Meet Daily Point of Light Award honoree Aamir Tinwala. Read his story, and nominate an outstanding volunteer or family as a Daily Point of Light.
At just 12 years old, Aamir Tinawala took his interest in birds to the next level by founding the Backyard Bird Project (BBP) to create and encourage the placement of nesting boxes in his community. As he got older, his interests naturally expanded to conservation, and he cofounded his high school’s Conservation Club, which spurred him to widen BBP’s focus.
In the past six years, Aamir has organized nearly 64 bird box events, both in-person and online, reaching thousands of people. There are now BBP chapters in 24 states and three countries.
Among his many achievements with BBP, Aamir has successfully advocated for the establishment of the American kestrel as his town’s “city bird” to boost civic pride and build awareness around bird conservation issues. “Birds and Brews” programming came after. And he co-hosted the town of Irving’s Arbor Day event last year, organizing presentations on environmental impact from school and community groups.
India’s Project Rise, an organization whose Indian Sparrows initiative supports repopulation, chose Aamir to lead their expansion and advocacy efforts in North America. He will tailor his work towards local endangered populations and is coordinating a 20,000-tree planting campaign. He’s also working with local government officials on environmental efforts and creating bird conservation guides for public spaces and parks around Coppell. When he’s not working on BBP, Aamir volunteers at his madrasa and works on his own clothing line—focusing, of course, on using a sustainable fabric and supply chain.
What inspires you to volunteer?
There’s a Jane Goodall quote we’ve talked about in English classes. “The greatest danger to our future is apathy.” I think Americans are more inclined to be apathetic towards our impact than others. That’s how most people are brought up, if you’re middle class. It’s how society caters to you.
Breaking out of the bubble in which I grew up is what inspires me to volunteer. Realizing, for example, that my carbon footprint has an impact on the rest of the world, and the goods and products I have in my house are causing environmental destruction in developing countries inspires me to focus on conservation efforts.
Tell us about your volunteer role with the Backyard Bird Project.
Our chapters are decentralized. I talk with people who want to start one, give them the information and then they pioneer their own path. I also keep up with partnerships and plan future initiatives and logistics for other chapters.
A lot of my work now is hosting community events around Dallas. I order wood and have it cut to different sizes. Then, around 60 people of all ages will come in–seniors, children, families–and I’ll teach them what birds do for the environment and the importance of a nesting box. I’ll show them how to make one and then spend the next two hours helping them make their own. I’ve personally installed over 750 since middle school for 16+ native Texan species.
I started setting up smart boxes seven months ago in different states where we monitor how humidity and temperature affects bird reproduction and the types of wood that do best. We’ve finalized a forecasting tool that integrates AirNow and eBird data from 2,500+ monitors and 100M+ annual observations–all data sets you can find online–to see how pollution affects bird migration, so we can predict the best places to put up nesting boxes.
What inspired you to get started with this initiative?
I had a pet cockatiel that sparked my interest and, during COVID, I did research on birds. I was looking for something to do, so I made nesting boxes and gave them to people around my community. I got a lot of positive feedback, so doing advocacy and education about birds’ roles in our environment and conservation eventually followed. Since then, it’s expanded to support the environment as a whole, like reforesting.
You’re currently trying to get your school campus Certified Bird Friendly by Audubon. What does that entail?
Audubon has a program that certifies college campuses but not high schools. Three years ago, I brought it up with contacts at Audubon, and it turned out to be something they’d planned to do but had put on the back burner.
Once we finalize the certification program, high schools will be able to certify themselves as Bird Friendly Audubon designated campuses. My school will be the first.
They look for things like policies ensuring new builds are completed so birds don’t fly into windows, student-led education campaigns and programs, and infrastructure like native green spaces, gardens and water spaces for birds.
What’s been the most rewarding part of your work?
The most rewarding part is hosting in-person events. I enjoy telling them about bird conservation and recognizing that it’s something they might want to do in the future. At the Irving Arbor Day event, I spoke with a 12-year-old for 20 minutes who had a passion for birds and was concerned with environmental stuff. Telling him my story, that I was 12 when I started this, inspired him which, in turn, inspired me.
What have you learned through your experiences as a volunteer?
Most people are receptive. Often, the media portrays a lot of the bad things, and it makes you think people are more closed off than they really are.
Do you have any tips for how people can help the bird populations in their own areas?
The simplest thing is to make a nesting box with your family. It takes two hours and is especially fun with kids and older parents. It’s a bonding activity that you can reap the benefits of for the next ten years as you see birds come to nest. You can also garden with more native plants that cater to native species.
What do you want people to learn from your story?
It doesn’t matter how old you are when you start something. Pursue your interests and what you care about. Opportunities will come. Start small and work at it over time.
Meet Daily Point of Light Award honoree Price O’Neal. Read her story, and nominate an outstanding volunteer or family as a Daily Point of Light.
Price O’Neal learned to get out of her comfort zone through volunteer work. While she’s not the biggest talker in the world, the 17-year-old high school student was inspired to get out there and help others. Through friends and parents in her community, she learned about the National Charity League, an organization that fosters the mother-daughter relationship through an ongoing commitment to philanthropy, culture and leadership. Whether she’s serving meals at the local Women’s Center or tutoring children who live in refugee communities, Price has learned to build self-esteem by performing esteemable acts, immersing herself in unfamiliar spaces and reaching out to new people.
Price is also the founder of Hope Goals, an organization that’s dedicated to empowering women and children through community service, education and sport. Her endeavor spearheads service projects like gathering winter clothing for children and undergarments for women dealing with homelessness. Thus far, she’s provided winter clothing for over 750 kids and supplied an entire week’s worth of undergarments for 750 women experiencing homelessness. In fact, she’s racked up over 250 hours of volunteering. That’s a significant lift on top of her heavy school workload and a busy lacrosse schedule. Still, Price is utterly dedicated to her volunteer work because the rewards are so worth it to her.
While Price will be graduating from high school and heading off to college in the fall, she’s not quite sure where the future will take her. But she knows one thing for sure: She will continue to help others wherever she goes. She feels volunteer work provides her with a sense of gratitude for what she has and instills her with a sense of purpose, fueling her motivations and giving her a greater sense of purpose. Price’s story is a powerful example of how volunteerism can serve as a launchpad for a brighter future.
PRICE O’NEAL (LEFT) JOINS AMY SMITH, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE WOMEN’S CENTER OF WAKE COUNTY, TO HELP SET UP FOR THE ORGANIZATION’S ANNUAL GALENTINE’S FUNDRAISER, WHICH SUPPORTS PROGRAMS THAT EMPOWER WOMEN IN CRISIS. /COURTESY PRICE O’NEAL
Tell us about your volunteer role with the National Charity League.
With the National Charity League, I make meals for the Women’s Center, whether that’s breakfast, lunch or dinner. Then I’m also working on my own foundation, Hope Goals, where I have organized a donation drive to collect essential needs, like underwear, socks, mittens and anything they really need, and I’ve been doing that throughout the month. With the National Charity League, they’ve helped me raise those donations. I’ve reached out to a lot of different girls and moms, and they have been amazing and really helped me gather those things and raise those donations.
