Evelyn Barkin
Longtime mental health advocate Evelyn Barkin is the executive director and co-founder of the Jonathan O. Cole Mental Health Consumer Resource Center (Cole Center). Evelyn, who was diagnosed in the mid-70s with bipolar disorder, conceived the idea for the organization while attending a meeting at the Manic Depressive and Depressive Association of Boston (MMDA), now known as the Depression-Bipolar Support Alliance (DBSA). She realized that she was being approached repeatedly at meetings for advice on time structuring, social isolation, social security, housing and legal matters. Subsequently, Evelyn partnered with fellow MMDA member Anne Whitman Ph.D., to form the Cole Center. The nonprofit has become a revered model for consumer resource centers, and it has helped countless mental health consumers cope with their illness, look for employment, and gain the confidence to lead healthy and fulfilling lives.
Edie Windsor
Breaking new ground happened professionally for Edie Windsor when she entered—and thrived—in what was then the brand-new field of computer programming during the 1950s and 1960s. Windsor worked for IBM, an early leader in computer technology, in an industry that to this day remains dominated by males. Windsor reached the highest technical level at IBM: senior systems programmer. But Windsor didn’t tell her co-workers or superiors a secret: she was gay. “I lied for 16 years,” recalls Windsor.
Windsor left IBM in 1974, but she kept in touch with her fellow “techies” and remained keen to keep up with new advances. It was her computer skills that first connected her to a local gay community center. “They said, ‘We’re having trouble with our computers and we heard you’d worked at IBM,’” she recalls. “From there on in, I set up everyone’s mail systems and things like that. That was way, way back, in the late ’70s, long before any of my heroics in court.”
The community center, now known as SAGE, continues to benefit from Windsor’s advocacy and example. It offers supportive services and resources for older LGBT adults and their caregivers and provides cultural competency training for aging providers and other LGBT organizations.
Windsor, now 87, is credited with leading the way to groundbreaking Supreme Court decisions in recent years. In United States v. Windsor, she successfully won the right to inherit the estate of her wife, Thea Spyer, without paying inheritance taxes. Windsor’s case led the way to many states legalizing gay marriage.
Lynn Faria, chief officer for external affairs at SAGE, says she knew Windsor as a generous philanthropist and crusader long before working alongside her to promote SAGE’s work to raise awareness of LGBT issues among the aging. Windsor’s generation might never have “come out,” due to social pressure, Faria says: “We also see a lot of folks who were ‘out’ but when they became much older and needed to move back with family or in a rehab facility, went back in the closet.” Among other things, SAGE works with medical providers, caregivers, and others to learn “not to make assumptions” and to be tactful when asking about a person’s spouse or children.
Faria says Windsor provided an inspiring role model for others with her class and bravery. “She carries herself with such grace and aplomb,” says Faria.
Windsor has devoted more than four decades as an activist for gay rights, while at the same time providing a dignified yet fearless role model.
Although she’s an octogenarian and suffers from hearing loss, Windsor’s activism is still going strong. “I’m totally involved,” she says. “Every weekend I go to an event. I speak at many of them. Most of my social life takes place in the gay world. Much of that has to do with actual organizations and the like. We are friends; we’re all related to each other.”
“I didn’t want to stop. I loved it,” she continues. “If I could take you to one of the things and you could watch the people who approach me and say, ‘Thank you, you’ve changed my life’ or ‘You’ve changed my kid’s life’—it’s hard not to stay engaged.”
Mike Chu
Mike Chu has been volunteering through HandsOn Bay Area for more than three years. Though he lives an hour away from the San Francisco area where the organization is based, he’s always willing to travel as far as necessary to serve others. In 2015, he led more projects than any other HandsOn Bay Area volunteer leader. One of Mike’s responsiblities is pairing children with developmental disablities with volunteers, so that the children can have a safe space to play. Becuase of Mike’s commitment to service, and his infectious personality, HandsOn Bay Area’s programs with KEEN and the Special Olympics have flourished.
Kristin Chmela
Kristin Chmela is the co-founder of Camp Shout Out and serves as its Director of Training and Treatment. Camp Shout Out combines intensive speech therapy services within a traditional overnight summer camp program for kids with fluency disorders.
Kristin is a speech-language pathologist who grew up with a significant stuttering problem. Her personal experiences fueled her desire to help children who stutter become the best communicators possible. Stuttering is a communication disorder occurring in up to 5% of all school age youth, which often results in significant emotional and social consequences including communication withdrawal, bullying, and shame. The program at Camp Shout Out has impacted more than 1000 children with fluency disorders.
