Making Service Her Life Purpose, Illinois Mom Starts Nonprofit to Provide School Supplies to Students in Need
Meet Daily Point of Light Award honoree Juliet Bond. Read her story and nominate an outstanding volunteer or family as a Daily Point of Light.
Growing up, Juliet Bond always dreamed of becoming a singer, so when it came time to go to college, she naturally chose to attend DePaul University on a music performance scholarship. Little did she know her life would be changed when she accidentally stumbled into a women’s literature class. Juliet and her peers were reading Marian Wright Edelman’s “The Measure of Our Success: A Letter to My Children & Yours” when one quote struck her: “Service is the rent we pay for being. It is the very purpose of life, and not something you do in your spare time.” While the quote may have inspired others to volunteer a couple hours during their week, it caused Juliet to alter the course of her life and dedicate herself solely to service and helping others.
“I felt a little adrift about the fact that I was pursuing a career that felt very self-important,” Juliet said. “It made me change my major to social work. I knew that I couldn’t live with myself as a human being if I wasn’t paying my rent.”
Juliet Bond is founder of COPE, a nonprofit providing students in Evanston with backpacks and school supplies they need to succeed. / Courtesy Juliet Bond
DePaul didn’t have a social work program, so she transferred to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and earned both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in social work. She went on to work for nonprofits, and even foster three children on top of caring for her own three kids. But her life of volunteerism really took off when she founded Caring Outreach by Parents in Evanston, a nonprofit that is now dedicated to providing Evanston public school students – pre-K to 12th grade – with the supplies and backpacks they need to succeed in school.
COPE originally started in 2011 as an informal group of mothers who would help families in crisis, whether it be delivering a casserole to their house or driving someone to the doctor’s office. Juliet and three other women formalized the group and over three years, they had a volunteer cell at each of the 16 public schools in their district. In their third year, they created buddy benches at each of the schools, allowing students who sit on the bench to signal to teachers and other students that they are lonely and in need of some support.
As time went on and their organization grew, they developed programs that assisted people with rent, taught people how to cook healthy meals, and provided groceries and even furniture to families in need.
“You usually don’t have people coming to somebody’s rescue when they’re down unless you’re part of a religious community or church or temple,” Juliet said. “That happens normally in those communities, but if you aren’t, then the next fallback is if you’re part of a school community. So the whole kind of impetus and the reason we started COPE is, here’s another community that could be really supportive if we find out you’re struggling.”
To keep the organization sustainable and effective, COPE eventually cut down their services to what the community needed most: supplying students from low-income families with school supplies. Every year, COPE raises around $30,000 to supply more than 1,000 students from 17 schools in Evanston with backpacks and school supplies; 200 sets of school supplies are provided to the school district specifically for homeless students.
Juliet’s husband, Kevin, has been helping out with COPE since the beginning, volunteering at every event and delivering furniture to needy homes. He credits Juliet for teaching him about service.
“She has definitely taught me that getting out of your comfort zone to help other people is something that’s not really optional in life,” Kevin said. “We all owe it to the people around us to be responsible for each other.”
Juliet believes it’s unfortunate we live in a country where families are unable to provide school supplies for their children and that an organization like COPE is even necessary, but she hopes that people reading her story will experience that same feeling she felt when first reading those words from Marian Wright Edelman: “Service is the rent we pay for being.”
Senior Brings Joy to Elderly At the End of their Lives As Hospice Volunteer
Meet Daily Point of Light Award honoree Peggy Thorp. Read her story and nominate an outstanding volunteer or family as a Daily Point of Light.
After retiring from a long career working in a hospital, Peggy Thorp says she felt a void in her life. A natural caregiver, the 68-year-old St. Joseph, Missouri resident followed in a friend’s footsteps and became a hospice volunteer with Freudenthal Home Health.
Supplementing hospice care and helping to improve the quality of life for patients through comfort and compassion, Peggy is delivering care to those in their winter of their lives.
What inspires you to volunteer?
My grandmother is my inspiration. When I was younger, my Grandma Simons lived in a nursing home. I remember going to visit her, and bringing her home to spend time with family. I know people in nursing homes have too much time on their hands, and even though their family cares for them, it’s sometimes hard to fit a visit into their busy lives. I have many special memories from every Sunday after church, where we’d all spend time together as a family with Grandma Simons.
Describe your role as a hospice volunteer for Freudenthal.
I care for people and try to make them smile. I do my best to lift their spirits, whether it’s reading to them, doing activities or just listening to what they have to say. As a hospice volunteer, I am making people smile during the last days of their life. I volunteer twice a week, and usually visit individuals in nursing homes.
