Meet Daily Point of Light Award honoree Michelle Ye. Read her story, and nominate an outstanding volunteer or family as a Daily Point of Light.
Points of Light is proud to share the following uplifting and inspiring story. However, we acknowledge that portions may be difficult for some readers. We encourage you to please care for your own wellbeing above all.
Seventeen-year-old Michelle Ye has always loved dance, but the associated pressure spurred on body image issues from a young age. And she wasn’t the only one affected. With their discovery of shared challenges and the lack of support for young people experiencing disordered eating, Michelle and her Co-Founder Diya Mankotia created Project EDSA (Eating Disorder Support & Awareness) to bridge the gap. Now, as the world’s largest youth-led eating disorder organization, Project EDSA is a network of youth across 59 countries that embeds prevention, awareness, and peer support systems into schools across the world.
In just a year and a half, Michelle has helped train 2,000 student leaders who have, in turn, educated 100,000 peers through events and workshops. Youth are more likely to confide in someone their own age than an adult when they’re struggling. By equipping young leaders with the knowledge to help, the organization hopes to empower them to seek support amongst their peers.
What inspires you to volunteer?
Growing up, my grandparents helped my parents take care of me while they were at work. That led to a feeling of responsibility to take care of others. I just want to contribute to my community.
Michelle packages 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline bookmarks for distribution to schools and libraries.
Tell us about your volunteer role with Project EDSA.
Our main focus is our chapter program, through which students create a club in their own school or community. We’re partnered with ANAD (National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders) and work closely with their school ambassador program. Our chapter leaders undergo training with ANAD to learn about eating disorders, facilitating discussions, and advocating on their campus. After that, we give them a 30-day starter kit with basic guides for them to get set up.
Our other major focus is our volunteering program, but that’s more to help with our operational work. One in three youth report lacking reliable access to mental health resources, and about 50% wouldn’t know what to do if they felt like harming themselves. In honor of Suicide Prevention Month last year, we distributed 7,500 bookmarks across 40 schools and libraries with the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline and local mental health resources.
As the Co-founder and COO, I oversee everything and do social media. I help with a lot of internal work like onboarding our chapters—120 so far—and volunteers and creating guides for them. I also strategize with Diya.
What inspired you to get started with this initiative?
Growing up dancing, there was a lot of pressure to have a certain body type. That pressure really got to me when I was nine. I never had an eating disorder, but I started hating my body and have had body dysmorphia since then. When I was 14, one of my dance teachers body shamed my peers and me. That’s why I stopped competitive dancing and left that team. It led to many of us developing disordered eating habits, and motivated me to volunteer at a local eating disorder nonprofit, where I met Diya.
Together, we realized that while there was support there, all the programs were designed for adults despite adolescents being most at risk. She had her own EDSA club at her school, but she wanted to expand it, so together, we launched the organization.
What are your long-term plans or goals for the organization?
We’re in the process of onboarding our new executive leadership board. That’s our main focus. We’re also working on the State of Eating Disorders. Each chapter leader will report on their school’s current level of support, so we can use the information to advocate for policies.
We’re also trying to get into crafting care packages for those struggling with eating disorders in hospitals. When Diya was in recovery, she really enjoyed the art supplies people brought. It can be isolating when you don’t really have anyone to speak to. And we’re working on a formal Eating Disorder Awareness Week campaign that we can do every year.
What’s been the most rewarding part of your work?
It’s being able to connect people from all over the world. It’s cool how an initiative one chapter is doing in Texas, for example, can be adapted for New York City or expanded to Peru. We have a Slack channel for everyone and an Instagram group chat for chapters. Everyone always likes each other’s messages. Even though they don’t really know each other that well, we’re connected by this shared community.
What have you learned through your experiences as a volunteer?
Volunteering is super rewarding, but it also requires patience. I work with many different people, and it can be challenging when the same questions are being asked over and over. Patience is important.
Also, volunteering instills empathy. You have to empathize and be an active listener to understand the struggle. It’s important that you’re passionate and knowledgeable about the issue you’re focusing on, so you’re able to do meaningful work.
Tell us about future partnerships, programs or events that you are excited about.
We were awarded a $5,000 grant for our 9/11 initiative. There are multiple chapters participating, and we’ve been able to give them—and some close partner organizations—up to $500 to each.
My chapter will assemble care packages at my local American Legion Auxiliary Post to target hunger within the veteran community. Many veterans rely on food stamps, and we want to address that by packing shelf-stable nutritious food and recipes along with positive messages in each box to brighten their day.
