Instead of focusing on things like prom and where to go to college, MaryRose Purdue, a high-school senior in Hopatcong, New Jersey, relentlessly serves others.
Purdue has collected over 200 coats and donated them to Project Self-Sufficiency, a nationwide non-profit that serves the needy in her New Jersey area. Its mission is to help low-income people achieve stability through a variety of programs, including parenting classes, G.E.D. preparation, job-seeking help, and more.“She saw a need and decided to do something about it,” her mother, Barbara Purdue, told Lisa Pachnos, the publicist for Project Self-Sufficiency. “She knew that they would be given to people who really needed them.”
MaryRose set up donation boxes at her high school, and her principal, Noreen Lazariuk, helped her spread the word about the coat drive. “I believe that one of the most valuable skills we can give to our students is the awareness of their place in a larger community and the fulfillment they will experience when giving to those in need,” Lazariuk said.
MaryRose gathers coats for the poor for the winter, but she’s also busy helping others every other season as well. She volunteers for the Special Olympics as a “hugger,” greeting the finishers at track and field events, and she speaks out about juvenile arthritis, a condition from which she suffers. Last year, she was chosen to represent the cause in meetings with senators and representatives in Washington D.C., advocating for increased funds for research and lower medication prices. MaryRose plans to study nursing in college, and she wants to specialize in pediatric rheumatology to help others suffering from juvenile arthritis.
Regardless of where she decides to go to school, we’re sure that MaryRose will continue to make a difference in her community.
MORE: A 16-Year-Old Died In A Car Accident. What Happened Next Changed Hundreds of Teenagers’ Lives.
Tag: volunteering
This University Will Pay Its Students $30,000 to Take a Year Off to Travel
How do we get high school kids more excited about college and inspire our next generation of leaders? The answer may be to kick our graduating seniors out of the country for a year.
Okay, so it’s not exactly as harsh as that sounds, but Tufts University is getting attention for encouraging their incoming students to do something that Europeans have been doing for ages — taking a year off to travel before starting college (aka, a gap year). According to the Associated Press, Tuft’s gap year program will pay for housing, airfare and even visa fees, which can add up to $30,000 or more.
If it sounds like Tufts is sponsoring 18-year-olds to get drunk abroad, it’s important to note that isn’t the case. Rather, the Tufts program — which is called Tufts 1+4 — is actually a structured, full-time, national or international volunteer service with the aim of grooming a new generation of civic leaders. “The idea behind the program is to give incoming students a transformational experience that will inform the next four years of their education,” says Tufts dean Alan D. Solomont. Tufts is joining the list of other elite universities such as Princeton and Harvard that also have gap year programs.
MORE: Why the U.S. Should Adopt the “Finnish Way” of Education
Many high school grads feel burned out after being in school for most of their lives, which is why many take a gap year. In their report, the AP cites the American Gap Year Association which found that 40,000 high school grads took time off before starting college in 2013. But here’s why this year-long break is a good idea: “Students who take a gap year are 90 percent likely to return to university within one year: In essence, gap year graduates are more likely to attend university than their peers,” the organization writes.
The key is to use the year off constructively. Gap years can be beneficial if it allows a student to work in a certain industry they are passionate about. Just imagine the real-world experiences a prospective biology student would glean if he or she volunteered at a nature conversation site — that would certainly open his or her eyes much more to their subject than reading about it from a textbook or from a stuffy classroom lecture. Additionally, after a gap year, these students return to the classroom with a new focus and enthusiasm to hit the books, are more likely to have better GPAs, get more involved with campus life, and are more likely to graduate in four years.
ALSO: This 6-Year High School Challenges Everything We Thought We Knew About American Education
The American Gap Year Association found that gap year kids have greater global awareness, foreign language skills, self-confidence, and (gasp!) even maturity from living abroad. So whether or not other colleges follow Tuft’s footsteps, we think it sounds like a good way to cut down the number of new college students spending freshman year in an alcoholic stupor.
This Is How You Teach Compassion to Eighth Graders
This week eighth graders at Seattle alternative school The Option Program at Seward (TOPS) put regular lessons aside to embark on a three-day mission to learn about the social services in their city and the people who use them. Students in the annual Planting the Seeds program are equipped with maps and passes for public transportation that they use to visit food pantries, shelters, and other charities, where they pitch in. Eighth graders—along with adult chaperones—sleep at churches to increase the immersion. This year they focused on getting to know homeless people.