As a hospice volunteer, Peggy Thorp extends companionship and compassion to make people smile during the last days of their life. Peggy is pictured (left) assisting for a patient’s birthday party. /Courtesy Peggy Thorp
What’s been the most rewarding part of your service?
Making people happy is rewarding. Some of these patients don’t have much quality of life now, so I visit with them and try to remind them of the good times in their lives and their memories.
What have you learned through your experiences as a volunteer?
(Laughs). It’s not like I’m not busy. I have 4 kids and 9 grandkids. I’m on call for them always. I just really enjoy volunteering and giving my time to others.
What saying do you live your life by?
Take a little time to be kind and show you care.
You are described as always volunteering with a smile. How does that make you feel?
It makes me feel like I’m doing something right.
Share one personal story with me from your volunteerism.
I visit some ladies in the nursing home when I volunteer, and one lady was a big country music fan. The two of us would listen to music with my iPod Nano, singing and dancing. She liked Patsy Cline and the older stuff. I made her heart happy, she did mine too.
What do you want people to learn from your story?
When we get to the age of retirement, we have too much time on our hands. If you can take time to go see people, whether it’s at a nursing home or elsewhere, to show them you care for them and love them, you should. Technology is also wonderful, families can use Facetime to talk to loved ones – that’s almost like being there with them.
How can readers help?
Please visit the Freudenthal Home Health volunteer website for more information about how you can help.
Meet Daily Point of Light Award honoree Erin Jones. Read her story and nominate an outstanding volunteer or family as a Daily Point of Light.
Grief can be crushing, overpowering, paralyzing. Erin Jones, 40, a social worker in Cartersville, Georgia, lost her mother when she was 24. But she tamped down that grief, avoiding it for four years, until Thanksgiving night in 2008, when she started crying and couldn’t stop. Erin, who lost her father in 2014, figured she wasn’t alone in trying to cope with heavy grief. In 2015 she started a free support group called Onward, at first with the idea to offer help during the difficult holiday time, but the sessions grew into a once a month chance for listening, counseling, understanding, sharing resources and hugs.
Describe your volunteer role.
I facilitate the support group I started in 2015 called Onward, a mental health initiative under the e.Piphany Concepts umbrella that lets people know they aren’t alone in their feelings of grief and sadness – that they’re not crazy. They come for two hours, we share and there is no cost for the session. As a therapist, I create a trusted space, a place they can release all of their feelings about grief and loss without judgement.
What’s been the most rewarding part of your work?
Watching the clients go from being anxious and very sad to getting their balance back slowly. I tell them if I work myself out of this group, I would be pleased. Seeing people evolve because they don’t feel so alone is rewarding. It’s also wonderful to watch the group dynamic unfold as they help each other.
What have you learned through your experiences as a volunteer?
I have learned that grief is the ultimate sucker punch. You can be fine some days, then it hits you. I have also learned to marvel at the resilience of the human spirit. We have the ability to adjust to something as devastating as a death and know that things are not ever going to be the same, but we can still have a great life. Move onward – which is why I named the group that.
Are there any future partnerships, programs, or events that you are excited about?
I’ve just done some workshops on balance and self-care for our local Talatoona Bartow Head Start program and I’m looking forward to doing more community partnerships. People underestimate how much stress can affect our daily mental wellness.
Why do you think it’s important for others to give back?
In this age, with social media so prevalent, people need to connect. They are struggling for validation, struggling to belong. We all have to contribute, for the sake of ourselves, our families. Making the time to connect with others is critical for all of us.
What do you want people to learn from your story?
You can’t ignore grief. If you don’t deal with it, it will deal with you through sleeplessness, depression, anxiety, hypertension. That kind of emotional stress keeps our body in flight or fight mode – it’s toxic and we have to be mindful about it.
Meet Daily Point of Light Award honoree Sherri Nolan. Read her story and nominate an outstanding volunteer or family as a Daily Point of Light.
The last thing Sherri Nolan wants for any of her special education students is for them to feel like the “other” – the outsider who doesn’t fit in at school, who is teased or in any way made to feel less “normal” than everybody else. Which is why she’s club sponsor for the Las Cruces High School Best Buddies Club. A chapter of the national Best Buddies organization, this club matches regular education students with special needs students, fostering sharing, fun, empathy and activities, breaking down barriers in the process. Sherri, an involved educator who also works with the National Education Association both locally and at the state level and Read Across America, works tirelessly to support the high school group, letting the kids take the lead and offering guidance as needed. Her reward? Seeing relationships blossom that would otherwise never exist, relationships that are a powerful force for good for all of the students involved, no matter their intellectual or developmental status.
What inspires you to volunteer?