Why is it important for others to get involved with causes they care about?
Throughout your life, there have been people who have helped you along the way, and sometimes those actions shape or help you the most. It’s important to do that for others. Also, if you have a certain lived experience, volunteering is a great way to help those who are going through that same type of challenge.
What do you want people to learn from your story?
Youth can change the world. We’re dominating as changemakers now more than ever. There are so many amazing initiatives out there proving we have this ability.
From a Single Campus Book Drive to a Global Literacy Movement
Meet Daily Point of Light Award honoree Adam Shamoun. Read his story, andnominate an outstanding volunteer or family as a Daily Point of Light.
Adam Shamoun’s father grew up in Syria without access to educational opportunity, an experience that shaped everything his son would go on to build. That story lit a spark, and today Adam serves as President of the Brophy chapter of the Driving Empowerment Action & Learning (DEAL) Club and Chief Operations Officer of the national DEAL nonprofit, working to connect books to the people who need them most: tribal communities, families, and literacy organizations in Arizona and around the world.
Since joining in 2024, Adam has run four book distribution events, helped donate more than 120,000 books, and led fundraising efforts that have raised over $5,000, all while building the strategic systems to expand DEAL into new chapters and states. It’s work he traces directly back to his father, and to a belief that young people can’t afford to wait to make a difference.
For Adam, the secret is to find what you’re passionate about, start small, and show up every day. Literacy and sustainability are the causes that keep him coming back.
Meet Daily Point of Light Award honoree Grace Sun. Read her story, andnominate an outstanding volunteer or family as a Daily Point of Light.
At 15, during the loneliest days of the pandemic, Grace Sun sat down at her piano and began playing over Zoom for isolated older adults. That small gesture became a global cause. Today a junior at Wellesley College, Grace is the founder and president of Melodies for Remedies, a student-run 501(c)(3) that channels the healing power of music and the performing arts to seniors, individuals with chronic illness, and patients living with Alzheimer’s and dementia.
The spark came earlier, at an impromptu talent show at a senior home across from her high school. When the residents clapped wildly for teenagers — overjoyed simply to share in music — even when they made mistakes, Grace, a classically trained pianist, saw her art transform into a bridge to people living in isolation.
“If there’s a vision that you have for whatever you are pursuing, the vision will pull you forward.”
What began with one student now spans 500+ members across dozens of high schools, nearly 20 universities, and five countries, who have delivered more than 10,000 hours of music through monthly concerts, one-on-one sessions, and dementia awareness initiatives, raising over $5,000 for Alzheimer’s research.
An aspiring physician fluent in three languages, Grace has published research in Music and Medicine and earned the Barron Prize and the Reagan Leadership Medal. Since Alzheimer’s has no cure yet, she keeps showing up with music, uplifting one senior at a time.
Meet Daily Point of Light Award honoree Maanya Pandey. Read her story, and nominate an outstanding volunteer or family as a Daily Point of Light.
Growing up, Maanya Pandey would hear her mother’s stories about how inaccessible and expensive period products were in her native India. But when Maanya discovered that women in America were facing significant obstacles to finding adequate period products, she knew she could take action to make a change.
After doing significant research, Maanya learned that from prisons to her local community, women were struggling to find period products. This was especially true in Maanya’s area of Iowa, where few organizations addressed period poverty. As a high school sophomore, Maanya decided to start her own organization to help women feel clean and maintain dignity during their periods. In May 2020, she founded Love for Red, an organization working to end period poverty through service, advocacy, and awareness.
With a focus on schools, Maanya has volunteered thousands of hours leading a student‑run effort that has donated about 362,000 menstrual products to 207 organizations, including 170 schools in 78 districts. The organization works to move products into school bathrooms, create “period packs,” and establish student ambassador teams that ensure their classmates’ supplies are stocked without asking an adult or going home. With a strong focus on partnering with shelters, clinics, and refugee groups, Maanya has served as a face of the mission, representing the group to support bills that would fund free products in school restrooms.
Maanya just graduated from the University of Iowa and is planning on attending medical school. She hopes to incorporate Love for Red into her medical career, addressing women’s health while advocating for health equity. By dedicating her volunteer work to a cause that’s close to her heart, Maanya has already forged a path that will lead to her future as a physician. Her dedication to the cause shows just how much volunteerism can change the future and, in this powerful example, inform one’s professional career.