Language-arts teacher Lori Eickelberg started the initiative a few years ago, and told Safiya Merchant of the Seattle Times, “I think this project plants a seed. I don’t know if it’ll change anybody’s life forever, but…I hope that it plants a seed of finding the beauty in the other.”
The students left their phones and iPods at home, and completed such projects as stocking the University District Food Bank and making Valentines for the needy. TOPS’ website collects some of the reflections students have upon completing the program. One wrote, “This trip has taught me so many things. It has taught me to open my heart to people I wouldn’t normally talk to. It has also taught me to be thoughtful about what I can do to help, because I can do so many things to help.”
MORE: He’s Only 16, But His Generosity is Already Worthy of a Movie
Even After a Half Century of Service, There’s No Stopping This Amazing 84-Year-Old Volunteer
Georgia octogenarian Ellen Hanna recently celebrated an incredible milestone. For a half century, the 84-year-old volunteer has been recording audiobooks for the blind and visually impaired for Learning Ally, a nonprofit that maintains an extensive library of audiobooks for disabled people who cannot read printed books.
As Tech Page One reports, the Alabama native started recording with the organization in 1963, giving up thousands of afternoons to sit in a recording studio to read math textbooks. Reading books for hours on end is no walk in the park, especially before the invention of digital editing software. “Back then, if you made a mistake on tape, you had to guess how far back it was on the tape, rewind and record everything all over again,” Hanna said.
MORE: Meet the Incredible 13-Year-Old Who Delivered a Million Books to Kids in Need
The retired math teacher has continued volunteering with the organization ever since. “I will stick with Learning Ally till they tell me I can’t do it anymore,” Hanna told the site. “I’ve been blessed with good health, and as long as I can keep that up, I’m not going anywhere.”
If you’re interested in joining Learning Ally, the organization welcomes virtual volunteers from anywhere in the country.
Meet the Amazing People Who Are Making Atlanta’s Awful Snowstorm Less Awful
It seemed like the apocalypse had arrived in Atlanta after a few inches of snow left thousands stranded on highways without food or water. Children were stuck in school buses, a baby was born in highway traffic during the gridlock and some folks had to completely abandon their cars and walk for miles in freezing temps to find shelter. But no disaster is without its heroes.
Several schools, restaurants and companies like Home Depot and Kroger opened their doors for people to stay overnight. Michelle Sollicito, a Web-savvy good Samaritan, started the SnowedOutAtlanta Facebook page, a resource for people to get in touch with volunteers who wanted to help. The page’s crowdsourcing map allowed stranded motorists to find nearby shelters. More than 52,000 people have joined Sollicito’s service to get through the storm.
And if you want something that will really melt your heart, stop by the page’s spinoff, The Heroes of Snowed In Atlanta, which collects stories and photos of the city’s biggest helpers. Take Matthew Miller, who stood on I-75 to hand out PB&Js, cereal and hot chocolate to stranded motorists. Another local, James Thomason, used his pickup to pull cars out of ditches and take drivers home. It’s people like that who remind us that together we can get through even the worst storms.
MORE: It Started as a Winter Chore. Then It Turned Into a Movement
It Started as a Winter Chore. Then It Turned Into a Movement
D.C. dad Kenny Wright had no idea that assigning his two young sons a simple winter chore would spark a civic movement. After a recent onslaught of snow on the east coast, Wright asked Kenny Jr. and Darin to shovel the walkways outside their elderly neighbors’ homes. Their generosity caught the attention of local TV station FOX 5, which then aired a segment on the brothers for its “Pay It Forward” campaign. After the story aired, a whole army of citizen volunteers stepped up to help. Jeffrey Richardson, who leads the volunteer group Serve DC, told the station, “Between the last 24 hours, we have had over 170 new volunteers sign up to be a part of the District’s snow team and support seniors and others who have access and functional needs.” Some of the new volunteers were immediately sent to wards that needed shoveling, but the influx was so huge that many were put on a waiting list to help on future projects. As the Wrights demonstrated, even a small act of generosity can snowball into some much bigger.
MORE: A Boston group brings people together to shovel driveways for those who can’t.