My special education students and their peer buddies inspire me to volunteer. All of my students are intellectually challenged and some have other disabilities such as autism and are language impaired. It is difficult for them to form relationships at school. Our Las Cruces High School Bulldawg Best Buddies Club encourages diversity-inclusion-acceptance throughout our community and school. Best Buddies International, which our club is associated with, is the world’s largest organization dedicated to ending the social, physical and economic isolation of people with Intellectual Developmental Disabilities, among other disabilities. Through this club, my students are able to form meaningful friendships with their peers and feel valued by our school and society. Having the opportunity to watch and help put these dynamics in motion is beyond amazing.
Sherri with her colleague Grace Brock and student Jose Luis DeLeon as “Elvis” at the Best Buddies Christmas Party./Courtesy Sherri Nolan
Describe your volunteer role.
As a sponsor of the Las Cruces High School Best Buddies Club, I do many, many things for the club, that go well beyond the classroom and the school day. It is difficult for me to separate the things I do during the day, throughout the week, and even during the summer. For me it is all connected and important to the members and to the school. Personally, I am not about what I do for the club or needing praise. To me, it is all about the kids, ALL the kids.
What’s been the most rewarding part of your work?
Probably the most rewarding part is seeing the friendships my students are able to make with their regular education peers that they would not have been able to otherwise. It is a joy to help and watch all of them plan events and work together, go on field trips together, eat lunch together, say Hi and hug their friends in the hallway during class changes. My students are no longer “those kids” they are a part of the school society, they all treat each other with love and respect and expect the same from others.
What have you learned through your experiences as a volunteer?
The most valuable lesson I have learned about being a volunteer is being able to work in tandem with both students and adults. An integral part of our Best Buddies Club is allowing the students – both the regular education and the special needs students be able to “drive” the club. By this, I mean myself and my other two colleagues, Grace Brock and Jon DeBord, whom I work collaboratively with, we guide the club/students and advise them along the way, but ultimately we want them to do the planning, the primary work, and the fundraising. It is their club, we act as the liaisons, help where asked and needed.
Sherri in front of her classroom, before a Best Buddies lunch meeting. /Courtesy Sherri Nolan
Are there any future partnerships, programs, or events that you are excited about?
I am most excited about a reunion celebration we are planning this fall. Our chapter was recognized at the Best Buddies International Leadership Conference as the Outstanding Chapter for New Mexico during the 2018-2019 school year. We are planning to invite our Best Buddies Alumni to our celebration. It will be great to see our former members and to let them know how their efforts helped lead the way to our club’s recognition. Along with this celebration, we have many things planned for the whole year, including the Project Unify Special Olympics, work at the local soup kitchen- Casa de Peregrinos Food Bank, field trips, collect Dimes for Downs for our local families, the buddy walk and the highlight of the year will be our district wide Best Buddies Prom. I am so very proud of each and every one of our amazing club members current and former and it is my honor to work with them all.
Why do you think it’s important for others to give back?
If as a society, we don’t step up and help, who will? As a citizen of the world, I feel that if I don’t do my part to give back in whatever way I can, then I have failed as a human being. One of the things my parents taught me, was to leave the world a better place than I found it. This of course can be accomplished in many ways and through different avenues. Throughout my life in volunteer work that I have done and continue to do, I have strived to do that. I have never left feeling empty, my heart is always full.
Lyme Disease Survivors Volunteer to Help Others Stricken with the Epidemic
Meet Daily Point of Light Award honorees Paula Jackson Jones and Angele Rice. Read their story and nominate an outstanding volunteer or family as a Daily Point of Light.
Their stories of survival are different, but their journeys to wellness, once filled with pain, confusion and frustration, have transformed into clarity and inspiration as Lyme disease survivors Paula Jackson Jones and Angele Rice advocate for others.
Launching Midcoast Lyme Disease Support & Education (MLDSE) in 2014, the two women, both Maine residents, are volunteering to make a difference for those touched by the Lyme disease. An epidemic, hundreds of thousands of Americans possibly contract the often difficult to diagnose disease each year, and Paula and Angele have used education, resources and their personal experiences to help thousands within the Midcoast Maine Lyme disease community.
What inspires you to volunteer?
Paula: When I went into remission, the biggest thing for me was realizing everything I had been through, how lonely I felt and how exhausting it was. I immediately signed up for a Lyme disease 5k, and that’s when I first met Angele in person. I had a very difficult time doing the 5k, I only finished 2nd to last because my dad stayed behind me for the entire race. The photo of my finish in that race reminds me that with the right support, anything is possible. Angele and I have seen first-hand how after struggling, going from doctor to doctor, people are getting better.