LOVE FOR RED FOUNDER MAANYA PANDEY (RIGHT) PRESENTS ‘LET’S TALK PERIOD POVERTY’ TO CIVIC LEADERSHIP ACADEMY STUDENTS WITH REP. DAVID YOUNG. /COURTESY MAANYA PANDEY
What inspired you to get started with this initiative?
When I was growing up, women in my life would tell me about their experiences with menstruation when they were young, and that was so different from my experience. My mom grew up in India, and she wasn’t devoid of resources. But at the time, period products like the ones that we know today weren’t on the market. And if they were, they were so expensive and inaccessible. She would tell me about the negative experiences that she had with menstruation, and that was so different from what I experienced. When I got my first period, I was so excited to be a woman. In my sophomore year of high school, I saw an Instagram post about women in prisons and the struggles that they go through because they can’t access period products. They were using things like bed sheets and mattresses as period products and subjecting themselves to assault by prison staff to get period products. That’s where I really saw that this issue was in the U.S. and not just another country.
What inspires you to volunteer?
So many people are suffering in silence. I think that truly was my motivation. It felt so fulfilling to be able to address something that wasn’t being talked about in general. That’s why I continue what we’re doing, because when we started, we didn’t think that there would be much of a need. Once we got to schools, it completely skyrocketed, and we now support over 200 schools in Iowa. Being able to uncover need and directly help those in need is honestly so fulfilling, and that’s why I continue.
Tell us about your volunteer role with Love for Red.
My title is Founder and President, and so it’s my mom and me who do almost everything for the organization. We have a board of advisors and other things, but my role is overseeing the organization. I help with gathering the donations, going to schools, and dropping them off. We plan period packing events. For the past four years, I was at the University of Iowa for my undergrad, and so I ran our Iowa City team. We have our newsletter, our social media posts, events, and fundraisers. I run all of our meetings, and we actually have a student ambassador program that creates a leadership opportunity for students to take care of their school’s menstrual product needs.
What are your long-term plans or goals for the organization?
One of our really big strategies is advocacy. It’s something that we started in 2023, when we went to the Iowa State Legislature to advocate for policy change for free menstrual products. Our legislative goals for the past few years have been getting free period products for students in Iowa and making them free in all Iowa schools. I would say that one of our goals is to be able to get something passed. We got really, really close. It’s something where we’ve gained so much traction and progress in the past few years, specifically for students. That’s something that I really want us to be able to get passed.
What’s been the most rewarding part of your work?
We send a feedback form out towards the end of the year to see if these products are helping people and making a difference. That’s when it’s so eye-opening to see staff and students talk about their experience with having these products accessible to them. They’re talking about how, otherwise, they were spending their own money for these products or missing school.
Students are so grateful to have these products accessible to them. It just feels like we’re truly actually making a difference for Iowans.
What have you learned through your experiences as a volunteer?
One of the biggest things is just how much I’ve changed as a person over the past six years because of Love for Red. A lot of people are shocked when they hear me say that I’m like an introvert. I’m scared to talk to people on the phone. But with Love for Red, it’s truly changed me as a person. It’s changed my confidence, my skills, and my outlook on the things that I want to do. I’m applying for medical school right now.
Why is it important for others to get involved with causes they care about?
We all see issues that happen in our world, and we all have the desire for them to be solved. But they’re not going to be solved unless we do something about it. I know it can be really scary for people to take that initiative. When we started, we had no idea that it would grow this much. But we started because I wanted to do something about this, and then we uncovered more of the need that we saw in Iowa. Because of that, we were able to create such an impact. It’s really important to take that first step in addressing things that you want to see solved because one person can truly make a difference.
Any advice for people who want to start volunteering?
Research organizations that do exist for the issues you do want to solve. Some organizations always need help, and just email them, reach out to them, or look on their website. There are so many places that need help, and we just have to reach out and ask what it is. If you have a cause that you want to help, there are so many more people out there that want to do the same. If you start it, other people will join you as well.
Meet Daily Point of Light Award honoree Andrew Coram. Read his story, andnominate an outstanding volunteer or family as a Daily Point of Light.
Andrew Coram began volunteering with Erie Neighborhood House in 2022 because he was looking for a way to channel his time toward something meaningful. And he found it — as an after-school mentor to Alex, then a sixth-grader at the Chicago nonprofit that serves immigrant and low-income families. Four years later, the two still meet weekly. They tackle homework, but they also talk sports, family, tough decisions, and the future. Andrew has watched Alex grow into a high school junior, and this past year, he even advocated for Alex’s mother during her residency process.
