I want to help kids who are like me. We have so much stuff now, I want to give to other kids.”
Samantha Fisher
Budget cuts, specifically in school’s music and arts programs, are on the rise in St. Louis, MO. Samantha Fisher wanted to know how she could help; what she could do. Through discussions with local musicians and artists, as well as hearing the needs of the local schools, it became clear to Fisher that someone needed to assist the younger generation. Surrounded by an electric music scene and a culture of artistic expression, Fisher embarked on bringing the joy of music to the children of St. Louis.
And with that, Play it Forward was born. “I quickly discovered there were more instruments in our homes than in our schools,” Fisher says.
Fisher was able to provide Demarions (Left) and Destiny(Center) with guitars so they could explore their musical interests Play it Forward provides and donates musical instruments to underprivileged schools, music programs, social services agencies and hospitals in the St. Louis area. Fisher has donated more than 800 instruments. Countless children and more than 30 schools have benefited from the program since its inception and Play it Forward has raised more than $35,000 to date for instrument donations.
Numerous studies have shown that music increases brain activity and improves math, science and social abilities. Fisher too believes in the power of music stating, “Music removes negative thoughts and replaces them with melody and harmony.”
“Kids need an identity,” Fisher says. Challenges in the foster care system can make it difficult for children to come into their own; they share many of their belongings and can struggle to find a suitable outlet. When Play it Forward donates a guitar or violin to these children, “they finally have something of their own,” Fisher says.
Play it Forward is bringing the joy of music to our younger generation. And Fisher has no plans of slowing down any time soon, “It’s a movement we’re trying to create. Play it Forward can change lives.”
Erik Richardson
Take a look around. We are living in a world where technology and the advancement of science is growing everyday. Advanced mathematics is helping us quantify all we see around us while growth in engineering explains the vast improvements in society. For many children, it is Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) that will guide their future.
As a teacher and mentor for many years, Erik Richardson has seen first-hand the impact education plays on a child’s early development. Dedicated to adolescent education, Richardson is an active volunteer at FIRST Robotics, helping introduce children to a whole new world of opportunities.
“I volunteer because as a teacher, I have seen time and time again how much of a difference it can make to spark a child’s imagination,” said Richardson.
In the field of Robotics, dreaming is encouraged and possibilities are endless. As a coach and mentor for FIRST robotics, Richardson has helped spread awareness and increase involvement in STEM activities, as well as assisting with organizing and fundraising for the local robotic clubs. His coaching and mentoring of the robotic teams has reached over 100 high school and over 40 middle school students.
Richardson’s work with outreach programs has influenced thousands of additional students. For example, he helps run the largest LEGO robotics tournament in his home state of Wisconsin, helped organize the Tedx Youth conference, does workshops with Boy Scouts, as well as public demonstrations at schools, libraries and museums.
Richardson is truly a pioneer, not just in robotics but for the children. He has helped produce the first ever Spanish-English children’s book on robotics and founded a new science and math based non-profit, Every Einstein.
While STEM becomes even more prevalent in society, teachers like Erik Richardson will continue to prepare the next generation.
Lindsay Davis
The heart is the hardest working muscle in the human body. While Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) is very preventable, it happens to be the number one cause of death amongst student athletes.
Lindsay Davis understands too well the importance of heart screening. Diagnosed with Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM) at the age of 17, Davis needed an implantable cardio defibrillator for a second chance at life. HCM is a disease in which the walls of the heart (muscle) becomes abnormally thick, making it difficult for the heart to pump blood. Though her heart condition denied her of her dreams of becoming a ballerina, it has given her a whole new outlook on life.
“I feel like everything happens for a reason,” said Davis. “I don’t resent having this condition because I’ve been able to use it to help people … Which is my true calling in life.”
Davis speaking at a Heart Hope Foundation eventDavis, the former Miss Ohio 2011, has made a remarkable recovery. She is currently lobbying to get SCA legislation passed in her home state that will save thousands of lives.
Her bill would require coaches and teachers to watch an eight-minute video about SCA and sign off on understanding its symptoms. The bill will also demand coaches to pull symptomatic student athletes from practices and games. With 72% of SCA victims reporting symptoms, heart screenings and symptom recognition becomes even more essential in stopping these preventable deaths
“Ohio is just the beginning for me,” said Davis. “The bill has been passed in nine states and my hope is someday the entire country will enact legislation that will help prevent these devastating losses of our children.”
Working with foundations like The Heart Hope foundation, Jordan’s Family Foundation, Cameron’s Cause and Simon’s Fund, Davis is committed to heart health and bringing an end to these avoidable tragedies.
Anne Kubitsky wears the