Angele: Both my parents taught me about the importance of serving others with whatever natural talents you have. When I was sick, my journey was long and not easy, I was doing it while raising my son. After awhile, you need a reason to get better. As a parent, I got better for my child. When I got better, my reason to get better changed. I was helping someone else to get better so they could raise their children and not be sick.
How do your personal experiences drive your volunteerism?
Paula: It’s important to us, given what we have been through, that we limit the journey from diagnosis to recovery.
Paula Jackson Jones and Angele Rice pictured at the Maine Union Fair. Through Midcoast Lyme Disease Support & Education (MLDSE), the two Maine residents use education, resources and their personal experiences to help others with Lyme disease./Courtesy MLDSE
Describe your role with Midcoast Lyme Disease Support & Education.
Paula: I am the president and co-founder of MLDSE, Angele is vice president and co-founder. We started MLDSE to serve Midcoast Maine with support groups and resources for people who have been diagnosed with Lyme disease, want information on Lyme disease and other tick-borne diseases. Once people realized that we are a community-based resource, and that we are helping people, they immediately connect, because they see the fruits of our labor. Through support groups, events and workshops, we are discussing prevention, education and sharing resources. We are inundated with calls and emails 365 days a year, supporting people however they need it. We also fundraise and have received grants.
What’s been the most rewarding part of your service?
Angele: When we have a patient say that we’ve connected them to resources, or to a doctor, or a support group, and they are now starting to get better. A woman was almost in tears telling me that we had connected her dad to resources, and because of our help, he’s getting better. From looking into her eyes, I knew what that meant to her. I don’t volunteer for the recognition, but knowing that we are getting results for people, how can you not help.
What have you learned through your experiences as a volunteer?
Paula: I have absolutely experienced personal change as a result of my volunteerism. Being touched by this disease personally, and having come through something that has taken the lives of other people, that will turn your entire world upside down. It shakes you to your core. I very quickly realized that there is no “one size fits all” approach to help somebody. It has to be unique, filled with compassion, understanding, listening and tailored to their individual needs.
Paula Jackson Jones and Angele Rice pictured at the Maine Women’s Expo. The two have helped thousands across the Midcoast Maine Lyme disease community./Courtesy MLDSE
Share one personal story with me from your volunteerism.
Paula: I apologize if I cry. This will be our fifth year at the Maine Union Fair. When you’re talking to a group at a fair, you never know when your words are going to make an impact. I received a phone call at home one day, the woman on the other end of the line said, ‘Hi Paula, you don’t know me but you saved my life.’ Her mom and dad had visited my booth at the fair, heard me sharing my story with someone else, and I spoke with them about resources. The woman decided to call the doctor whose contact information I had shared, and try to get help one more time. The reason why I say that is because she had a plan to take her own life, she had everything drawn up. She couldn’t handle the pain and the confusion anymore, and thought that her children would be better off with her parents. When we spoke, she said she wasn’t completely well yet, but she could see the light at the end of the tunnel. I sat in the kitchen, just crying at the table. You just never know. If we made a difference in one life, everything is worth it.
What do you want people to learn from your story?
Paula: I was misdiagnosed by 23 different doctors. You need a reason to get better, to hang on, and to get out of bed when the last ten doctors have told you you just need to adapt, because this is the new normal. We have a personal investment in getting other people better by sharing everything that we’ve been through.
How can readers help?
Please visit our website for more information about how you can help.
Do you want to make a difference in your community like Paula Jackson Jones and Angele Rice? Find local volunteer opportunities.
Stroke Survivor Inspires Others Through “Spread Goodness Day” Volunteerism
Meet Daily Point of Light Award honoree Anna Dravland. Read her story and nominate an outstanding volunteer or family as a Daily Point of Light.
Anna Dravland is a survivor. Once homeless and suffering from addiction, the Marquette, Michigan resident says it was acts of service that changed the direction of her life. And now, the 36-year-old is inspiring others to give back.
Establishing an annual “Spread Goodness Day”, Anna made it her mission to change the world and make it better through acts of goodness. But after suffering a serious stroke in 2017, mere months before the inaugural global day of goodness, her desire to promote change strengthened, devoting any spare energy to help others do good. Recording tens of thousands of acts of goodness thus far, Anna is proving that one action, multiplied by thousands (and she hopes millions, one day), can change the world.
What inspires you to volunteer?
Volunteering is a natural thing for me, I don’t know how to not serve. I’m a loving person and I love helping people and my community. I also love inspiring others to give back. I like making the world better because I’m in it.
What does “Spread Goodness Day” mean to you?
We’re inspiring a global day of goodness by encouraging individuals, businesses and organizations to take one action of goodness on this one day. I don’t care what act of goodness you make, or where you do it, or what goodness means to you. This is a true grassroots effort, and we make it as universally appealing as possible because I want each person to believe in how they are spreading goodness. We’ve had global participation from individuals including from India, Sweden, United Kingdom and Japan.