What inspires you to volunteer?
I would see firsthand how much these donations are really impacting other people. It really made me feel like I was helping others, and that feeling of helping others was something that I couldn’t really get from anything else. It was just something that I’ve never been able to get from anything. That was one of the reasons why it was something I wanted to put that time into. It really helped me gain my perspective, and I just wanted to help as much as I could.
What inspired you to get started with this initiative?
I’ve always felt especially connected to supporting women and children. After learning more about the needs of my community, I really realized how many people lack basic essentials, and that a lot of people take them for granted. I’m incredibly fortunate to have so much in my own life, and that perspective motivated me to take action. I just wanted to create something meaningful and tangible to make a difference.
What are your long-term plans or goals for the organization?
With National Charity League, I want to continue working with them throughout high school, but I would like to carry my foundation, Hope Goals, into college. And then probably out of college, and maybe even expand it outside of just Raleigh. I would just like to continue, whether or not I go to college somewhere outside of Raleigh. I want to make sure that I focus on helping others, because I know that it really fuels my life and makes me have purpose in life.
What’s been the most rewarding part of your work?
I know I keep saying it, but seeing the fruits of my labor and how they impact others and how powerful they are. Seeing at a younger age that I can really make that big of a difference and do something that meaningful and make a difference in others’ lives has really felt like a reward to me.
What have you learned through your experiences as a volunteer?
I’ve learned a lot about leadership and communicating with others. I’m not a big talker, and so it’s taught me a lot of communication skills with adults and other people who are in leadership positions. Also, it’s taught me how I can help people and how I can be a leader without being the loudest one in the room. I can be a leader and impact others in that way, too.
Why is it important for others to get involved with causes they care about?
I think it’s important because it helps you feel a lot of gratitude for the things you have. For me, it gave me a real sense of purpose, and it helped me feel like the things that I was doing weren’t just serving me, but were serving others.
Any advice for people who want to start volunteering?
If you’re able to find something, whether it’s helping children or supporting women or animals or the elderly, there are so many different organizations. Put in some research and find one, and test out some different organizations. You can probably find one that you connect to. If you find something that you really connect to, the work will become even more meaningful.
What do you want people to learn from your story?
I really want people to take away that at a younger age, there’s nothing you can’t do, especially when it’s helping other people. Maybe it’s making baskets and handing them out when you see someone on the street. You can make an impact no matter your age or what’s going on in your life. It’s helped me so much with leadership, but also my mental health and how I feel as a person. Just knowing that whatever’s going on in my life, I can always go and do something to help others, and I am making an impact in some sort of way. There’s always somewhere where you’ll be welcomed when it has to do with volunteer work.
Meet Daily Point of Light Award honoree Raunald Sebastian. Read his story, and nominate an outstanding volunteer or family as a Daily Point of Light.
Raunald Sebastian knows how much a role mentorship plays in volunteerism, because he gets to be one every day. A 17-year-old high school student, Raunald learned about Blood Cancer United, an organization with a mission to find a cure and improve the quality of life for everyone with blood cancer, for the first time from a friend on the school bus. Unfamiliar with the group’s work, he decided to go home and research it. He had never known anyone with blood cancer. But he decided to learn more, and that decision changed the trajectory of Raunald’s life.
Raunald got involved in BCU’s Student Visionaries of the Year Program, committing to join his team to raise money that would go toward creating a world without blood cancer. It was a long and arduous fundraising journey, and Raunald spearheaded fundraising events at local spots like Chipotle and Panera, while also managing outreach via email, calls and sponsorship meetings. He raised awareness on social media, getting the word out about the team’s mission and encouraging people to donate funds.
Ultimately, Raunald and his team raised $47,472, contributing to the $3.3 million raised in all of New Jersey. But Raunald proved to be so successful as a fundraiser that he was invited to the Junior Leadership Committee to help mentor different student visionary teams. He mentors two Student Visionary teams while leading and supporting 30 JLC members. He ensures recruitment and fundraising goals for the Student Visionaries of the Year program, bringing in new, vibrant minds to make sure the program is a success.
Throughout it all, Raunald hasn’t forgotten the reason behind why he’s so passionate about the cause. He’s had the opportunity to meet a little girl living with blood cancer that the funds his team raised will go toward. Seeing her smiling face on the stage as her crying parents watched from the crowd was a great reminder of why Raunald is just so dedicated to working toward eradicating blood cancer. Through serving as a mentor for others, Raunald’s passion could very well someday become a reality.
RAUNALD SEBASTIAN (LEFT) JOINS HIS CAMPAIGN DEVELOPMENT MANAGER, DESIREE SALARA, FOR THE NATIONAL JUNIOR LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE IN DALLAS, TEXAS. /COURTESY RAUNALD SEBASTIAN
What inspired you to get started with this initiative?
It started with a question that my friend asked me on the bus, which was if I wanted to be a part of Blood Cancer United. At that time, I had no clue what that was. If I don’t know something, I really want to research it, so I went home and researched it and asked my parents, and realized I really wanted to do this because blood cancer is a global issue. What inspired me was that impacting your community teaches you so many lessons along the way. It really builds you as a person, builds your personality, and builds your network and your skills through the volunteering journey.
What inspires you to volunteer?
I do it because you never know when you will experience these hardships. I want to help provide for the people who are going through these hardships. Maybe I’ll never experience these hardships that people go through, but if I do, that’s good, because it also teaches me a lesson. Volunteering really stood out to me because it teaches me disciplinary skills and shows me that effort is needed to achieve something. If I achieve it, that really teaches me so many more lessons along the way, and it just builds me as a person overall.
Tell us about your volunteer role with Blood Cancer United.
When I first volunteered for Blood Cancer United in 2025, I was a lead candidate, which means I was one of the high schoolers across the world that was part of the Student Visionaries of the Year program, a seven-week fundraising and philanthropic leadership program that students take across the nation to lead a group of people to fundraise money for blood cancer. My job at that time was to get my co-candidates to plan out how to go about the fundraiser, so we could reach our goal. Our goal was $50,000 in those seven weeks. I spent that whole summer trying to find people who would want to be on my team and who really had that passion to fundraise just like me. And it was really a long journey, because it taught me that leadership comes with a lot of patience and team collaboration skills. We went on to raise close to $50,000, and I personally raised $7,000. I got invited to the Junior Leadership Committee to help mentor different student visionary teams to raise money.
What are your long-term plans or goals for the organization?
I really want to stick with the Junior Leadership Committee and help other student visionary teams succeed and excel beyond how far I went. That really brings joy to me and shows how I can help them improve their goals. I also want to keep advocating for blood cancer awareness, because you never know when you will experience that type of issue. It teaches you so many lessons along the way.
What’s been the most rewarding part of your work?
Right now, on the Junior Leadership Committee, I would say the most rewarding part is seeing the team that I’m mentoring doing even better than I am right now. To see those 20 team members on their team light up and really have their joy to fundraise even more than my team and I really brings me so much joy, because it really shows me that I can steer them away from the problems that I had. It’s so rewarding to see me teaching other teams and other mentees how to fundraise and how to go about it, because it shows me I have played a role in their success, too.