Physical Education Professor Starts Camp for Visually Impaired Youth
“My dream is for all children with visual impairments to have access to Camp Abilities activities that are close to home,” says Lauren Lieberman, the force behind the educational sports camp she founded for children who are visually impaired, blind, or deaf-blind. “Oftentimes, children with visual impairments don’t have opportunities to be with other youngsters who share their circumstances. Through Camp Abilities, they meet children who not only appreciate their challenges, but celebrate in their successes and provide empowerment.”
As a physical education student in the 1980s at West Chester University in Pennsylvania, Lieberman volunteered to work with Ski for Light, an adapted recreational program for adults with visual impairments. A chance encounter teaching cross-country skiing to a woman proved to be pivotal. “Lauren, I never could have done this without you,” said the grateful participant. It was then that Lieberman realized her calling. She later taught adapted physical education at the Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, MA; eventually received her Ph.D. from Oregon State University; and came to The College of Brockport near Rochester, New York, in 1995 to devote her life’s work to helping individuals with visual impairment reach their highest physical potential. A year later, she established Camp Abilities, welcoming 27 children to the first weeklong program that offered such athletic activities as swimming, track and field, gymnastics, tandem biking, and beep baseball.
The camp has grown through the years, though Lieberman hopes one day all 59,000 visually impaired children in the U.S. will attend a Camp Abilities and later participate in after-school and community-based sports programs. “Through sports and physical activities, the lives of visually impaired children can be significantly impacted,” says Lieberman. “Not only do they gain confidence in discovering a newfound athletic skill, but they take pride in participating in an activity enjoyed by their sighted peers.”
Lieberman recognizes that children with visual impairments aren’t the only ones who reap the benefits of a Camp Abilities experience. Lieberman has engaged scores of students from The College of Brockport as well as universities all over the world to work as counselors at Camp Abilities. “Teaching college students how to work with visually impaired individuals cannot be done in a classroom using a textbook,” she says. “Proper training requires students to have hands-on experience with persons with visual impairments.” Upon graduating, many of her college students have established Camp Abilities in other communities and trained others in the program as well.
Lieberman epitomizes her motto, “Believe You Can Achieve.” Since the program’s founding, she has planted 19 Camp Abilities in 16 states in the U.S. and an additional seven camps abroad. Each camp welcomes approximately 25 to 55 children annually. Many of the programs have expanded to include sporting activities for participants throughout the year.
Lieberman recently produced a How to Start a Camp Abilities manual, which includes grant applications, timelines, medical forms, and more. The manual allows new camps to be established more quickly and efficiently. In addition, working with the American Printing House for the Blind, Lieberman has produced adapted physical education kits that can be used by teachers and families in implementing sports activities. The Run/Walk Fitness Kit, for example, 45 comes with a guide wire, tether, and talking pedometer, along with an instructional manual, and is free to any child with a visual impairment.
Lieberman is a Distinguished Service Professor, the highest ranking in the State University of New York system. In addition, she is the recipient of the 2016 Warren C. Bledsoe Award for literary achievement for a book on physical education for visually impaired people. In 2015, she was inducted as a fellow of the International Federation of Adapted Physical Activity in Netanya, Israel. In 2012, she received the esteemed Access Award from the American Foundation for the Blind.
Lieberman has trademarked the slogan “A Loss of Sight—Never Loss of Vision.” This visionary spirit is felt by lives impacted by Camp Abilities. During the 2016 Paralympics in Rio, one of the leading swimming contenders was 21-year-old Martha Ruether, who came to Camp Abilities when she was 12 and learned to swim with the help of Lieberman and other counselors. Another inspirational story is shared by Jason and Lori Bennett, who credit Lieberman for their daughter’s metamorphosis: “Lauren has created a camp that has given Madison a place to be independent, gain confidence, grow in maturity, but most of all, a place to belong where everyone is just like her. Her dream was to be on a sports team for her school. This year, with the confidence and skills she learned at Camp Abilities, Madison’s dream came true. She made the track and field team! Madison believes she does not have a disability; she has a different ability.”
Lily Densmore
When Lily Densmore learned that an estimated 680,000 children were the victims of child abuse each year and that most of those kids ended up in the foster care system, the Girl Scout Cadette felt compelled to act. She contacted the Annapolis, Md.-based Blue Ribbon Project, an organization that provides support and outreach to abused children. Lily pledged to donate 500 backpacks filled with supplies to their Backpacks of Love program. The backpacks are handed out to kids entering the foster care system and contain a variety of items, including; toothbrushes, soap, hairbrushes, clothing, and age appropriate books and toys.
