Volunteer Uses Fashion As a Tool to Help Girls Succeed

Putting One Foot in Front of the Other to Guide Others to Success

Putting one foot in front of the other is a mantra that a plethora of people use to literally put their best foot forward in life. It is a statement of encouragement and perseverance, to continue on whatever path leads to success. For Seth Waterman, it means running in marathons and leading others to much more than just a finish line.

Seth, who took up running as a pastime after college, did so for most of the reasons others do. It was an activity and a sport that was on his own time, that kept him in shape and satiated his competitiveness. And he had thought to spread his love of running to help others through volunteering. It wasn’t until friends of his pointed him to volunteer work directly regarding visually impaired people – who loved to run just as much as he did.

Seth joined MABVI, the Massachusetts Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired, and became a guide for their runners.

“They reached out to me and I decided I wanted to run a marathon,” he said. Seth ran in Boston’s 2015 marathon as the most recent guide. “It’s being able to share the joys of running with someone else that enables them to essentially do it on their own,” Seth said. “Having that experience and enabling them to experience it on their own.”

Seth values his role in building moments with the runners he guides. He recalled a moment in a Boston race in 2015, where the woman that he guided thought she wasn’t going to make it to the end.

“Joyce and I had a set goal time and [we] hit a rough patch,” Seth said. “Joyce thought we weren’t going to make it, but we got through that. We hit the time exactly. It was such an accomplishment.”

Seth recalled what a friend told him. “I’m never going to compete in the World Series or the Superbowl but to be part of the Boston Marathon, sort of the pinnacle of the running world, is really cool to experience and then to share.”

Seth’s time volunteering has clearly helped others, but it has also enlightened him.

“[This experience] has changed my outlook where originally I said that sports was the place where I would compete,” Seth said. “But now it’s much more than that; it’s a community, it’s a team. It’s something that I’m part of that I can’t see myself getting away from!”

Seth, who guides for MABVI in Boston Marathons every year, also runs various other races for different organizations and charities like the New York City marathon, taking place in the first weekend for November. He’s running for Back on My Feet which is an organization that advocates for homelessness coast to coast and how society views it.

The number one thing he wants people to know about volunteering is here or anywhere, for any organization is that it is not difficult.

“Anyone can do it,” said Seth. “Give it a try. There are opportunities everywhere.”

To find volunteer opportunities in your area, check out All For Good.

Virginia Woman Uses Four Wheels to Help Residents in Need

 

Gotham may have Batman and his Batmobile, but Manassas, Virginia has their own hero — Debra Bobbitt and her Hummer.  

For the past seven years, Debra has been volunteering her time, effort and gas to help Manassas residents get to critical medical care during severe snowstorms.  

Her passion for service and sacrifice came into full force this past January when winter storm Jonas brought three feet of snow to Prince William County. In the span of three days, Debra volunteered 36 hours to transport 18 patients and medical staff back and forth from three dialysis centers for a total of 36 trips.  

“The first night, I didn’t get home until midnight and then at 5 a.m., I left my house and picked up the nurse,” Debra said. “It was tiring and I was cold, but what makes you push through it is just that if it’s not you, what are these people going to do? There’s nobody else that can do it.” 

With a list of patient names and addresses, Debra drove to the patients’ homes, picked them up, drove them to the dialysis center, waited for them and then drove them back. While it may sound simple, Debra faced constant obstacles along the way.  

An example of this was when Debra had to pick up an older man from his townhouse to get him to dialysis. However, the snowplows had plowed a huge mound of snow in front of his home. So Debra did the only thing she could do. With the help of her son Zachary, they shoveled at least 30 yards through 35 inches of snow and salted the pathway so that the man could get to her vehicle.  

“Those people, his adult children, were just crying and they were so thankful,” Debra recalled. “It was just amazing, the sense of community and family and God.” 

Debra even pulled out three snowplows that had gotten stuck, using rope and equipment she keeps stocked in her sports utility vehicle at all times.

While Debra’s experience driving large vehicles in harsh conditions comes from her time in the military, she said her passion for helping others comes from her upbringing and especially her father. 

“My dad, he had a truck and when there was trash in our town, he would load up all of us kids in the back of the truck and say ‘I’m going to drive really slow and you kids, just pick up all the trash and put it in the back of the truck and we’ll take it to the dump.’ Just the nature, I guess, growing up, that’s just what I learned to do.” 

Debra is currently in Florida repairing her house from the damage Hurricane Matthew caused. But even while she was driving to Florida, Debra loaded up her Hummer with food, water and all sorts of vehicle fluids and equipment. When she found several families stranded at a truck stop in North Carolina, Debra didn’t hesitate to give out her supplies.

“Even if I move and there’s no snow somewhere else, I think I will never sell this Humvee because I can help people and I absolutely love to help people,” Debra said. 

Check out All For Good to find ways you can make a difference in your community.