But Andrew’s commitment didn’t stop at mentoring. In 2023, he joined Erie House’s Associate Board, becoming Co-Chair in 2024 to help drive fundraising. The board’s signature June event has raised over $27,000 across recent years and more than $23,000 in 2026 alone. These dollars fuel childcare, ESL classes, legal aid, and wellness services, while spreading awareness of Erie House’s mission.
For Andrew, the work has been a lesson in community. Neighborhood businesses, he’s found, are eager to help; they just need to know organizations like Erie House exist. His advice to anyone hesitant to start is to not set impossible expectations. The strength is in numbers, and you just need to show up.
Meet Daily Point of Light Award honoree Claire Wang. Read her story, and nominate an outstanding volunteer or family as a Daily Point of Light.
Claire Wang grew up hearing that her beloved grandmother had to leave school in the second grade to join the workforce in China. That’s how she knew how lucky she was to have the opportunity to get an education. However, Claire also knew that, like her grandmother, many girls across the world weren’t as lucky as she was. They face tremendous obstacles to accessing proper education. She soon learned that over 119 million girls worldwide lack access to education, and she wanted to do something about it. Little did she know at the time, but Claire was about to spearhead a movement that would grow into a global organization.
In the ninth grade, Claire and her best friend Vivian co-founded Future Female Scholars, an organization that connects underserved girls worldwide with passionate tutors who believe in the transformative power of education. Claire works diligently to recruit and coordinate volunteer tutors and match them with mentors. She also spends significant time managing partnerships and sponsorships, organizing outreach initiatives, and growing Future Female Scholars’ social media presence to over 146,000 followers on Instagram. Her work has been so successful that FFS has built partnerships with Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation, Krispy Kreme, and TrueLeap. As a result of Claire’s dedication, which includes spending 35 to 40 hours per month on her volunteer work, over 10,000 girls receive free one-on-one tutoring. She has built a network of 2,000 verified volunteer tutors, providing students with academic support they may not otherwise have access to.
Currently a high school senior, Claire is planning on heading to college, where she’ll study chemistry with a minor in education. She hopes to continue growing the organization while pursuing her degree. While FFS has already expanded on a global scale, Claire hopes to go even bigger. She dreams of partnering with a major organization like the United Nations to make it clear that women’s education needs to be emphasized in other countries, not just in the United States. Looking at everything Claire has accomplished thus far, there’s no doubt she’ll reach her goals someday.
CLAIRE WANG (RIGHT) CELEBRATES FUTURE FEMALE SCHOLARS SURPASSING 10,000+ INSTAGRAM FOLLOWERS IN JANUARY 2026, MAKING A MAJOR MILESTONE IN THE ORGANIZATION’S RAPIDLY GROWING GLOBAL COMMUNITY. /COURTESY CLAIRE WANG
What inspired you to get started with this initiative?
Growing up, my grandmother lived at my house, so it was really nice to just hear her stories. She grew up in a place called Hunan, China, where most of the people are farmers. She told me that she had many dreams of becoming a teacher. Unfortunately, she had to drop out of school in the second grade to join the workforce with the other villagers in her town.
I had been going to kindergarten at that point, and I was always complaining about going to school. But this new perspective shed light on how much of a privilege education is, and this really inspired me. In ninth grade, I started Future Female Scholars with my friend Vivian Lu because we realized that so many other girls like my grandmother are in the same situation where they have to sacrifice education just to live, and that shouldn’t be the case. Education and your own well-being should go hand in hand.
What inspires you to volunteer?
I just like talking to people and meeting new people. Every time I volunteer, it’s a great experience because you’re introducing yourself to new people. It’s a new experience every time. You’re not always going to meet the same people with the same backstory. Through volunteering, I’ve learned some of my greatest lessons. And these lessons have carried forward whether I’m interacting with teachers, professors, or friends.
Tell us about your volunteer role with Future Female Scholars.
I’m the co-founder and co-CEO with my friend Vivian. Day-to-day, it mostly looks like me registering tutors. We have about 2,000 registered, verified tutors right now in over 70 countries, which is significant. It’s usually me pairing up students with tutors, or sometimes the students will naturally find tutors themselves on our website. We have a place on our website where people can find tutors who list their contact information. I also manage our Instagram, which has over 145,000 followers. It’s pretty wild to see how something we started almost two years ago has grown on a global scale.
What’s been the most rewarding part of your work?