What have you learned through your experiences as a volunteer?
I’ve learned so much from my volunteer work. But specifically, I’ve learned so many team collaboration skills. I’ve learned so much about patience. I’ve learned so much about different people, and I learned a lot about networking and personalities. I feel like everyone I meet has a different personality, and I hear their stories and how their lives may be affected by different stuff. That goes to show how judging people based on how they appear, or what they’re going through, is just terrible. You don’t know what their day’s been like, and it just really shows you that you should never be able to judge so quickly without really knowing their story.
Any advice for people who want to start volunteering?
Just go for it. Obviously, do your research. If you want to do it, you should do it because the thing that you’re questioning is what you want to do. That means you have to do it, because it really pushes you and teaches you a lot about who you are as a person, and it teaches you so many new skills. If you’re hesitant, you should always do it because it really pushes you out of your comfort zone, and really involves you with that specific community.
What do you want people to learn from your story?
I would love people to learn that age does not matter. Maybe you are young, and you feel like you can’t have an impact. That’s how I thought about it. I thought I was only a sophomore in high school. How was I going to fundraise $50,000 for Blood Cancer United? Then I realized, after viewing so many more high school students across the nation, I can get used to this. That’s because age doesn’t matter. If you have that drive, if you have that passion, if you have that perseverance, you can accomplish anything. At the end of the day, the goals that you want to accomplish are really dictated by the effort that you want to put in. You can get started at whatever age you want, and you can finish that goal by whatever age, but what truly matters is the drive that you have behind all of that.
The Fruit of Volunteer Labor: One Teen Harvests Hope
Meet Daily Point of Light Award honoree Elizabeth Milgrim. Read her story, and nominaten outstanding volunteer or family as a Daily Point of Light.
When the branches of Elizabeth Milgrim’s pear trees saw the weight of a heavy harvest, the 14-year-old saw more than just a surplus of fruit. While most would see a chore or maybe a gift for neighbors, Elizabeth saw a solution to a local crisis. Disturbed by the idea of fresh food going to waste while neighbors struggled with food insecurity, she took her extra yield to a local church pantry. That first delivery sparked a realization: if her backyard was overflowing, others likely were too. With a quiet determination, she stepped into the role of founder and launched Garden Givers Port Washington (GGPW), a grassroots initiative designed to bridge the gap between local gardens and hungry families.
The brilliance of GGPW lies in its simplicity, as well as Elizabeth’s ability to mobilize her community through social media. The organization’s volunteers act as a mobile bridge, driving to residential homes to collect donated produce and delivering it directly to the pantry. This ensures that home-grown nutrition reaches those who need it most, without placing the burden of transport on the donors or the recipients. In less than two years, this teen-led movement has successfully diverted and donated over 600 pounds of food.
Elizabeth is a creative thinker who sees potential where others see waste. When she encountered fruit too overripe for the pantry shelves, she didn’t toss it, but rather partnered with a local ice cream shop to transform the produce into a custom flavor. She also harvested vegetables from a school garden and, in a characteristic touch of grace, began delivering homegrown flower bouquets to pantry clients. Elizabeth remains humble, yet her vision has cultivated a more resilient and connected community in Port Washington. By turning backyards into “giving gardens,” she has created a sustainable model of neighborhood altruism that nourishes both the body and the spirit. Read on to hear more of her remarkable story.
Elizabeth volunteering to pick produce at a local garden to be donated to the food pantry.
Tell us about your volunteer role.
I’m the founder and president of Garden Givers, which I started the summer going into my freshman year of high school. Basically, what I do is coordinate all of the pickups and drop-offs of the produce. I’m in communication with the food pantry and different local organizations that support us, and I’m also in communication with local schools to help with their garden. I also run all of the social media and publicity for the organization, and coordinate with the other volunteers.
What inspired you to get started with this initiative?
I have a small home garden in my backyard, and it was kind of more of my parents’ thing. They really enjoyed it, and I would always garden with them, but I was never really super interested in gardening. But we have a pear tree, and one summer, there was just so much fruit that we had no idea what to do with it. I suggested to my mom, “Is there any way that we could donate some of this fruit to people who may not be able to have access to fresh produce?”
We looked into connecting with the local food pantry. And once I started doing that for my own home garden, it made me really want to connect with the greater community and share my passion for volunteering and reducing food waste. I realized how much I cared about providing necessary foods to community members who don’t necessarily have access to it.
Why are you passionate about food insecurity?
Ever since I was young, I’ve always felt that everybody, no matter who they are or where they come from, should have their basic needs met. They should have access to food. Especially within my community, I don’t think I realized how much it impacted different community members or even my peers, until I was older. I think seeing the appreciation from the food pantry has only deepened my support for this cause.
While climate change is obviously a big topic on news media right now, I think that helping community members in need, specifically through Garden Givers, also aims to help with this. We reduce food waste by getting produce from people’s home gardens. Those foods, if they weren’t collected and donated, would probably just end up going to waste. And I really don’t think our planet needs more of that. So with this organization, I’ve combined these two ideas of helping the community while also
reducing food waste.
What’s been the most rewarding part of your work?
I think the most rewarding part of running Garden Givers has been realizing the impact I’ve made. When I started this, I didn’t set out to reach a certain number of pounds donated. I really just wanted to help the community, and that’s my goal even now. But I think over the summer, when we hit 600 pounds donated, that was kind of when it really clicked for me. I was like, “Wow. This is not just a small thing.” I’ve been able to make a huge impact, which I’ve been really grateful for. And I think also seeing different community organizations and the food pantry and the schools, all of their appreciation for the organization, has been really amazing and just makes me even more passionate about what we’re doing.
What are your long-term plans or goals for organization?
This summer, I’m planning to have more volunteers that aren’t just high school age, but adults or even younger kids. I want other demographics to help volunteer with the organization. And I’m going to be starting a student executive board. I would like to hopefully partner with more schools. Currently, we’re partnered with one elementary school in my community, and we’re working on a partnership with another one, and I would like to partner with any local schools that have gardens or want to teach their students about gardening or food insecurity. I think it’s really important to teach young children about these topics.
Additionally, I would also like to hopefully expand into different towns, because, well, it’s been amazing to make an impact on my town, but I’d like to take this model elsewhere. I think that if I can find connections in other local neighborhoods, I could hopefully expand my impact into those communities as well.
What have you learned through your experiences volunteering?
I think I’ve learned a lot of things I can take pretty much anywhere. I’ve learned how to run an organization, communicate effectively, do any sort of media. I never really had done any of that before, and this organization kind of forced me to learn how.
When we partnered with a different organization called the Grow Food at Home Club, which is a group of community members who enjoy gardening and sharing tips and progress in their home gardens, I found one of the members is a master gardener. She’s been a really big help in teaching me about gardening and plants and when different things need to grow, when the right times are for different plants. It’s been really nice to learn all of that because, like I said before, I didn’t really know that much about gardening before starting this organization. It made me a lot more interested in and passionate about something that I just used to do with my parents because they liked it.