So far, Lily has engaged more than 200 young people and 50 adults at various events to donate materials and help pack more than 300 backpacks. She’s also working on an instruction video for Backpacks of Love that will show other volunteers how to properly pack a backpack.
Sue Lord
Sue Lord is a longtime volunteer at the American Cancer Society in Venice, Fla. A survivor of a rare sinus cancer herself, Sue has firsthand knowledge of the challenges those battling the disease face. Since 1999, she has served in a variety of roles, including local chair of the CPS-3 Cancer Prevention Study and lead for the Venice Relay for Life Event. She continues to serve as a team captain for the race, and her team has raised more than $60,000 for the event. In 2012, she recieved the Hope Award for her years of tireless dedication to helping raise awareness for the American Cancer Society.
Lawrence Jia
Though learning how to handle money may not seem as fun as learning how to drive, it’s integral for setting up young people for long-term social and economic success. Lawrence Jia learned that lesson early. The high school student always had a head for numbers, and he wanted to use that talent to help others. At fifteen, he started Money Matters, an organization that provides basic financial education to students.
Through Money Matters, hundreds of students attend bi-weekly and monthly financial literacy workshops at various after-school programs in Virginia. Lawrence has also started a chapter in Inner Mongolia in partnership with Tshinghua University that serves 800 students. The organization is staffed by about 100 high school and university students, and it counts executives at Capitol One, the Virginia Council on Economic Education, and Venebio LLC as mentors.
Florida Woman Distributes School Supplies to Kids in Need
Back-to-school conjures visions of eager, happy children wearing new shoes and clothes and carrying backpacks filled with the latest school supplies and personal products. But for some children, this idyllic scenario doesn’t exist, due to family circumstances and lack of funds. Without the basic necessities for school, children’s grades can suffer, and their self-esteem can decline. They can lose hope in their future.
Love for a late sister has changed this scene in Pasco County, Florida. Donating school supplies for needy children was a simple gesture by Deborah Shackowsky in memory of her younger sister, Marjorie, who was tragically killed by a drunk driver in 1997. What began with a few pens and packs of paper following Marjorie’s death evolved into a back-to-school distribution program for backpacks and clothes that Shackowsky affectionately calls Marjorie’s Hope. This year, 2,500 Pasco County children will have backpacks filled with new supplies to start school.
“Marjorie loved God, kids, and helping others,” said Shackowsky. “She was a devoted mom to her two children, and she cherished spending time in their schools. It seemed natural to do something for schoolchildren that would honor her precious memory. It was always my plan to give back to needy youngsters living in my community in the same way others gave to my children, so I randomly started donating school supplies.”
In 2008, school supplies turned into backpacks filled with items—35 of them! The next year, the number increased to 50, and the following year, it totaled 99, so friends and family began helping out. Phone calls starting pouring in from schools, indicating that backpacks were needed for more children. As the years passed and numbers grew, so did the volunteers and partners—and the 2,500 backpacks became a reality.
The community support for Marjorie’s Hope has been nothing short of heartwarming. National companies, such as Target, Kia Motors, and the 3M Corporation have joined the momentum, along with local businesses and organizations. “Our volunteers are the spine, strength, and light for our continued growth,” says Shackowsky. “They are the choir for the silent voices in our community—the children.”
“Bunco for Backpacks” is one of the most popular community fund-raisers in Pasco County. Shackowsky and her supporters started the event in 2012 as a way to purchase needed supplies to fill more backpacks. Fifty-four people attended the first Bunco party, which was held in a private home. Today, Bunco for Backpacks takes place each year at an upscale local country club, with hundreds in attendance and tens of thousands of dollars raised for the community cause.
Shackowsky has received numerous awards for Marjorie’s Hope. Recently, she received the Community Hero Award from the National Hockey League, which brought $15,000 in grant money to her organization. In addition, a local halfway house that provides reunification of families following the incarceration of a parent will be named Marjorie’s House in honor of Shackowsky and her beloved sister.
Katie Hecht
Katie Hecht is on a mission to make sure every child gets to experience the magic of reading. The Jacksonville, Fla., teen started her global initiative, Words on Wings, to help promote literacy for children in underserved communities. She has collected and distributed more than 7,500 books to four different countries. The accomplished youth is also a national award-winning author and has logged more than 500 volunteer hours with the Alliance for the Lost Boys of Sudan, a foundation started by her mother Joan Hecht. She also particpates in local food drives, volunteers at homeless shelters, and has visited Peru and Jamaica on mission trips.