This sounds cliché, but meeting students from each country is so cool. Hopping on a Zoom call with someone from Morocco or France. It’s so cool to see the cultural differences, and we bond over struggles. We both have to take the SAT or do college applications, stuff like that. Even though we’re in different parts of the world, we’re still connected by education and our love for learning.
What have you learned through your experiences as a volunteer?
I’ve learned resilience. Starting in 2024, we were really small. We had about 300 followers on Instagram, and we only had about 10 tutors sign up on our website. It was really sad at first because I really wanted to reach as many people as possible. But I decided just to keep going. I worked with my co-founder every day throughout the summer and throughout the school year. Even if we had tests or quizzes, we worked through holidays. Consistency is the real solution to everything. Every day we just focus on improving something differently.
Why is it important for others to get involved with causes they care about?
You can really step out of your comfort zone. It’s really easy to say you have a passion for something, but not take any action. Anyone can have a passion for, let’s say, chemistry, but if you don’t actually take initiative to work in a lab or do some research, there’s nothing really tangible that’s produced out of it. I think young people these days really need to have initiative. There needs to be some actual human interaction, and I think the tutorial aspect has worked for most of our Future Female Scholars.
Any advice for people who want to start volunteering?
Go to your local community center, church, or library. Find out what your school offers. I started volunteering at the food bank and the library. Through these constant volunteering opportunities that I did, I realized I wanted to do something more. I wanted to do something where I could lead my own cause. If you do something that personally connects to you, that really makes a much better impact, and you yourself are going to be constantly motivated.
What do you want people to learn from your story?
I would like people to learn that it’s always possible, even if you start and you might not have as many volunteers as you’d like. Just keep going and try to improve something every day. If you improve something every day and stay consistent, things will eventually work out for you. Two years ago we had tutored only 100 girls, but now we’ve tutored over 10,000 girls across the world. I think young people can do that just through the power of social media and staying consistent.
Water Safety: Spreading Knowledge That Saves Lives
Meet Daily Point of Light Award honoree Kate Casciato. Read her story, and nominate an outstanding volunteer or family as a Daily Point of Light.
It is often assumed that everyone knows how to swim at a certain age, but that’s not always the case. Geographic location, historical segregation laws, financial barriers, and other factors can all play a part in why a child might not be safe in the water. Seventeen-year-old Kate Casciato is dedicating her life to changing that, starting with childhood education, where feet are firmly on dry land.
When Kate was a toddler, a close family member nearly drowned in a riptide, and it shaped how her parents raised their kids. They enrolled her and her four brothers in swimming lessons from a very early age and strictly enforced safety rules. While they can all swim well, Kate has become a competitive swimmer. In fact, she loves anything to do with water, which is why it saddens her to see so many accidents happen to young children who haven’t been taught to safely interact with it.
In 2022, Kate decided to take things into her own hands. She founded Own Your Float to bring water safety education into preschool and elementary classrooms across New York City and spends 15 to 20 hours each week running programs with 40 volunteers. Swimming lessons can be hard to access, but thanks to Kate, knowledge isn’t. The organization has also distributed nearly 3,000 pairs of goggles and swim caps with partner companies.
Own Your Float has reached over 1,200 students, and Kate has published op-eds in The Washington Times and other national outlets on the topic. As part of her advocacy, Kate has also co-chaired Turning the Tide, a friend’s initiative, organizing logistics and helping raise $140,000 for swim lessons for underserved swimmers.
What inspires you to volunteer?
My parents were always talking about water safety, and it always interested me. I used to hand out booklets outside pools as a kid. I wanted to do something about it, but I hadn’t really volunteered before this.
In Albany, Kate stands on the steps of the New York State Capitol after meeting with the Director of the Senate Education Committee to advocate for a bill that would mandate water safety education in New York schools.
Tell us about your volunteer role with Own Your Float.
I started by asking schools if I could talk about water safety. Many said no, because they didn’t want to scare the children. Eventually, after really writing countless emails and using every connection I could, I got into classrooms and assemblies, Boys and Girls Clubs, and camps. Now, I do lesson prep and, during lessons themselves, read a water safety book and use scenario-based poster boards to help kids spot danger.
That’s our main focus, but I also solicit donations to help us distribute goggles and swim caps as an avenue into talking about safety. I’ve negotiated a wholesale equipment partnership with FINIS, Inc. and Speedo. We hope goggles in their child’s hand are a reminder to parents to sign them up for a swim lesson.