Why is it important for others, especially youth, to get involved with causes they care about?
I’m a big believer in that nothing changes unless you try to change it. If anyone sees anything in their community that they believe can be changed for the better, I think that it’s really important, especially for young people, to know that there’s a possibility for them to change it. It’s not like everything has to remain the same. There is always a possibility for you to help change it. If you’re driven and you have the right ideas, you really can make a huge impact, even more than you might have thought at first.
Any advice for people who want to start volunteering?
Even if you’ve never tried volunteering, just go for it! I think taking that jump and starting with volunteering can feel like a big leap. But if you just go for it, nothing bad can come out of it, right?
Meet Daily Point of Light Award honoree Shaylen Mehta. Read his story, and nominate an outstanding volunteer or family as a Daily Point of Light.
Shaylen Mehta wanted to make a difference. A 17-year-old high school student, Shaylen saw the importance of service work on annual family trips to the Indian village of Sadra, where his father has deep roots. While there, Shaylen and his family help the underserved community. But Shaylen realized he wanted to continue the same volunteer work back home in his own community. In 2023, he established the South Piedmont Junior Optimist Club, an organization that spreads optimism throughout the community through acts of service.
In addition to getting the group up and running, Shaylen wanted to come up with a service project that was different than something anyone else had done in the area. He decided on a sneaker project in partnership with Got Sneakers, where the community donates old shoes. The shoes are then bagged up by team members and shipped off to Got Sneakers, who sends back money which can then be put back into other service projects. As a result of the sneaker drive, over 300 pairs of shoes were saved from landfills, displacing over 6,000 pounds of carbon dioxide and saving over a half million gallons of water. The group participates in a variety of other endeavors, including a highway cleanup, Santa’s Breakfast, which hosts kids and families for crafts, food, activities and a visit with Santa, and collecting and delivering school supplies to local schools that need them.
When Shaylen graduates from high school, he hopes to begin studying for a career in medicine. He considers his dedication to service to be the perfect launch pad for his future career goals because of the passion they both require. Shaylen dedicates 12 hours per month to his work with the South Piedmont Junior Optimist Club, demonstrating how volunteer work has instilled the values of discipline into his life that’s already busy with a heavy high school course load. Through volunteerism, Shaylen has grown into a bright young man with a future that has endless potential, and that opportunity is available to anyone eager to grab hold of it.
What inspires you to volunteer?
I feel like volunteer work is a big part of my life. For the past three or four years, my family and I have been volunteering in southern India. I was born and raised here in America, but my dad has a lot of history in Sadra, and that’s kind of his hometown. So we go there once a year. We’ve been going there for the past three or four years, and we volunteer there. We stay for about a week, and we help underserved villages. The whole reason that I got into it started from a multicultural standpoint, and I realized, why not just make it bigger? Why not expand? That goes for India, and also for my community, with the various projects I’ve done through the South Piedmont Junior Optimist Club.
SOUTH PIEDMONT JUNIOR OPTIMIST CLUB FOUNDER SHAYLEN MEHTA (LEFT) GIVES A THUMBS UP WHILE STANDING IN THE CHRISTMAS TREE LOT. /COURTESY SHAYLEN MEHTA
Tell us about your volunteer role with the South Piedmont Junior Optimist Club?
My roles have changed throughout the years. In 2023, I was a founding member and president of the club. As founding member, my role was to start the club, in a way. I had to look at a bunch of rules and regulations, and I had to get in contact with the Optimists International. From there, I started meetings. We posted online about who would be interested, and had the first meeting at my house. My role was to kickstart the club and be that leader. I was responsible for facilitating the meetings. I had an agenda that I read. We covered various points, and I also delegated different tasks and service projects to people. Now, as a secretary, I assist the current president in their role. I’m also part of different service projects, besides the ones that I started as president.
What inspired you to get started with this initiative?
There’s an organization above the South Piedmont Junior Optimist Club called the Weddington Optimist Club, and that’s actually part of the international chapter that’s been around for multiple years. I attended a meeting with my mom. It was my understanding that I could start a club that was similar to the Wellington Optimist Club, but it was a place that could allow juniors to serve in a way that the community would benefit. I felt like it was an all-around win for everyone who wanted to really serve the community that couldn’t because of the infrastructure.
What’s been the most rewarding part of your work?
The most rewarding part of my work has been the Sneaker Project. No one really thinks that they can save just short of half a million gallons of water. But seeing those numbers is a reassurance to all my accomplishments and how far this club has actually come. We started with eight to 12 people in the living room of my house about two or three years ago. Now, we have the club with over 20 people. You see the progress, not only with the Sneaker Project or Adopt the Highway and how many people we help, but just to see the growth our community has had because of this club. Not only for the members in it, but for the community and the benefits that they reap because of us.
What have you learned through your experiences as a volunteer?
Listen more and talk less. As a leader, everyone wants to talk. Even as a volunteer, everyone wants to talk and make their ideas heard, but I feel like it’s those who listen that really take in the most information and then can form true and clear ideas within their actions. Being a volunteer, obviously, is about fostering this idea of selflessness and putting the world or the community’s needs above your own. The whole goal of this club has been to serve the community and bring more optimism. I feel like that has been the biggest thing that I learned. As a leader, especially when you listen more than you talk, you absorb the world around you, and then that not only helps you get a better idea of your surroundings and your environment, but also better ideas within your concept.
Why is it important for others to get involved with causes they care about?
I feel like people need to start and join organizations that they’re passionate about. It’s that passion that is one of the drivers of our entire lives. I was passionate about serving the community. I was passionate about going to India. I feel like it’s that passion that really drives true emotion, intent and impact. With that passion, I feel like you can achieve anything.
Any advice for people who want to start volunteering?
My advice for people who want to start volunteering is to just go out there and do it. Don’t wait until you think the time is right or a different slot on a page opens up. Find something that makes you happy, that you’re interested in and passionate about. If you’re hesitant about starting, know that volunteering is all about service and impact, and you can’t serve the community and impact others if you’re hesitant about volunteering. But once you start, you’re open to a whole new world of opportunities, emotions and feelings.
What do you want people to learn from your story?
I want people to learn that anything is possible. I know it’s a common statement, but this club wasn’t really an easy start. Anything is possible if you put your mind to it and you’re passionate about it. Another key lesson is to find people who are willing to stick by you. If it wasn’t for those few people who believed in me and my mission as the founding member, then we wouldn’t have this amazing club that has saved all these gallons of water and carbon dioxide and shoes, and have, beyond that, seen how the project has impacted the community in such an amazing way.
Meet Daily Point of Light Award honoree Alex Cox. Read her story, and nominate an outstanding volunteer or family as a Daily Point of Light.