Describe your role with Spread Goodness Day.
Everything starts and ends with me. Recovery from the stroke is a marathon, not a sprint. When I am not participating in therapy or caring for myself, I am devoting my time and energy to Spread Goodness Day. I work on the website, fundraise, do marketing through social media, solicit sponsors and cultivate participants. We are currently recruiting for board members and volunteers, we presently have 30 volunteers.
How has the stroke changed your perspective on volunteering?
I’m an energetic person, and so when I was first developing this day, I’d go to the ends of all possibilities, always, in pursuing our goals. I’d tell people that I was going to change the world with goodness. Right after launching Spread Goodness Day, I suffered a serious stroke. The stroke changed my approach, for the good and bad. I woke up paralyzed without the ability to speak properly. I couldn’t spell my last name, didn’t know my phone number or my birthdate. I called my friends and expressed how sad I was because I was losing Spread Goodness Day. And that’s when my network mobilized. The people that came out of the woodwork to make Spread a success was mind blowing. Our events have become what they are because of this incredible love and support.
How has volunteerism changed your life?
I was homeless at one point in my mid-twenties and I suffered from addiction. I wanted to make the right decisions and make the world better. Volunteering made me feel like I got my life back. Once you get back into the light after making bad choices, and you live a happy life, an authentic life, you don’t ever want to give it back. Volunteering without question changed me.
Anna Dravland, the creator of Spread Goodness Day, pictured with children from Sandy Knoll Elementary School. The school has participated in the annual day for acts of goodness./Courtesy Anna Drovland
What’s been the most rewarding part of your service?
First – the healing and absolute joy Spread has brought me in my recovery. If the event had not been in the books, scheduled and planned, I wouldn’t have had such a positive experience to look forward to, and to balance out the really painful experience of recovery. Secondly, (laughs) I think it’s great I’m being recognized for my volunteerism, but all I did is build a platform to showcase all the good everyone else is doing. This day doesn’t work without everyone else.
Share one personal story with me from your volunteerism.
An entire elementary school participated in Spread Goodness Day, they just rocked my socks off. I don’t know how to describe what it felt like to walk into a gymnasium with 400 children screaming because of you. They were so happy to raise money for community organizations, and they thought I was a rock star. To be able to bring that kind of energy to kids, and to have that energy come back to me 100 times more was incredible. I knew the ripple effect of giving back happens naturally, but until I started on this journey, I had no idea what that would mean.
What do you want people to learn from your story?
People are powerful. Everybody can change the world and they can do it with simple goodness. Literally, no matter what has happened to you, what you’ve lost, what pain you think you can’t overcome, it is healing to give goodness to the world. I would invite others to give service a try, and see how your life suddenly changes when you focus on the goodness in your life and the goodness you can bring to others.
How can readers help?
Please check our Spread Goodness Day website for more information about how you can help.
Senior Volunteer and Cancer Survivor Helps Others at Oncology Clinic
Meet Daily Point of Light Award honoree R. Dana Towle, Jr.. Read his story and nominate an outstanding volunteer or family as a Daily Point of Light.
R. Dana Towle, Jr. has been volunteering within his community since he was a young man in his twenties, believing strongly in giving back. His current service work, however, is based upon a deeply personal mission to help others who are fighting cancer, as Dana once did himself.
Diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 1999, Dana received treatment in the outpatient oncology clinic at Sturdy Memorial Hospital in Attleboro, Massachusetts. The North Attleboro resident says he was so touched by the compassionate care he received from staff at the clinic, he decided to give back to others once he regained his health. Volunteering since 2001, the now 78-year-old has dedicated 4,600 hours of service to others battling cancer. Empathizing with their journey, Dana is providing critical emotional support to patients as they fight for their lives.
What inspires you to volunteer?
I am now retired from the fire protection industry, but I’ve been a volunteer my whole life. I like to help people in need, because I feel that we all have something to give back to society.
How is this volunteerism different, now that it’s so personal?
Receiving a cancer diagnosis is a very scary situation for most people. Even with all our medical advances, cancer can sometimes be a death sentence. The patients who come into the clinic want to know about their disease, and they want to know about treatment. I am there as someone who has had and survived cancer. I’ve been through the treatments. If they want to talk, I can share my experiences, both good and bad, and provide emotional support to patients as they are fighting cancer.
Describe your role with Sturdy Memorial Hospital.