The last part of what we do involves librarians. I wrote a children’s book called Captain Goggles Saves the Day! that I self-published about water safety, because the books I read didn’t represent the diverse children I see. By contacting state librarians, we were able to send free copies of my book or another one on the topic to around 270 libraries across five states. We help librarians build engagement around the books using activities I created with downloadable sheets. And we’ve launched a middle school club with students who will hopefully take over after I graduate.
I also volunteer every Sunday most of the year as a swim instructor with the Swim Strong Foundation for children from low-income circumstances. My organization focuses on education, but a child that has a swimming lesson is 88% less likely to drown, so that’s a big part of the solution, too.
You advocated for state bill S. 9480 to mandate water safety in schools. Why is that important?
The goal is to get water safety required in classrooms. Only Louisiana has implemented this so far. We should be teaching children to respect the water without being fearful of it. So, I went to Albany to meet with the Director of the State Education Committee, find out the status of the bill, and share what I’m seeing in classrooms and swim lessons.
What inspired you to get started with this initiative?
I grew up understanding that anyone can drown and everyone eventually encounters water, whether you’re swimming, on a boat, or in a flood. It was always in the back of my mind.
As I got older, I got invited to talk about being a competitive swimmer and noticed the children I spoke with had little understanding of water safety. I realized that was why you can’t pick up a newspaper in the summer without seeing a tragedy of a child who snuck into a neighbor’s pool or was swept away on a beach.
We have to talk to kids about water safety like we do about fire and lockdown drills. The sooner we reach them, the better. Many tragedies are preventable, but it’s not as simple as telling people to get a lesson. There are barriers, and that’s why I want to study public policy. I’m just getting started.
What’s been the most rewarding part of your work?
It’s when a kid confirms they’ll follow the rules and a teacher decides to incorporate water safety into their curriculum. This work is so much more than one person. It’s going to take a movement.
Why is it important for others to get involved with causes they care about?
We owe it to each other. We’re part of this world, and no one can get by without help from other people. If you can contribute, you have an obligation to. Plus, it makes you feel good. Nothing makes me feel better than helping somebody.
What do you want people to learn from your story?
There’s no substitute for a swim lesson, but anyone involved in a child’s life can talk about water safety. Education is an easy part of the solution that we’re ignoring. You don’t need a pool. Children are already in classrooms. Why can’t we get this done?
Meet Daily Point of Light Award honoree Jiya Patel. Read her story, and nominate an outstanding volunteer or family as a Daily Point of Light.
Jiya Patel, a 17-year-old rising senior, is deeply invested in her high school. She plays on the school golf team and serves on the Honor Council. She plans events like prom and pep rallies with the Student Live Committee. But her care for the people around her extends far beyond her fellow students.
Jiya initially delved into volunteering through her local temple, serving food to guests and helping out with gardening, cleaning, and other tasks. It was a visit to her parents’ homeland, however, that inspired her biggest initiative yet. In 2023, Jiya co-founded Thrive2Gethr to reduce food waste while fighting food insecurity. By redistributing excess food from restaurants and bakeries to shelters and food banks, clients can access delicious meals that would otherwise be thrown out.
Quickly expanding, the organization now has around 1,200 members in 40 student-led chapters across the country. Together, they’ve facilitated the donation of over $100,000 worth of food. Jiya is not only changing the culture around food waste. She’s creating the framework for other student leaders to do the same in their own communities. And when she soon joins her brother as the first generation of her family to go to college, her out-of-the-box thinking will make her an excellent fit for the business or economics career she plans to pursue.
What inspired you to get started with this initiative?
A couple of years ago, I went to India with my parents and saw a lot of families without food and necessary resources. It stuck with me, and I started thinking a lot about hunger. It’s a big problem in the U.S., too. As is food waste.
I saw videos online about dumpsters of perfectly good food being thrown away. Then, I realized that food waste and people facing food insecurity could be connected to address both problems. The food already existed; it just wasn’t getting to people who needed it. That inspired me to start my own organization.
Tell us about your volunteer role with Thrive2Gethr.
In the beginning, I was reaching out to all the local restaurants myself, building the program in my community. I would make a list of 100 businesses and struggle to find any partners. Many would just say no, right off the bat. But I’d keep following up with the ones that were leaning towards maybe. I was also organizing volunteers to pick and deliver food to shelters.
As it’s grown, I’ve focused more on helping other people get started. I recruit and mentor student chapter leaders, helping them connect with restaurants. I create guides and materials to guide them through the process. And I support them with any questions they have. Overall, I spend about 30 hours a month volunteering.