Alex Cox has always been a voracious reader. Now, the 18-year-old high school student is helping others get the same opportunity. From an early age, Alex has read almost anything she could get her hands on. When she was assigned a capstone project in eighth grade that asked her to focus on a social issue, she had already begun delving into the complex challenges of the justice system. She decided to focus her project on the struggles incarcerated people face attempting to find books to read due to severely lacking prison library systems. Hoping to take her work a step further, she held a book drive at her school and decided to donate the books to her local correctional facility. However, Alex didn’t stop there. Inspired by another Daily Point of Light honoree, Lucia Noto, who was a year ahead of her in school, Alex founded Books Behind Bars, an organization that holds book drives at local schools and donates those books to correctional facilities.
On top of her heavy academic workload, which includes preparing for college in the fall, Alex spends approximately 15 hours a month organizing drives, collecting books and contacting prisons, in addition to working toward advocacy for her cause. Since starting Books Behind Bars in 2022, Alex has donated over 3,500 books to 2,800 inmates in prisons across 3 states. She has built partnerships with five prisons and is expecting to grow that number by five more in an effort to continue the massive impact of her work. While Alex isn’t sure what career path she wants to follow, she knows she wants to lead a life that advocates for change in any unjust system.
Because Alex’s inspiration to volunteer was sparked by an older student at her school, she credits that as one of the most influential reasons she decided to stand up and make a difference. The chain reaction that’s sparked when one person sees how powerful helping others can be is a strong example of just how contagious volunteering can be.
What inspired you to get started with this initiative?
In eighth grade, we had a capstone project where we chose a social issue and designed an innovative way of tackling it. I’ve always been an avid reader, and at that time, I had just discovered a pretty deep interest in the justice system. I decided to focus on access to books for incarcerated people. I learned more about that issue, which centers around the idea that prison libraries are underfunded and understocked.
The stigma around incarceration prevents a lot of people from giving charitable donations to these libraries.
Incarcerated people often have very limited access to books. Considering all of that, I developed a plan to hold a book drive at my school and donate the books to my county’s correctional facility. At the end of the year, I decided to not only present my solution but also actually implement it. I ended up holding a book drive at my school, and the initiative grew from there.
Tell us about your volunteer role with Books Behind Bars.
I start by coordinating book drives in my area at local high schools. After I do that, I hold a book drive where students and teachers can donate everything from self-help books to dictionaries to fiction books. Then I coordinate with local prisons to donate books directly to their shelves. So far, I’ve donated over 4,000 books with the help of high school students across D.C., Maryland and Virginia. I’ve also been involved more recently in advocacy for the incarcerated community. I’ve also been involved in lobbying for correctional education-related legislation in my state’s general assembly, and I recently hosted a virtual speaker panel to further bring attention to the experiences of incarcerated individuals and those who work with them.
What are your long-term plans or goals for the organization?
I definitely want to continue Books Behind Bars in college. Currently, I plan to start a chapter at the school I’m going to and perhaps even lean more deeply into the legislative advocacy aspect by putting together a group of undergrads to lobby for incarcerated people’s rights on the state and national level. Aside from continuing my own work, I want to make sure that the legacy kind of work that I’ve behind in Maryland and the DMV area continues, so I’m hoping to be able to hand off my organization to a younger student at my school or a member of my community who’s interested in keeping Books Behind Bars alive in Maryland.
What’s been the most rewarding part of your work?
The ability to work with the prison officials whom I’ve met. These are librarians, education coordinators and various administrators. They were all very open to working with me, and they really care about expanding educational equity for the incarcerated people under their care. They have been able to work with the young people who have helped me get involved in book drives in different schools, and who’ve helped grow my organization. It’s been so inspiring to know that there are kids like me who want to make a difference in this issue.
What have you learned through your experiences as a volunteer?
I’ve learned a lot about the justice system, obviously, especially as it relates to incarceration. I’ve done a lot of research on Maryland-specific correctional education policies, because Maryland does have some really excellent prison college partnership programs. More broadly, I’ve learned some different ways to combat society’s assumptions about incarcerated people, which are obviously so deeply ingrained in our society. It can be really difficult, but it’s rewarding when it’s done, and when you’re able to recruit people to understand a deeper understanding and appreciation of how important this issue really is.
Why is it important for others to get involved with causes they care about?
I started this when I was 14, and as a young person, I remember not seeing a lot of resources and ways for me to get directly into the world of volunteering. As young people, we’re told that we don’t really have the platform to make a difference until we’re at least in college. But as I said before, my work has introduced me to a lot of really motivated young people who refuse to wait until we’re older to fight for a cause they care about, and I think that it’s so important. No matter your age, background or experience level, you know you do have the power to make a change if you’re dedicated and passionate enough. And you just have to find that power within you, and really set out to serve the community so you can make the difference that you care about.
Any advice for people who want to start volunteering?
Take advantage of the presence of older mentors. I mentioned Lucia before, but she was really instrumental in helping me start my organization. If you are in a state or situation where you have older mentors at your school or in your community who have experience starting volunteer organizations or just volunteering in them, and they know what steps to take, I really recommend taking advantage of that resource.
But if you aren’t in a position where you can find these mentors, then really research which issues you care about the most. Then find what organizations near you are taking steps to address these injustices. Maybe go to a food bank or volunteer at a hospital. It’s so easy to get involved in your community, as long as you know where to start.
What do you want people to learn from your story?
The stigma around incarceration is really unjust. Even though it might seem counterintuitive to focus our resources on incarcerated people who are supposedly being punished for their wrongdoing, it actually is really beneficial to society, and it’s something that we can’t ignore. We have to face it headfirst, and we have to make sure that we’re doing all that we can to support this community that doesn’t get the support that it needs.
Secondly, I hope that my story can inspire other young people to get involved in their communities and start an initiative about something that matters to them, and know that they don’t have to wait until they are in college or the workforce to get involved in an issue that is really important to them.
VOLUNTEERING IS PAVING THE WAY FOR A FUTURE IN MEDICINE
Meet Daily Point of Light Award honoree Amy Young. Read her story, and nominate an outstanding volunteer or family as a Daily Point of Light.
Amy Young may only be 17, but she’s already forging a path into a career in medicine. Interested in science at a young age, Amy had a passion to help others and wanted to contribute to her community. Always rather shy, Amy hoped to explore her interest in a future career in medicine, but wasn’t sure if she had the interpersonal skills to go about doing so. Looking to challenge herself and gain the real-world experience to prepare her for the challenges of a medical career, she reached out to Lahai Clinic and Cornerstone Medical Clinic, free clinics for patients unable to afford healthcare. The University of Washington junior knew getting hands-on experience would be an essential building block to her future career path, and she immediately jumped in. What she didn’t know was the mentorship and guidance that volunteering would provide her along the way.
As the first person patients see when they enter the clinics, Amy provides a friendly face to everyone who walks through the door. She helps them schedule appointments and understand complex intake paperwork, which is often not in their native language. She also helps both clinics operate behind the scenes, completing the administrative work that improves clinic efficiency and the overall patient experience. Amy also gets that hands-on medical experience she always craved, and recently had the opportunity to shadow an oncologist and a dentist at the clinics — two fields she finds particularly intriguing. She credits the helpful instructors and mentors at the clinics who allow her to shadow their work as vital inspirations for her future career path.