I volunteer at the clinic so that the nurses and staff have more time to help the patients. We see anywhere from 35 to 40 patients each day. I start my shift at 6 a.m. to prepare the registration paperwork for patients. I prepare the IV stations, making sure each chair is clean and has a pillow, and that there available supplies and equipment. When clinic begins at 8 a.m., we begin receiving patients. Throughout the day, I’ll act as a runner to retrieve medications from the pharmacy, and also transport patients to x-ray, ultrasound, or the lab. I’m tired out by the end of the day!
In addition, I serve on the Patient and Family Advisory Committee for the hospital. We’re made up of hospital staff, volunteers and community members, and work to improve the quality of the hospital experience.
R. Dana Towle, Jr. has volunteered 4,600 hours of service to others battling cancer at Sturdy Memorial Hospital in Attleboro, Massachusetts./Courtesy R. Dana Rowle, Jr.
You are described as an advocate for volunteerism. Explain.
Service means a lot to me. When I first started volunteering in the clinic, I was the sole volunteer. Cancer and chemotherapy treatments can be a tough thing, and a lot of people don’t want to volunteer in that particular unit. Eventually we had some other people that were former patients join our volunteer ranks. I encourage and train other survivors to volunteer in the department, making a difference for those who are fighting cancer. Now we have volunteers virtually every day of the week.
Share one personal story with me from your volunteerism.
One gentleman came in to the clinic for treatments, and he was scared of what was going to happen to him. When I wasn’t running to the pharmacy or doing other things, I’d sit and just talk with him. We’d reminisce about his service in the Army, we’d talk about his family and sports. We talked about anything, just to keep his mind fresh and off of his treatment and what he was going through. He unfortunately passed away several years later, but his family thanked me for the time that I spent with him.
What’s been the most rewarding part of your service?
Giving the staff the help that they need. Also, being able to see patients throughout their treatment journey. Initially, these patients can be apprehensive about their treatments, but it’s so rewarding to see them get through the process with minimal difficulty, and come back into the clinic after 6 months saying they’re in remission, or cancer-free.
What have you learned through your experiences as a volunteer?
There are a lot of people in this world that need help. Don’t look the other way when someone is looking for assistance. Do what you can. A lot of people can give a little, a lot of people (retirees like me) can give a lot of their time.
What do you want people to learn from your story?
Volunteer. Do not be afraid to give back. Whether it’s for your local hospital, animal shelter, or the Red Cross. There are lots of organizations in your community that need help. We receive a lot from our communities, and there are a lot of services that are provided. People can volunteer, make an impact and help their fellow man.
How can readers help?
Please visit the Sturdy Memorial Hospital volunteer website for more information about how you can give back.
Texas Teen Volunteers at Library, Putting Smiles on Kids’ Faces One Book at a Time
Meet Daily Point of Light Award honoree Heather Alegria. Read her story and nominate an outstanding volunteer or family as a Daily Point of Light.
17-year-old Heather Alegria of Dallas, Texas is one busy teen. When she isn’t in class as a senior in high school, she’s either running with her cross country and track team, participating in her school’s biomedical program, or working a part-time hosting job at a restaurant.
But twice a week, she finds a bit of peace and quiet while volunteering at Valley Ranch Library. What started as a National Honor Society (NHS) requirement has turned into more of a hobby for Heather as she enjoys conversing with the librarians and seeing children’s faces light up when she rolls in a new cart of books.
Balancing such a busy schedule isn’t easy, but Heather makes it work because she understands that books play such an important role in children’s lives.
Describe your volunteer role at Valley Ranch Library.
I first started for NHS. I needed to get 12 community service hours. When I got there for my first day, they told me that I was going to reach it fairly quickly because I’m there for 2 hours twice a week and I needed 12. So they asked me if I’d be willing to stay with them for a while and I said yes. Once I had gotten to the 12 hours, I continued to stay and I started to really like it. I made connections with the people that were there, with some of the other librarians. It’s just a different outlet for me.
When I get there, I’ll clean up the library and make sure the shelves are clean and in order. I’ll pick up any straggling books. Once I’m done with that, I’ll put them on carts to be shelved and order them alphabetically or in Dewey decimal order. People will return books and I’m the person that has to put them on carts and get them checked in and everything.
Heather volunteers at her local library every week, making sure that all the books are in order and shelves clean./ Courtesy Heather Alegria
What other responsibilities do you have outside of volunteering?
I am in cross country and track. Besides from NHS, I am in choir and a biomedical program at my school. I have a hosting job at a restaurant where I work about 20-21 hours a week. I usually stay up late or I do my homework during school to make it all work together.
What do you do with the money you make while working at the restaurant?
I’m saving it towards college, getting a new car, and if need be, I give some of it to my parents. My family, we all work, and we all like contributing towards the family, trying to keep ourselves up there.
Why do you like volunteering at the library?
