Lane Maloney

Over the last 5 years at the Santa Cruz County Animal Shelter, Lane Maloney has put in over 5000 hours of time. She can be found at the shelter almost any day of the week doing tasks that range from helping with mountains of laundry, cleaning out cages or orienting new volunteers. She has been especially committed in the rabbit program, often transporting them to other rescues and participating in off site adoption events. The staff and volunteers have the greatest appreciation for what she does. The SCC Animal Shelter is a better place to work and volunteer because of her presence.

Arden DeVincenzi

Arden DeVincenzi has been volunteering with Teen Kitchen Project (TKP) as a Packing Coordinator for close to three years, volunteering over 750 hours serving the community through TKP. TKP serves about 400 meals a week and Arden works with teen volunteers to ensure the food being packaged is beautiful, delicious, and appropriate for any dietary restrictions a client may have. Her and her husband Bob work in the kitchen, serve at events, make deliveries, shop and perform any other tasks TKP needs. They are a cherished part of the team at TKP.

Rosemary Matzerath

Rosemary Matzerath has volunteered with the Literacy program for 9 years. As a result of her efforts, her students are now able to participate more fully in the community and achieve their career and personal goals. A lifelong educator, Rosemary finds education to be her calling. She taught junior high and high school for 22 years, was a principal for 6 years and spent 20 years in church education. She sees education as a gift given to her that she wants to share with others. This has guided her all her life; if she could help anyone in any way, she wants to “be the difference” for others, to help them realize their abilities.

Nicole Untch

Nicole Untch is one of HandsOn Broward’s rock star Project Leaders. Nicole first heard about HandsOn Broward in high school, but because she already had enough community service hours for her silver cord, she never considered signing up until someone pointed out how much she enjoyed volunteering.

“At the end of my junior year of high school, I was going through a rough time and found it really hard to be happy. I was lucky enough to have a great friend who reminded me that he’s seen me the most happy when I was helping others,” says Nicole. “That’s when I remembered HandsOn Broward and all the positive things my peers had said about the organization. I did one project and I was hooked.”

What originally motivated Nicole to get involved in the community were her parents. As an Hispanic growing up in Missouri, Nicole felt as though she belonged to a very small minority there. Most people in her community were immigrants in tough economic situations, so Nicole’s parents always went out of their way to extend their hands to those in need. “I saw the difference their simple acts of kindness made in people’s lives and I’ve always wanted to be like them,” says Nicole.

She also states, “Volunteering has completely changed my perspective about my goals for my life. I’ve always wanted help people and volunteering has given me the chance to work very closely with all types of people. I’ll admit that my goals change every few minutes, but the one goal that has developed and stayed strong with me is to make a difference.”

Nicole volunteered several times with HandsOn Broward for events like the Children’s Services Council Back to School Community Extravaganza and In Jacob’s Shoes, before taking the lead and attending Project Leader Training. She then became one of the leaders who served on the 911 National Day of Service and Make a Difference Day at Our House in Dania Beach.

Nicole decided to become a Project Leader because she wanted to invest even more in her community. “The Project Leaders I saw at events were so happy, very involved, and great at getting the volunteers involved and I wanted to be like that. From set-up to clean-up you work with the other PLs to make each event a memorable experience and you feel great when the project is done,” says Nicole.

“My advice to new volunteers is to be willing to do anything and everything!” says Nicole. “HandsOn Broward provides so many different projects, but you can find a place in every project. Be open to getting to know new people and trying new things and you’ll have an amazing experience.”

Nicole sums up her experiences in a quote from Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “As we lose ourselves in the service of others, we discover our own lives and our own happiness.” 

Chicago Woman Spreads Holiday Cheer Through Gift-Giving Program for Kids in Need

Rosanne Eiternick has dedicated the past 40 years of her life to service. She traces her passion for helping others back to watching out for her four younger brothers and their friends after the death of her father. “I was always the go-to. All the parents knew, if [the kids are] with Rosanne everything’s okay. I was like the safe haven. I’ve just grown up my entire life doing that.”

As an adult, Rosanne became involved in mentoring children after stepping in as a full-time coach at her children’s school on Chicago’s west side. Over fifteen years, her youth group grew to more than 250 children. But, after a move in the late 80s, her mentees dwindled from hundreds to ten students when she left the neighborhood and took a job overseeing a church youth group of high schoolers from more privileged backgrounds – far removed from the world of the lower-income kids she’d worked with before.