Jiya picks up donations from a local restaurant partner.
What are your long-term plans or goals for the organization?
I want to keep expanding, but I want to ensure each of our chapters is still getting the support they need. We need a balance between building and maintaining what we already have.
I also want to normalize restaurants donating food. I think a big part of why they’re hesitant is because they don’t want to be held liable if someone gets sick. But there’s a national law called the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act of 1996, which protects people donating food in good faith.
We give all the restaurants we ask to donate a guide, and that information is included. We speak about it as well, but I think there’s still a lack of understanding. I’d like to build awareness, so people are more willing to donate.
What’s been the most rewarding part of your work?
Giving so much food to people who need it has been rewarding to see. Depending on the location, we either donate to a facility for them to distribute to people, or we go in and give it directly to people. I’ve also enjoyed watching students help people in their communities and be invested in it the same way I am.
What have you learned through your experiences as a volunteer?
It’s a lot easier to make change when you work together. When I partner with people from my school, restaurants, and shelters, everyone’s working together towards the same goal. And everyone’s benefiting. I’ve learned a lot about teamwork.
I’ve also learned about persistence, because you have to keep going, even though many people are saying no. You have to push forward and hope that someone will end up saying yes. I don’t let things stop me when it gets hard.
Why is it important for others to get involved with causes they care about?
Everyone has to do their part to help. If you’re able to, you should at least try. It doesn’t have to be big. A lot of people feel like they need to have a lot of experience or do something large-scale for it to matter, but everything starts with one person making a decision to act.
If you care about something and you work at it, even something small can create a big ripple effect. You never know who you’ll inspire. If someone sees you doing good, that might make them want to do something good as well.
How can people take steps to address food insecurity and food waste in their own areas?
They can always start a chapter or reach out on any of our social media. They can also reach out to local restaurants. Many will say no, but one or at least one will say yes if you persist. You’ll find someone who’s willing to help. Just start small and build.
What do you want people to learn from your story?
You don’t have to be a full-grown adult to start making change. If you care about something, just start, and everything will work itself out. You can’t wait for everything to align. Nothing’s ever going to be perfect; you just have to try. The hardest part is taking that first step.
A Backpack, a Community and a Mission to Help Children
Meet Daily Point of Light Award honoree Bill Vaughan. Read his story, and nominate an outstanding volunteer or family as a Daily Point of Light.
In 2022, UPS Capt. William “Bill” Vaughan was on a routine layover in Cologne, Germany, when he encountered thousands of Ukrainian families fleeing war. Among them were children arriving with little more than what they could carry. Witnessing their uncertainty and loss, Bill saw an immediate need and chose to act.
Drawing on the community he knew best, Bill turned to his UPS network and launched Operation BackPack4Kids, a volunteer-led effort focused on bringing comfort and practical support to children displaced by crisis. In just 30 days, he raised $100,000 and mobilized more than 400 UPS employees to pack and distribute backpacks filled with essentials and small comforts, including warm blankets, water bottles, hygiene kits and toys. What began as a response to families escaping the war in Ukraine has since grown into an ongoing effort serving children affected by war, natural disasters and humanitarian emergencies around the world. The result is practical care delivered with dignity, humanity and connection.
Bill’s service reflects the power of volunteering to move people from concern to action and to connect communities around a shared purpose. By pairing compassion with the relationships and resources already available to him, he created a way for hundreds of others to contribute, expanding the reach of one person’s decision to help. His work also demonstrates how volunteer leadership can build momentum: identifying a need, inviting others in and creating a structure that allows service to continue beyond a single moment.
In recognition of his sustained commitment to helping children and families in crisis, UPS named Bill the 2025 recipient of the Jim Casey Community Service Award, the company’s highest honor for volunteerism. Through Operation BackPack4Kids, Bill continues to show how purposeful service can turn empathy into tangible support and give others a meaningful way to make a difference.
Meet Daily Point of Light Award honoree Oleg Smirnov. Read his story, and nominate an outstanding volunteer or family as a Daily Point of Light.
Oleg Smirnov, a 27-year-old Tesla Project Manager, embraces volunteering as a way to explore potential careers while helping out his adopted country. Born in Russia, Oleg moved to Florida with his family when he was 14 and started dedicating his time to helping out in a hospital when he started considering life as a doctor. In college, he started volunteering with the American Red Cross. While often associated with mobile blood drives, the Red Cross has a wide variety of programs designed to help people in difficult situations.