I like the people. At first, I thought it was a little too quiet for me, but as time went on and I started talking to more people, I grew a friendship with one of the other librarians. It’s kind of fun. I find new books that I can read and I love seeing the kids being so happy when they see new books being put out. A lot of the kids run up, try to get stuff off my cart or ask me if I know where certain books are. I’ve been asked a couple times for book recommendations.
What books do you typically recommend? What’s your favorite book?
One of my favorite books is “Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda.” That’s usually a Young Adult kind of book. For little kids I always recommend “Pinkalicious.” I used to like it growing up. And “Diary of a Wimpy Kid.”
Why do you think books are important to a child’s growth?
Books really build up a lot of imagination. Seeing how other people think and building on this platform of new things to learn. A lot of the books I read when I was little had a big influence on me. My grandma used to read to me a lot. She had a day care and I would be there and she would read to us every day. When I was there older, I would read to the kids and they really enjoyed it.
What inspires you to volunteer?
I just like being there. It makes me feel like I’m doing something important. There’s some days where I’m like “Oh man, I’m so tired,” but I genuinely like going.
What’s been the most rewarding part of your service?
When everything’s calm after we finish a big rush in the library. It’s kind of that relaxing accomplishment that we were able to catch up with everything. And also seeing kids happy when I bring books out.
Why is it important to volunteer?
It’s just giving back to the community. You’re part of it and you should do your part to make the community a better place to keep it running. Also, it’s just a reason to get out of the house. I know if I wasn’t doing it I would just be inside all day in my house doing nothing.
What do you want people to learn from your story?
It’s never that you don’t have time to volunteer. Even though I do a lot — I go to school, I do sports, I have an actual job — I still make the time to volunteer.
Helping Kids Escape Pain and Fear, Teen’s Service in Playroom Brings Joy to Hospitalized Children
Meet Daily Point of Light Award honoree Nicole Garcia. Read her story and nominate an outstanding volunteer or family as a Daily Point of Light.
Nicole Garcia remembers the smells, the constant beeping from machines, the fear she felt as a 4-year-old, hospitalized for severe dehydration. But the memory that remains most prominent in the Anaheim, California resident’s mind is when a nurse walked into her room, not with a tray of medicine, but instead, carrying a gift – a white stuffed bunny decorated with a pretty pink bow.
Hospitalization for any child can be a scary experience, which is why Nicole, now an 18-year-old, volunteers as a Child Life Volunteer in the surgical floor’s playroom at Children’s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC). Inspired by her own experiences, Nicole has volunteered hundreds of hours of her time at CHOC to distract children from pain or fear they may be experiencing while hospitalized, and instead allow them time to play and laugh.
What inspires you to volunteer?
Service leadership has always been a priority in my life. It’s very important to me to serve others, and to put others before myself, especially because children in general are a very vulnerable population.
Nicole Garcia’s volunteers to distract hospitalized children from their pain, and transport them to a place where their imaginations can run wild. /Courtesy Nicole Garcia
Describe your role at Children’s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC).
I am a Child Life Volunteer in the surgical floor’s playroom, which means that I assist the hospital’s Child Life Specialists, maintain a clean playroom environment, and create a fun and inclusive space for the patients, their family and friends. Equally as important, my unofficial duties include, but are not limited to, saving princesses and Mr. Potato Heads alongside superheroes, molding Play-Doh as a seasoned sculptor’s apprentice, roaring as loud as possible with my fellow dinosaurs, and driving Little Tikes Cozy Coupes as one’s personal chauffeur.
What’s been the most rewarding part of your service?
Being able to put a smile on a child’s face. Making them roar with laughter, or burst into tears because they don’t want to leave you. Or just receiving a bear hug.
What have you learned through your experiences as a volunteer?
Expect and embrace the unexpected, because every patient is different. In the playroom, I might be asked by a child to play a superhero one day, and a sous-chef or dinosaur the next day. I serve to distract these kiddos from their pain and transport them to a place where their imaginations can run wild. My volunteerism means I can adapt to different situations and I always face the children with a compassionate heart, bright smile and positive attitude, ready for any challenge.
What’s your favorite game in the playroom?
My favorite is when little kids want to play with the Cozy Coupe. Our surgical floor playroom is the tiniest playroom in the hospital, and so when one of the kids steps into the Coupe, we can explore beyond, out in the hallways. It’s so fun just dragging them through the hallways in the car, laughing and yelling. They have a sense of freedom in that car that they don’t have otherwise in the hospital.
Share one personal story with me from your volunteerism.