You Can Now Search for the Perfect Volunteer Opportunity on LinkedIn
Searching for the perfect volunteer opportunity? LinkedIn, the social network for professionals, has you covered. In August, the website added a section to user profiles that allowed people to include that they’re looking for volunteer opportunities, in addition to pre-existing sections that asked for volunteer experience and participation in charitable causes. According to a LinkedIn spokesperson, more than 600,000 people added that they were looking for volunteer opportunities since August, and more than 3 million users have added volunteer experience and causes to their profiles since 2011.
MORE: You Can Do More Than Just “Like” Your Favorite Charity on Facebook
Now, Linked is going even further in its volunteer-friendly efforts. The site on January 15 opened a new marketplace for people to find volunteer opportunities that suit their skill sets. Users can search through 500 postings (more will be added in the coming weeks), including everything from board seats to pro-bono consulting.
It’s not surprising that LinkedIn would add volunteer opportunities to the site. According to the company’s research, it can benefit your career. Unemployed people who volunteer are 27% more likely to be hired, LinkedIn says, and 47% of hiring managers that the site polled said they considered volunteer work equally as valuable as paid experience. “Volunteering is not just good for the community, it’s good for your career,” Meg Garlinghouse, head of LinkedIn Good, told Mashable. “That’s just another [reason] why we feel so bullish about making this a part of the LinkedIn experience.”
How Doing Something With Veterans Does Something for Them (and America)
Mindy Soranno and Marjorie Strayer weaved through the never ending rows of names to lay evergreen tokens of thanks on the graves of veterans as part of Wreaths Across America.
Soranno and Strayer have become the kind of friends who finish sentences for one another thanks to Team Red, White, and Blue, an organization that helps veterans connect with their communities through physical and social activities. Describing their shared interests, they both said without hesitation, “swim, bike, run,” then – at the same time and through laughter – wine! RWB brings veterans together with active duty and civilians for joint activities ranging from grabbing a cup of coffee to taking a yoga class to running a marathon. Soranno and Strayer are triathletes, but the benefits they see from RWB go far behind exercise.
“I am here today to honor those who have served our country,” Soranno said, adding that meeting RWBers like Strayer, who served in the Arizona Air National Guard, has made her a better person and helped her appreciate the freedom she has.
On this cold Saturday morning just ten days before Christmas Eve, families pushing strollers, boy scouts walking with their troop leaders, and veterans wearing World War II hats transformed the gray landscape with green wreaths and red ribbons as part of this Wreaths Across America event with a mission focused on remembering, honoring, and teaching.
But of all the groups gathered there, no one seemed to match the energy of the Team RWB members who unloaded boxes from a semi truck. Veterans and civilians alike wore the Eagle, a red and blue bird meant to symbolize the way that bridging the divide between veterans and civilians can help the country fly higher. The team distributed a total of 3,547 wreaths, and in the process, the conversations that were had waiting in line for wreaths and walking through rows of tombstones seemed likely to lead to many more Mindys and Marjories.
An 87-Year-Old World War II Vet Made a Promise at 19 to Help Someone Every Day
When Lou Pasquale was a 19-year-old machine gunner in World War II, he was badly injured when an Okinawa ammunition dump exploded. He prayed to God to spare his life for his mother, and promised he would help someone every day of his life from then on. After the war, Lou managed a bowling alley in Boston, and always looked after the kids who played there, giving them free shoes and games, driving them to school, counseling them and helping their families.
And almost seventy years later, Lou continues to keep his promise. For the past seven years, the vet has been raising money through candy bar sales and an annual golf tournament to buy specially-equipped vans to take injured veterans to their medical appointments. The Massachusetts Disabled American Veterans has been able to purchase 19 vans because of Lou’s efforts. That’s a lot of mileage out of one long-ago promise.
Veterans Help Disaster Victims Through Team Rubicon
Thousands of military veterans are finding that the best way to heal their psychological war wounds is by helping others. In 2010, Marine Corps veterans Jacob Wood and Will McNulty founded Team Rubicon, an organization that unites veterans in helping communities when disaster strikes. After first forming to assist Haitians following the 2010 earthquake, Team Rubicon’s 12,000 members have served disaster victims in 21 different communities throughout the U.S. and several places in the world, including Japan following the 2011 tsunami and the Philippines in recent days. Many veterans developed emergency-response skills during their service in Iraq and Afghanistan and bring that knowledge to Team Rubicon’s work. Veterans suffering from PTSD often find engaging in this volunteer work to be therapeutic, and bonding with other veterans while helping people in need is just what the doctor ordered.