To teach the group about the importance of giving back, Rosanne invited a social worker to visit and share the challenges that abused kids face. “It’s not that kids don’t care, it’s that kids aren’t aware,” said Rosanne. She prolonged the teachable moment by having the group “adopt” all of the kids on the social worker’s caseload for Christmas, and Adopt-a-Kid was born.

Rosanne categorizes Adopt-A-Kid’s work as an awareness program to show young people how they can positively impact other people’s lives through acts of kindness. “The kids said ‘There’s nothing we can do, we can’t change their lives,’” Rosanne recalled, “but I said no we can’t change their lives but we can let them know somebody out there is thinking about them.”

Now in its 28th year, the organization works with 15 agencies to source thousands of kids in need. Schools pick who they want to collect Christmas presents for—with choices running the gamut from organizations that service teen mothers, homeless shelters, prison ministries, and more. The gifts are screened and wrapped by children and teen volunteers, as well as adults and families, during Santa’s Workshop weekend. In turn, each recipient receives two presents – one just for fun, and one practical item. Adopt-a-Kid services Chicago and Indiana, as well as some Native American reservations. Last year, 3,000 children received presents through the organization.

“If we can bring the awareness to [kids], it changes them. It has to. I’ve seen it. Others have seen it. You can’t go backwards once you find out the truth,” Rosanne said.

To find opportunities to give back in your community, visit All For Good.

Ching Brodsky

Ching serves as a volunteer tutor with the Literacy Program at The Volunteer Center of Santa Cruz. Twice a week she works with a student at the Santa Cruz County Jail.

Each session she signs in at the jail, passes through security where her materials are inspected, and then is escorted by a guard to her to a contact room. The room is stark with windows that face into the hallway for outside observation, a heavy door with call buttons alongside, pale yellow walls, overhead fluorescent lights, linoleum tiled floors, a folding table, and plastic chairs. The guard locks the door behind her and then the learning unfolds. She sets to work with her student for next two hours.

Her current student’s first language is Spanish. For the past year, he has been diligently studying to make English his second. At the age of ten, his father took him out of school and put him to work so he could help support their family of 8. Now as an adult, he is striving to learn basic language and math skills, pronunciation, spelling, and grammatical structure. This is just a small sampling of the many hurdles he faces in organizing and understanding thought, feelings, and meaning so he can interact in an English speaking world more successfully.

When asked what motivates her to volunteer each week she states, “I admire his strong work ethic and courage to remake his life. My challenge is to find the path to his learning, unfettered by his history or circumstances.”

Ching is one of more than 200 tutors changing lives through the Literacy Program. Since 1967 over 11,000 members of The Volunteer Center of Santa Cruz’s community have received instruction from Literacy Program Tutors.  Students come from all walks of life and what they hold in common is the desire to improve their lives.

Every week someone new walks into Literacy office to inquire about learning English. Some people want to get a job, to advance their career, to communicate with their neighbors, or simply talk with their child’s teacher about their concerns.

Thankfully, there are folks like Ching ready to meet the need.

Carmelita Nelson

Carmelita Nelson devotedly serves Matter by playing an active part in every aspect of Matter programs.  As a Diabetes Educator at HCMC, Carmelita used her network and expertise to help craft the contents of the MATTERbox.  This has included connecting with Matter and the Diabetes Education team at HCMC as well as making recommendations for the contents of the MATTERbox. After formulation, Carmelita helped to integrate the MATTERbox into the Diabetes Education program at HCMC.  HCMC has 80% of their clientele living at or below the poverty line with the number one diagnosis being diabetes.  Through the Diabetes Education program, nurses are working with the clients to educate them on how to manage their diabetes with a healthy diet.  Over the past year, the program has distributed 240 MATTERboxes and the integration of the MATTERboxes has increased the program completion rate by 25% with some clients able to go off of injected insulin by simply changing their eating habits as modeled through the MATTERbox.

Carmelita further donates her time in a variety of ways as a member of partnering agency, Philippines Medical Missions Association.  As a member, Carmelita volunteers 20-40 hours per year to help sort and package medical supplies at our warehouse.  This year Carmelita is participating in her fifth medical mission trip to the Philippines.  Carmelita has also forged the relationship between Matter and Dr. Sidney Jones at HCMC.  Through this connection, Matter has been presented with the opportunity to partner with World Vision to do a large hospital project in Zambia

Outside these two main programs, Carmelita has also assisted Matter by volunteering at the Night to Matter Gala.  She has also helped to provide health education materials needed to potentially secure a $100,000 grant to increase access to medical care in Panama.

This was a Be The Change Award Submission by Hannah Hegman of Matter.