Amy dedicates over 50 hours each month to her volunteer work at clinics, and admits that the workload can sometimes get rather overwhelming. She has learned to say no when certain tasks would be too much, especially on top of her heavy academic coursework. But it’s safe to say that Amy has no regrets about putting herself out there and volunteering as she works toward her goals of pursuing a career in medicine. Her work is a strong example of how volunteering can serve as the groundwork for an incredibly bright future.
What inspired you to get started with this initiative?
Ever since I was young, I’ve always really been interested in science. I looked up websites to find clinics around me, and that’s where I found Lahai Clinic and the Cornerstone Medical Clinic. I just started volunteering, and I really found a passion for it, and that’s also what led me to pursue med school. Additionally, I’ve recently been practicing as a certified nursing assistant (CNA), which has really helped me immerse myself more in the medical field, because I can actually get that patient interaction.
Tell us about your volunteer role with Lahai Medical and Cornerstone Medical Clinic.
At Cornerstone Clinic, I’m mainly responsible for serving as the co-manager for the two clinics. It’s mainly aimed at underserved Korean-American or Korean patients, but recently we’ve had Ukrainian immigrants and generally struggling individuals from the area. I manage the grants that we get, the volunteers and make sure that everything is flowing properly. I also make sure that labs and blood tests are being sent. At Lahai, I’m working more behind the scenes on the documentation process, which means sorting out the financial situation and things like that.
What are your long-term plans or goals for the organization?
In the next couple of years, I hope to continue to stay in Washington so that I can keep volunteering here. I’m planning on potentially getting my physician assistant license, so that I can get more interaction with the patients, and also help out a lot, because a lot of the doctors, especially at Cornerstone, are planning on retiring soon. I think it’s really important to step up and practice more in those areas.
What’s been the most rewarding part of your work?
I think there have been various instances where I’ve interacted with patients and seen the gratitude in their faces after their visit. All of us, including the doctors and assistants, took the time out of the day, because a lot of the receptionists and doctors come from Bellevue or Seattle, and they’re traveling all the way for a couple of hours. I think that’s what really makes volunteering there rewarding. Even though it might be just a simple task for the doctors, it really makes such a huge difference in their patients’ lives.
What have you learned through your experiences as a volunteer?
I feel like I’ve grown a lot. When I first started, I didn’t know much about the medical field. I just knew that I wanted to become a doctor. But now, I’ve seen the different parts of medicine and the different areas where patients are struggling. Some patients come in for tooth extractions, while others come in for diabetes. Being able to shadow these doctors helped me realize which area of specialty I want to go into in the future, which I feel is really important. When I first started, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do, and didn’t have a vision of where to go.
Why is it important for others to get involved with causes they care about?
Nowadays, with a lot of resources, I feel like having authentic experiences and sharing them with other people can really inspire them. I know a lot of receptionists at Cornerstone Clinic. They’re high school students, but over time, they have definitely become a lot more interested and more proactive in helping out the clinic. I really like to see that, because I know it’s difficult, and it’s also very competitive in college, so it’s just really nice to see that passion coming through in real time.
Any advice for people who want to start volunteering?
I train the volunteers, and something that I always tell everybody who is just first starting is try to do as much as you can at the clinic. I always encourage them to shadow doctors. If you do put in an effort, some doctors are willing to let you shadow them. I think that really helps you see what this day-to-day life would be if you were a physician. Also, shadowing multiple specialties can really help you. It might seem kind of daunting, but at the end of the day, they really just want to help you. Just putting your foot in the door is what really makes such a huge difference.
What do you want people to learn from your story?
When I first started, I was very shy. I only went to the clinic because my brother was going there. I didn’t really feel like this experience was going to help me that much. Over time, my perspective changed so much. At the time, I wasn’t thinking of going to med school. I was looking through other career paths, like research, but I was still generally interested in science. I just wasn’t sure if it was going to be healthcare. I feel like this experience solidified it. I know there’s a long pathway to go ahead, but I feel like without the experiences that I’ve had, I definitely wouldn’t have the passion and the grit to be able to follow through. That’s why I feel very confident that I’m able to go through with it.
A Mission to Mobilize Youth Against Food Insecurity
Meet Daily Point of Light Award honoree Bruce Matos. Read his story, and nominate an outstanding volunteer or family as a Daily Point of Light.
On any given week, Bruce Matos can be found coaching Kung Fu students as a first-degree black belt, training with his high school track team as co-captain, diving into neuroscience research or teaching himself piano and music production. As a rising senior balancing academics, athletics and hobbies, his schedule is packed. And yet, somehow, he still finds time to volunteer.
In eighth grade, Bruce discovered Joshua’s Heart Foundation (JHF), a youth-led nonprofit dedicated to fighting food insecurity. What stood out to him wasn’t just the mission to address hunger, but the structure. Students weren’t simply volunteering at events; they were leading meetings, brainstorming solutions and being entrusted with real responsibility.
Soon after getting involved, Bruce co-founded JHF’s Connecticut Junior Advisory Board, helping expand the organization’s reach beyond South Florida and mobilize youth volunteers in his home state. Over time, he stepped into the role of Head of Partners & Sponsors, where he presents to corporate donors, builds long-term partnerships and mentors fellow student leaders.
Through it all, Bruce has shown that leadership doesn’t require waiting for adulthood, and that meaningful change can start at any age.
What inspires you to volunteer?
I’ve seen how much a single missing piece can impact someone’s future. If a family is worried about their next meal, it can be hard for their student to focus in school, and if there’s no support system in place, even small obstacles can feel overwhelming.
This is really what pushes me to volunteer. It’s not about checking a box to say “I contributed.” It’s about stepping in when something basic is missing and doing what I can to help. To me, service isn’t extra. It’s part of being responsible for the community I’m lucky to be part of. It’s a mindset I learned on my journey to becoming an Eagle Scout.
Bruce stocks shelves with canned goods at a local food pantry./ Courtesy Bruce Matos
Tell us about your volunteer role with Joshua’s Heart Foundation.
I started volunteering with Joshua’s Heart Foundation (JHF) in eighth grade. At first, I just wanted to help along with my older brother. But pretty quickly, I realized I wanted to get involved more and create something bigger. That’s when I co-founded the Connecticut Junior Advisory Board. We organized food drives and collected books and school supplies for under-resourced schools. It was hands-on and it felt very meaningful to me.
Eventually, I found my voice within JHF. I stepped into the role of head of the Partners and Sponsors team, and with the support of my mentors, it pushed me outside my comfort zone. I started learning to present to corporate sponsors and learning how to engage with leaders of major organizations. I had to figure out how to tell our story clearly and build real, lasting relationships.
But what really made it special was that we were all students. These were my peers and we were learning together, how to run food distributions, hopefully smoothly, how to organize outreach, how to lead with confidence even when we were still figuring things out. I think I can credit JHF for how much my confidence grew during this time. I learned how to coordinate teams, communicate with different audiences and turn ideas into something tangible that helps families facing food insecurity.
What inspired you to get started with this initiative?
What first caught my attention was that it wasn’t just adults organizing everything behind the scenes. It was, and still is, the students who are actually leading the conversations. They were coming up with ideas, solving problems and being trusted to make real decisions. That mattered to me!