Answering the Call: Retiree Turns to Service for Her Second Act

When President Barack Obama took office, the former community organizer urged Americans to reach into their communities to solve problems in a “spirit of service.”

Millicent Jackson took his words to heart. Jackson, a New York native who lives in West Orange, NJ, was getting ready to retire from her career at Verizon.  “I didn’t know how I was going to go about doing that, but his words resonated with me.”  The summer after she retired, Jackson did some noodling on the Internet and came across Jersey Cares, a non-profit that matches volunteers with all kinds of community projects.  “You can search by your location, by the interests you have, the time you have available – it was very easy to navigate.” 

The first thing Jackson tried was joining a tree-planting project in Newark.  “It was fulfilling, to be out and doing something that you could see an immediate benefit,” she said.  Jackson realized that she liked working outside after a career spent in an office, so her next project was working with a food bank to deliver commodities in an outdoor setting in downtown Newark.  That was almost four years ago, and Jackson is now the coordinator for the Newark site.

“We have staples and fresh and frozen food that’s been donated to us from local supermarkets and stores,” she explained. “Folks line up and get what they need.”

Jackson has gotten to know a lot of the regulars who frequent the project, an interaction that gives her an important sense of satisfaction.  “It gives me a warm feeling, to be able to help these folks.  There aren’t necessarily homeless people, but people who just need a little help.  You don’t know what a person’s situation is just by looking at them. Everybody can use a little help now and then.”

Whether it’s 20 degrees or 95, every Monday you can find Jackson managing the food distribution, working with her volunteers and chatting with the folks who pass through the line.  “I definitely would encourage anybody at any time to experience what it feels like to just be able to help another person, to do a kind deed.  Once you see how it makes you feel when you see the smile on their faces, that’s reason enough to show up every week.”

Arkansas Woman Fights Hunger by Using Employee Per Diems as Funding Source

Growing up in western Arkansas, near the Oklahoma border, Jennifer Barker and her cousin, Brittany Hodak, were as close as sisters. As children, they vowed to “make a difference” when they became adults.

“We were fortunate growing up and never struggled with hunger, but it was all around us,” Jennifer said. “My mom was a case worker and my parents became foster parents when I was in my teens. For some kids, the meal they get at school is their only one, and they’re on their own on the weekends. Having seen that firsthand is something I’ll never forget.”

Besides sharing a desire to give-back, the cousins both have an entrepreneurial spirit. Jennifer studied business administration at Oklahoma State University and worked in corporate and nonprofit environments. Brittany started her own company, ZinePak, a successful New York City–based entertainment marketing company.

It was an invitation from the ABC TV series Shark Tank to present ZinePak to the show’s notorious investors that changed the course of their lives in an unexpected way. Brittany was amazed when she was later reimbursed by the show for a generous amount of “per diem expenses” to cover meals and expenses during the show’s taping.

“She was shocked at how much it was,” said Jennifer. “We started doing some research and discovered that professional athletes, entertainers, and corporate executives are routinely paid ‘per diem’ expenses, whether or not they actually need money for food.” An idea was born: the women would create a nonprofit agency that would collect per diem sums from recipients who were willing to redirect the money to food pantries.

Founded in May 2015, Per Diems Against Poverty successfully partnered with Feeding America, an established, nationwide network of 200 food banks, so that money collected could reliably be distributed where most needed.

After coming up with the idea, Brittany and Jennifer dived into researching food insecurity and learned some disturbing truths about the staggering scope of poverty. “At the time, we didn’t realize how pervasive the issue of hunger is across America,” said Jennifer. “Almost 49 million people depend on food banks every year. The more research we did, we found that no such organization existed, so per diems were an untapped resource.”

Jennifer also was intrigued to learn how widespread the practice of granting per diems has become. It’s common among sports teams that travel throughout the season, but similar sums are also given to many business professionals who travel.

After Per Diems Against Poverty was featured in a September 2015 article in Forbes, a film production company reached out to Jennifer to see if it, too, could join the movement.

“When they film on location for any TV show, movie, etc., everyone—from the camera crew to the producer to the director to all the actors—receives a minimum $60 per diem each day, and the amount goes up from there,” says Jennifer. “You can imagine how, with a 100-person crew, or on huge sets, it could be 250 people. That could add up really quickly.”

Every dollar collected from an otherwise unused per diem allowance translates to 100 meals that can be distributed through food banks, Jennifer says.

That kind of impact is truly needed. Jennifer Kovacs, director of new partnerships for Feeding America, says the nation’s initial recovery from the Great Recession hasn’t yet reduced the need for food assistance. “A lot of people assume our clients are homeless and jobless,” says Kovacs. “But in many cases, our clients are underemployed, working two and three jobs, to make ends meet. It looks different in every community across the country; however, the need is so great.”

“I work on our new partners, and we’re always looking for unique and innovative ways to help people,” Kovacs explained. “…[with] the passion that Jennifer had for the cause and their commitment to be successful—and with their plan’s potential, we couldn’t not partner with them.”