A little girl was dropped off in the playroom with me, and she was really shy. She gravitated to the play kitchen area, and she eventually started grabbing the play food out of my hands and placing it into the little stove. Our interaction slowly grew more and more, and by the end of my volunteer shift she was talking and laughing with me. It was really rewarding to be able to help that little girl break out of her shell in the small amount of time we were together.
What do you want people to learn from your story?
I get to touch the hearts of these kids, and I get to make their experience unique. It’s personal for me, because I know I’m making a difference. And there are other people just like me, serving others.
How can readers help?
Please visit CHOC’s website for more information about how you can give back.
A Passion for Volunteerism and Service to the Planet
Meet Daily Point of Light Award honoree Caroline Choi. Read her story and nominate an outstanding volunteer or family as a Daily Point of Light.
Caroline Choi is an example of a Post-Millennial on fire. After seeing the film Racing Extinction when she was in seventh grade, Caroline found her passion: working to save the environment in any way possible. Between working with high school friends and as a committee member for Community Action for a Sustainable Alameda or CASA, she uses her free time for projects like leading beach cleanups, drawdown workshops, organizing climate marches, hosting documentary screenings, and working with city-level zero-waste campaigns. She has also partnered with local elementary and middle schools for Clean our Bay Trail, a coastline path that shares San Francisco Bay waters with a bird estuary. A can-do young woman, Caroline is a pusher, organizer and visionary, with her ultimate goal preserving the planet, one bit at a time.
What inspires you to volunteer?
Imagine my devastation when I learned that cows were gassing our Earth into oblivion! Now imagine me walking out of the movie theatre, nearly in tears because not only were cows wreaking havoc on our earth, but sharks were being massacred for their dorsal fins, trees were being ripped out from the gritty Amazon soil, and our GHG emissions were causing one of the largest mass die-offs of coral in history. I left the screening of Racing Extinction with a resolution to change things. That was seventh grade, the same year I cut out the methane-producing beef from my diet and the same year I proclaimed myself an environmental activist.
That’s all to say that my inspiration to volunteer stems from my strengthened connection with the Earth. It’s provided us a home, beautiful landscapes, and resources for this long and it’s time for us to help preserve it. The IPCC and the UN released a widely-read report that stated that we only have 11 years left to reverse the climate crisis. If that’s not enough incentive to act, I don’t know what is!
Describe your volunteer role.
I have a rather multi-faceted volunteer role. I’ve sort of become my island’s go-to youth environmental activist. Mainly I work on zero-waste and city outreach. As president of our school’s environmental club, called Amplify, I lead students in volunteering. Additionally, throughout this year, my club has also partnered with local middle and elementary schools to clean our Bay Trail, a quiet coastline path that shares San Francisco Bay waters with our island’s bird estuary. By hosting monthly beach cleanups, we’ve involved a circulating group of more than 30 students and community members dedicated to ridding the coast of debris. As of April 2019, we’ve cleared away exactly 99.35 kg of trash!
When I’m not picking up trash, I serve as a committee member of Community Action for a Sustainable Alameda or CASA, a 501(c)(3) that doubles as our city’s environmental commission. As part of CASA, I work on pushing for sustainability legislation. This year, in particular, I founded an offshoot of CASA called CASA Youth. Serving as a coalition of students, we advise local officials and draft out our city’s Climate Action and Resiliency Plan (to be implemented in 2020).
What’s been the most rewarding part of your work?
One of my greatest achievements this year was persuading our city council to pass the Climate Emergency Declaration unanimously. This is big because that means our city can be held to our sustainability goals.
Caroline Choi (center) works with CASA to affect environmental change./Courtesy Caroline Choi
What have you learned through your experiences as a volunteer?
If anything, I’ve learned that our small community of students can be a real force of change in Alameda, California, and the country.
Are there any future partnerships, programs, or events that you are excited about?
I’m super excited about the traction that an organization we work with called Extinction Rebellion is gaining. CASA Youth has partnered with them in the past for nonviolent protests and I look forward to what we’ll do together in the future!
Also, I’ve been working on a reusables campaign called “Straws of Steel”, where we’ve been selling and incentivizing reusable straws and containers. I’m excited that we’ll be expanding to other cities in the Bay Area. We’re partnering with Rethink Disposable on this project and they’re awesome.
Why do you think it’s important for others to give back?
It sounds so cheesy, but there is absolutely strength in numbers. We need people to have people power.
What do you want people to learn from your story?
Volunteering isn’t always as glamorous as it seems. Sure, sometimes you’ll be delivering eloquent speeches in front of enthusiastic crowds, but most of the time you’ll be mucking out in weeds or picking up random pieces of trash from the coastline. Don’t doubt yourself. If you’re always worrying and fussing over the minute details of volunteering or activism, you’ll never get anything done. Learn to be flexible, to work around obstacles, to be creative!