Food insecurity isn’t some distant issue you read about in a headline; It’s visible and urgent. I didn’t want to join something where I’d just show up and take instructions. I wanted to be in a place where young people had a real voice and real responsibility.
Joshua’s Heart gave me that opportunity. It gave me the chance not just to volunteer, but to grow as a leader while making a tangible impact.
What was your most impactful project?
One project that really shaped me took about a year to pull together. It started out as a simple idea to organize a food drive, but then it slowly grew into something much bigger than I anticipated. In that year, my P&S team and I built partnerships, reached out to sponsors and rallied peer volunteers. I was able to raise $12,000, which allowed us to purchase and collect more than 12,000 pounds of food. Through all the planning, I learned quickly that big goals require patience and collaborative effort.
But the day we distributed the food in South Florida made all of it worth it. We were able to serve more than 1,300 people that weekend. Seeing families walk away with full bags and a little less stress on their faces really impacted me. It reminded me that leadership isn’t about the numbers you report, and you see quickly that food insecurity isn’t abstract. It’s very personal.
What are your long-term plans or goals for this organization?
In the long term, I hope to help expand youth leadership pipelines within the organization. I hope to become part of the National Advisory Board where I can help raise awareness and hopefully expand JHF to my college campus and town.
I hope to study global public health in college and I’m also interested in integrating education into food distribution efforts, such as nutritional literacy workshops for younger students. I think that sustainable impact requires meeting immediate needs and investing in future opportunities.
What’s been the most rewarding part of your work?
Honestly, the best part has been watching younger volunteers grow. I’ve seen my peers show up on their first day quiet and unsure of where to stand, and I’ve seen them evolve, much in the same way that I did, into confident youth leaders. It’s the hidden superpower that we all have within and that JHF helps us discover.
What have you learned through your experiences as a volunteer?
One of the biggest things I’ve learned is that you have to listen before you try to fix anything. Every community is different. What works in one place might not work in another. If you aren’t flexible and learn to adapt, then you will usually miss what people are actually saying.
I’ve also learned that service depends on the small things most people don’t see. There’s a lot of work behind the scenes that most people don’t see, like being organized, communicating clearly and staying humble. Leadership in this space isn’t about standing in front of a crowd. It’s about being the person others can count on. Most of all, it’s really listening because people don’t need assumptions. They need respect.
Tell us about future partnerships, programs or events that you are excited about.
I’m really excited about building stronger connections with schools and youth organizations. There’s so much potential when students come together across different communities, sharing ideas and taking action. I’m also looking at ways to combine service with learning — whether that’s through health, neuroscience, or STEM programs. Recently, I was honored with the Hispanic Heritage Foundation Youth Award Gold Medal for community service (red region) and named a Hormel Foods 10 Under 20 Food Hero. These experiences have opened doors to amazing organizations and leaders. I’m looking forward to deepening those relationships, learning from their approaches and exploring ways to collaborate to fight food insecurity in even bigger, creative ways and more sustainable ways.
Why is it important for others to get involved with causes they care about?
Because change doesn’t happen by accident. When you care about something and actually do something about it, you start to see the world differently. You grow more empathetic, patient and aware. Even small actions make a difference. And when lots of people step up, those small actions add up into real change.
Change happens when people, especially young people, are encouraged, trained and supported to take action. We’re the next generation, and giving us the tools and guidance to lead means a stronger, more caring future for everyone.
Any advice for people who want to start volunteering?
Don’t wait to feel ready, just do it. You don’t need a fancy title or tons of experience. Show up, pay attention, get involved, ask questions and stick with it. Being reliable opens doors, and that’s often where real leadership starts.
What do you want people to learn from your story?
I hope people realize that leadership and service go hand in hand. You don’t have to put your academics, sports or research on hold to make a difference, and you certainly don’t have to wait until you’re an adult to start. Taking initiative now, as a student, not only helps your community, it also shapes you into a better person: more thoughtful, resilient and capable. Leadership isn’t a position. It’s a habit.
Meet Daily Point of Light Award honoree Mary Jess Holt. Read her story, and nominate an outstanding volunteer or family as a Daily Point of Light.
“Farm-to-table” is often marketed as a luxury – something you see printed across the menus of high-end restaurants, signaling freshness, sustainability and care. But in Nashville, that same concept is feeding people experiencing poverty, homelessness and food insecurity – and volunteer Mary Jess “MJ” Holt is making it happen.
At The Nashville Food Project, farm-to-table isn’t a trend. It’s a commitment rooted in the belief that all people should have access to the food they want and need. In a city where one in seven residents lack consistent access to enough food, while more than 40% of food goes to waste, the organization works to bridge that gap by growing organic produce, cooking made-from-scratch meals and sharing them in partnership with local community groups.
Since May 2025, MJ, a 20-year-old college sophomore, has logged more than 235 volunteer hours across the organization’s gardens and kitchens, often spending her summer break and class-free days volunteering. She might start the morning planting or harvesting crops in the garden, then head into the kitchen to chop vegetables, portion ingredients and assemble thousands of meals. Those meals are distributed to schools, homeless shelters and community centers across Middle Tennessee, and carefully prepared to accommodate a range of dietary needs, including low-sodium, gluten-free and vegetarian options.
Mary Jess Holt has been volunteering with The Nashville Food Project since last May, helping make farm-to-table meals accessible for those facing food insecurity./ Courtesy Mary Jess Holt
Tell us about your volunteer role at The Nashville Food Project.
I first started in the garden at South End United Methodist. We were planting, weeding, harvesting, maintaining crops like cucumbers, okra, heirloom tomatoes. It was a great time. From the garden, the food is taken into The Nashville Food Project’s kitchens. There we serve about 6,000 to 7,000 meals weekly to probably 40-plus distributors in food-insecure communities.
When I walk into the kitchen, there are stations set up where you can cut vegetables, wash vegetables, portion food, assemble sandwiches — really anything you want. It’s kind of self-serve.
I actually became such a frequent volunteer that normally you sign up for shifts, but since I’m there so much, they’re like, “You can just come in.” I usually stay longer. When the regular volunteers leave, they’ll just tell me what to do — help with ovens, meal prep, maybe organize a refrigerator. Stuff like that.
What inspired you to get started with The Nashville Food Project?
I was really interested because of my interest in economics at school. As an economics major, we study inflation and we study supply chains. And something I was really curious about was how to fix rising grocery prices. I didn’t really understand how to tackle that issue.
I thought, what’s something I can get involved with to understand it better? We don’t really think about the farmers or where this food comes from. I felt like in order to connect these two realms — school and in-person contact — it would be through this work: harvesting, planting, tending, growing actual food… and not just learning about it.
What’s an example of a meal you’ve helped prepare?
I remember this one time we were cooking ratatouille. All of our produce is coming from the gardens or from supermarkets that donate food — places like Costco or Publix — and we really don’t know what we’re going to get.