Since 2019, Oleg has served as a Casework Coordinator, a Blood Drive Ambassador, and a Responder on the Disaster Action team. He has volunteered nearly 1,200 hours with the Red Cross across multiple states. His biggest role today is Disaster Services Duty Officer in which he answers emergency calls and coordinates response teams. As a veteran of the U.S. Army, Oleg also works closely with the military as a Red Cross volunteer for Service to the Armed Forces Officer, MEPS (Military Entrance Processing Station) Volunteer Lead and a Miami-Dade Military Affairs board member.
What inspires you to volunteer?
I didn’t know what profession I wanted to go into, so I started to try everything as a volunteer. My first opportunity was working at the JV Ruby Memorial Hospital ER. I was there when COVID happened, so we set up a task force, and I was the analyst for that.
(2nd from left) Oleg joins fellow South Florida Red Cross volunteers in welcoming The Miami Foundation team for a presentation on local disaster services, Restoring Family Links, and Service to the Armed Forces.
In college, I was the fundraising chair for my fraternity, a Title IX coordinator, and a finance officer for my student government. I’ve also been a crisis counselor for a crisis text line and a volunteer for the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office. The underlying driving force of my life is avoiding boredom.
Tell us about your volunteer role with the American Red Cross.
As a Disaster Services Duty Officer, I get emergency calls from 9-1-1 dispatch, the fire department, or anybody else who has witnessed an emergency. I verify it’s a real call and learn about the situation. Then, I dispatch volunteers to help. Help can be financial, psychological, providing supplies, and more. For the bigger disasters, we may open a shelter. Simply put, I ensure affected families receive immediate assistance, recovery resources, and follow-up.
My supporting role is with Service to the Armed Forces where we work primarily with the military members, their spouses, and their dependents. Our mission is to ensure dependents know they have resources available to them while their loved one is deployed.
I’m also the Volunteer Lead for their MEPS program. When young people go to enlist, they take an exam and do background checks, fingerprints, interviews, and medical evaluation. Then, they take the enlistment oath. It can feel pretty long and tedious. We send somebody to ease the pressure and uncertainty by providing support, guidance, and therapy, if needed. And we coordinate communication cards, which is essential if something happens while you are deployed or on orders. In the case of a family emergency, the birth of a child, or other important news, the family would reach out to us so we could work with commanding officers to pass that message along.
Lastly, I represent the Red Cross on the Military Affairs Board where I attend meetings related to any events, memorials, or assistance veterans may need from us. A few days ago, we helped a veteran who was being deported. We’re there to make sure we get the information on time from partner government agencies and assist if we can.
What inspired you to get started with this initiative?
The Red Cross has a vast number of roles in different departments that you can try out. It’s been part of my everyday life since I was 20 and was my first introduction to people who were really suffering. It stuck with me, and I’ve been with the Red Cross for over seven years now, because I’m empowered to make them feel a little better and perhaps make a difference in their lives.
What are your long-term plans or goals for your volunteer work?
My main goal is to show everyone the resources that the Red Cross has. We always respond. If we can’t help, we’ll refer you to somebody that can. No issue is too big or too small.
As a Red Cross Service to the Armed Forces volunteer, Oleg briefs the 482nd Fighter Wing Spouses Group at Homestead Air Reserve Base.
What’s been the most rewarding part of your work?
As a naturalized citizen, I spent over a decade building this life for myself. Out of all the countries in the world, I’ve chosen this one, and I’ve never felt unwelcome. Throughout my journey, I’ve been supported by the people around me, by my now-fellow Americans.
The most rewarding part of this volunteer job is that I can do that for others. As a citizen and community member, we all have a certain moral obligation to help out, to make sure our society keeps functioning.
What have you learned through your experiences as a volunteer?
I think society–and each of us individually–is much more good than bad, unlike what the media might tell us. I’ve witnessed firsthand that in every disaster, regardless of size or location, people come together to support each other.
Any advice for people who want to start volunteering?
I tell my younger siblings the best way to figure out what they want to do is to try it out. You can spend 10 years studying and going to med school, but you won’t have knowledge of the hospital environment. How you feel when you’re at your workplace is important. Volunteering gives you the time and space to try new things out without sacrificing too much of your career or your time.
What do you want people to learn from your story?
Take a chance. There’s always going to be a reason not to do something. There’s always going to be something in between you and the goal. And for most of us, the goal may not be so evident. If you’re interested in volunteering, try it. The biggest benefit is that you won’t wonder what would have happened if you had.