Jennifer combined the business education she got in college and her past working experience in marketing, public relations, sales, and management to put together a solid business plan. “My background in business administration came in very handy in starting and running this business over the past year,” says Jennifer. “Whether you like to think about it or not, a nonprofit is a business, so there’s a lot to think about and there’s even more red tape to get there.”

While the pair has no previous per-diem program on which to model their start-up, Jennifer says a key to their success is their openness to change.

“As a new nonprofit, we’re very flexible and creative in the way we approach teams and other participants,” she says. For example, professional athletes can choose to donate an entire season’s per diems up front—as New York Mets outfielder Curtis Granderson chose to do in a lump sum of $10,000.

Christina Coleman, spokeswoman for the All-Star ballplayer, says Per Diems Against Poverty also helps athletes—like Curtis—many of whom are already generous donors to causes, to latch onto an ideal way to address hunger. “Curtis is very passionate about the food insecurity issue in this country,” says Christina. Although his charitable foundation has long supported education and youth athletics, “what he saw was, you can create educational opportunities, but if kids aren’t eating, they’re not performing in the classroom and they’re not performing in the field.”

Because Feeding America operates such a large network, players are given the option to choose specific food banks—perhaps one in their hometown, or the team’s city—or both. “Granderson actually split his $10,000 donation among five different food banks,” says Jennifer.

Jennifer says her organization is already brainstorming creative ideas to generate donations from business professionals.

The amount allowed for meals is usually much more than most people would normally eat,” notes Jennifer. “So you could do it a couple of different ways. The employee could waive the per diems and they could go to the local food bank. Or you could have a company matching program, which we’re talking about with a couple companies. We also have talked with a company that if an employee does not spend the entire amount of his or her allotment for that day, the company would donate the remainder.”

Jennifer and Brittany are committed to maintaining a “100 percent giving model.” “One hundred percent of our donations go to our cause to help fight hunger. That’s one thing we’re 100 percent committed to,” says Jennifer.

To achieve this, Jennifer has solicited in-kind donations to cover some services. But expenses such as domain fees, marketing materials, travel expenses, and child care—Jennifer has two young children—are entirely out of pocket. Jennifer says her husband, Joseph, works two full-time jobs, as a firefighter and as a patient services coordinator, to pay the bills, freeing Jennifer to spend her days as a volunteer, making calls, updating the website, and coordinating donations.

“It helps that one of our core values is frugality,” says Jennifer.

Since its founding in May 2015, Per Diems Against Poverty collected enough to provide more than 150,000 meals through the end of that year. The organization is on pace to help provide nearly 1 million meals by the end of 2016.

Doing Good from the Sidelines: How One Corporate Citizen Leads for Change

Jack Fox isn’t a guy who likes the limelight. The 52-year-old Denver native and commercial real estate developer has spent his entire career with an eye toward making a difference. And, doing it his way means setting up other people for success and recognition, a style that makes its own powerful statement.

Service has always been on Jack’s radar.  “It’s pretty simple,” he explained. “My folks are the role models. I grew up in a household where we were all expected to give back and be part of the community. But most of what I do now is without finger prints – I get the most satisfaction out of being in the shadows and seeing things get done.”

Jack takes a shotgun approach to which causes he supports. “There are a lot of causes close to my heart,” he said. “Early childhood education, helping at risk kids in the public school system, affordable housing, those are a few places I put my efforts.” 

Those efforts are considerable. Although he’s a mover and shaker in the Denver corporate world, Fox makes it his business to use that hard-earned acumen to benefit non-profits. He’s served in executive and board positions for the 2% Club, a CEO philanthropic group; The Denver Foundation, a community foundation with more than $600 million in assets; and the selection committees for National Philanthropy Day and the Colorado Collaboration Award. Add in numerous other civic, charitable and education non-profits ranging from Denver Kids, Inc. to Habitat for Humanity and his time is well accounted for.

Jack believes that one mark of a good CEO is being nimble and open to change. When the model for the 2% Club became outdated – “We are no longer a small collection of business leaders in a centralized location,” a move towards more diversity and inclusion was in order.  Jack is one of the founding members of B:Civic, a non-profit that promotes and advances business philanthropy and community involvement for the betterment of communities across the State of Colorado.

“Our goal is to develop a culture in which all businesses and business associations know that investing in the community is a smart, viable business strategy,” he explained. “We have broadened our reach beyond just the CEOs to anybody involved in corporate philanthropy. And that approach has taken off like wildfire.” 

As engagement grows, giving isn’t about simply writing a check at a charity event, Jack added. “The strength of a company’s service program has a direct effect on attracting and retaining the best and the brightest employees,” he said. “Doing good is simply good for business.  The days of it happening from the top, down are over. Employees want that kind of involvement and engagement and we work to make that happen for companies across the state.”