One time we had so much eggplant, and we were like, “Oh my gosh, what are we going to do with this?” Our kitchen manager, Julia, said, “Let’s make ratatouille.” So, we chopped up all the eggplant, and we also had a lot of donated Parmesan cheese and tomato sauce.
We layered it in those silver containers — eggplant, zucchini, sauce, cheese — baked it, did another layer and baked it again. It was a really fun process. Very colorful — yellow and purple.
We also make sure meals are balanced. If someone needs vegetarian, low sodium, gluten-free — we have different meals directed toward those groups.
Do you have a favorite crop or task?
My favorite plant would be the heirloom tomatoes we grew — they’re called Purple Cherokee. They don’t look bruised, but they are very purple, and they smell great. And they’re delicious.
In the kitchen, I really enjoy organizing meals, like making salads. First the lettuce, then cucumbers, then tomatoes, then meat or cheese, then dressing — just this orderly fashion. And it’s very colorful at the end.
Mary Jess Holt tackles a 30-gallon batch of applesauce with an immersion blender, turning a mountain of apples into a community-sized pot of homemade goodness.
What has been the most rewarding part of your work?
Seeing how little acts accumulate into something much bigger than I would think.
For example, the first day in the garden, I planted okra. I had never grown okra before. Two months later, the plants were 10 feet tall — twice my height. Seeing something you planted grow that tall — it really shows how small acts grow over time.
What have you learned through your experiences as a volunteer?
Definitely patience. In the garden, things don’t grow overnight. It’s a practical skill — you show up every day, you take care of the plants, you watch them grow until they’re really big. This type of consistency teaches you that it’s not something you can do overnight.
Why is it important for others to get involved with causes they care about?
I believe when you volunteer, that’s when real change happens. You go from being an observer to actually participating.
When you take ownership and dedicate time and energy, it teaches you to be a better human being. Volunteering deepens your empathy. Even if you’re working locally on something like food insecurity, it helps you understand it as a bigger issue in society, too — and how to tackle that.
What advice would you give to someone who wants to start volunteering?
I would say just jump in. Be curious. What is something you want to solve? Is there anything that really strikes you in your community?
Then go volunteer. Find a place that matches your interests. Find more people like you. You’ll start something really great, and you’ll be part of something much larger than yourself.
What do you hope people learn from your story?
I would say putting in the effort and showing up consistently is what makes the largest impact.
When you care for something — when you tend and harvest and water — you see how it grows day by day. That’s a reflection of anything in life: studying, working out, building friendships. It all depends on how much effort you put into it.
Meet Daily Point of Light Award honoree Vihaan Kamath. Read his story, and nominate an outstanding volunteer or family as a Daily Point of Light.
Vihaan Kamath started baking as a 6-year-old, enjoying the time with his mom and grandparents that always ended in delicious food. What’s not to like? Now 16, Vihaan still finds it a relaxing hobby and has used the resulting goods to raise money for the kids who need it most.
In April 2025, Vihaan founded Cookie for a Cause to distribute profits from cookie sales directly to children facing serious illness and other hardships. He has raised more than $28,000 for kids undergoing cancer treatment, kids who need artificial limbs, schools who feed hungry students and more. Partnering with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, he has expanded beyond his local community and into the Tri-State area.
For 40 to 60 hours each month, Vihaan steadfastly makes cookies and manages day-to-day operations in addition to doing schoolwork, varsity track and field and jazz band. He continues to serve as the main baker but now benefits from several eager volunteers finding sales opportunities, manning stalls and recruiting.
What inspires you to volunteer?
I started volunteering in eighth grade, because my school required a certain number of hours of service work. I kept doing it, because I really enjoyed helping out in the community.
What inspired you to get started with this initiative?
Every summer, my parents and I visit my grandmother in Mumbai. She’s part of a small nonprofit and goes to rural schools—some for the blind—and pediatric cancer hospitals to spend time with the kids and hand out school resources she buys with her own money. I started going with her when I was 13, and seeing all those kids stuck with me.
Vihaan Kamath, founder of Cookie for a Cause, bakes fresh cookies the sale of which will fund food, education and medical care for children./Courtesy Vihaan Kamath
One family I met had to move across the country, and the father had to quit his job for the kid to get the correct medical attention. That made me realize how much I take for granted. I started Cookie for a Cause with a bake sale, and one thing went to another. I eventually registered as a 501(c)3, and it started growing.
Tell us about your volunteer role with Cookie for a Cause.
I started right after sophomore year finals. Early on, I ran a couple of local stalls, held bake sales around the community and reached out to neighbors and acquaintances. My parents drove me on deliveries until I got my license. After I covered my whole network, which was small at the time, I started reaching out to local businesses.
I ended up partnering with a local bakery and continued reaching out to more and more corporations, from Connecticut to New York, where there are more parties and events to order for. I raised around $10,000 in a month. When I went back to visit my grandmother, I donated to all the places we volunteered together.
I still do most of the baking, and I manage orders, deliveries and communications. I also coordinate with hospitals, local businesses, volunteers and our adult board members.
What are your long-term plans or goals for the organization?
I want to raise over $50,000 by 2027 and help more than 1,000 children, which is about double what we’ve done so far. There’s always going to be a need for more funding and more volunteers, but these are goals we can reach.
Recently, I started a student board, which I hope to use to inspire more kids my age and younger to help in their own communities in whatever they’re passionate about. It’s one of my primary goals.
What’s been the most rewarding part of your work?
The most rewarding part is seeing the faces of these children when I visit. The trip I took last summer, after I raised $10,000, was one of the best experiences I’ve had. I loved seeing the kids and handing out stuff to make their lives easier.
It’s also great inspiring more people to join us. I didn’t think a lot of kids would want to volunteer for this type of thing, but I was wrong.
What have you learned through your experiences as a volunteer?
When I started, I was 15. I learned that there’s a lot more generosity in the world than I thought. I assumed it was going to be a real battle to even get $1,000. It’s not easy, but there are a lot more people who are willing to donate, and a lot more people my age willing to help out than I realized.
There’s one quote I like that says, “Every small action, when done consistently, will always lead to meaningful change.” And that’s true. I took my passion for baking and I use it to help children around the world.
Tell us about future partnerships, programs or events that you are excited about.
Recently, I got accepted into St. Jude’s Youth Leadership Society. Essentially, a lot of teenagers have a friendly competition to see who can fundraise the most.
I also partnered with Mattel to donate around 100 Brave Barbie and Brave Ken dolls–made specifically for children battling cancer–to St. Jude’s and Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital. If I get a chance, I’ll go down to St. Jude’s main hospital in Memphis when they arrive and see the impact we’ve made with the kids.
Any advice for people who want to start volunteering?
It doesn’t have to be big, and one person can’t solve every problem. But as I said, every small action, when done consistently, will always lead to meaningful change, even if it’s volunteering one hour a week. Maybe it’s going to visit kids at a local hospital or donating some stuff you have lying around your house. It’ll have a bigger impact than you might think.
What do you want people to learn from your story?
Any normal person can make a big change. I started off as a small bake sale, and everything kept rolling on until it became what I consider a big business. Doing anything you enjoy that helps people will go a long way.
