Make A Difference Day Awards
What drives an 8-year-old to give his own toys to other children? How can a homeless man ever pay back a kindness? Take a glimpse into the hearts of Make A Difference Day.
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A convoy of toys - Beckley, W.Va.
After Hurricane Floyd caused the largest evacuation in U.S. history, Drew Humphrey, 7, saw hundreds of homeless kids on TV. "What will those kids play with now?" he worriedly asked his mom. Nothing, she replied -- the North Carolina children lost everything in floodwaters. That's when the West Virginia boy said he'd give them his toys, including his favorite "big Batmobile planes" and whatever he got for his upcoming eighth birthday. Enter the media: The Thomson newspaper group -- which owns two West Virginia papers, The (Beckley) Register-Herald and the Bluefield Daily Telegraph -- began writing about Drew. A $3,200 deluge of toys and money came from West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina and Kentucky. Four Wal-Marts set up collection sites. On Oct. 23, 1999, a police escort led two UPS trucks and a 12-vehicle convoy to where 300 kids waited for a share of 1,000 new toys. "It was like Christmas for those kids," says newspaper editor Frank Sayles, who helped hand out the toys. "And so many people greased the wheels, including the state police, who helped us breeze through the tollbooths." That day, Drew's family also toured flood-ravaged areas. "Some people were crying," Drew says. "I prayed a little bit." His family adopted nine flood families and still continue delivering beds, socks, underwear and, yes, more toys. "We're just following up on Drew's idea," says dad Ken. "It's made us think a lot. My wife and myself, we're both teachers, but sometimes the kids, they teach us."
$10,000 award from Paul Newman benefits United Methodist Flood Relief Center, Tarboro, N.C.
"You can overcome any circumstances" - Tulsa
"I wanted to show people you can overcome any circumstances," says Ed Dixon, 50. "Just because you're down and out, doesn't mean you can't do something to make a difference." Down and out is an understatement. In 1997, Dixon was separated from his second wife, out of work, broke and unable to buy food for son Paul, 15, who was living with him -- first in a small studio apartment, then a warehouse and eventually an old van. He came to Glory House Shelter to get free groceries but wouldn't leave before telling the shelter's operator, Katy Jones, "If I ever get the opportunity, I will repay your kindness somehow." Last fall, Jones got a phone call: "I'm ready to repay you for your generosity to me." Without an address or phone and despite his appearance ("He looked like a homeless man," says Jones), Dixon persuaded the local Wal-Mart to give him space for an Oct. 23 benefit concert. A local copier donated fliers, and Dixon played guitar on the street to raise money for a sound system. But there were obstacles. He had to pawn his keyboard to pay for a new transmission in his van. In the end, a friend loaned him speakers and a mike, and the concert reaped $1,000. Dixon's luck also has turned. He's now in a government-funded computer-training course and living at a local ministry. Already planning next year's Make A Difference Day, he says, "You ain't seen nothing yet."
$10,000 award from Paul Newman benefits Glory House Shelter.
"I need so much help ..." - Henderson, N.C.
So many volunteers came out on Make A Difference Day that Susan Abbott and her kids weren't needed at the project they had chosen. Driving away, passing a rundown church, Abbott spied an elderly man hard at work. Something moved her to stop. "Do you need help?" she asked. Stunned silence. Then the man broke into a smile. "I need so much help, where do I start?" gently asked the Rev. Winston Blackwell, 74. His church, Saint Paul AME Zion Methodist, is old, small and poor. That day, Blackwell was using a handsaw to gnaw at several 75-foot trees that threatened to fall on the uninsured church and blocked a donated steeple from being erected. "When I told him I would be right back," Abbot said, "I'm sure he thought he'd never see me again." ("I didn't," he says.) But Abbott soon returned with another daughter, husband Randy and his new chainsaw. By nightfall, the Abbotts had sawed five trees into firewood. Since then, Blackwell has made the Abbotts honorary members of his church, and they've donated clothes to the church's children. Blackwell still needs money to erect the steeple, but he has the Abbotts' promise of manpower -- and friendship.
$10,000 award from Paul Newman benefits Saint Paul AME Zion Church and Oxford Church of God Teen Youth Group.
River of fear becomes river of hope - Raleigh, N.C.
Look carefully at the face of Frances Abrams, (she's on left in the photos in the Photo Essay), standing knee-deep in the Tar River -- a river that turned into a flood-swollen destroyer last September and took away her home. Today, and years from now, Abrams still will find strength in the arms of Jeanie Aycock and other guardian angels who came to the aid of flood victims. For Make A Difference Day, the 2,800 members of Edenton Street United Methodist Church in Raleigh passed the plate to collect $50,000 and promised to help flood victims until they are back home, a commitment that could last three years. On Make A Difference Day, church members cleaned out nine houses in Princeville, where a damaged impanelled dike left thousands homeless. Volunteer Louis Wilkerson vividly recalls the backbreaking work of lifting waterlogged furniture, the sadness of seeing a family's possessions stacked in huge piles on curbs. He recalls a 92-year-old man who'd lived for 75 years in the same house -- now filled with eight feet of water -- watching Wilkerson's crew throw all his possessions into a heap on the street. The man stayed because the process promised his return.
$10,000 award from Paul Newman benefits Edenton Street United Methodist Church Hurricane Floyd Relief Fund.
No more dirt floors - El Paso
For Make A Difference Day, Maida Apodaca pledged to sponsor a tidy new house for a poor family living in Anapra, Mexico, within sight of America's riches. Working through the charity Casas por Cristo, she vowed to raise $2,500 for materials plus $225 for the use of a van, and recruit 16 workers to build the house in three days. At first, things didn't come together. "I couldn't seem to raise the money, so I decided to forget building the house and selected another project" -- collecting 2,000 toiletries and socks for a homeless shelter. She doesn't drive, so "I went door to door asking people if they had an extra bar of soap. If they didn't, I asked them for 50 cents." Amazingly, money and volunteers trickled in for the house project, too. Says John King, who drove 300 miles from Santa Fe to help build: "This really opened my eyes. These people live in squalor, and they can look across and see us, how we live. They were in tears when the house was finished." Said new homeowner Paula Luna Garcia, a single mother of two with a $33-a-week income who had been living in a cardboard-wall shack but now has a snug concrete-and-wood home: "All good gifts come from the Lord, and you were the means that I have received one."
$10,000 from Paul Newman benefits Casas por Cristo.
Miracle on silver wings - Montgomery, Ala.
Linnie and Debra Dickson have four children -- and, over the years, 43 foster children. The couple dreamed of helping more children, as well as training new foster parents -- if only they could turn an abandoned 20-room estate into a foster center. On Oct. 23, their dream took wing as families from Maxwell Air Force Base arrived to hang drywall, sand ceilings, repair structural damage and repaint. Total labor and supplies: $38,430. Legal and medical officers in training donated $1,400. The base's volunteer manager says they were motivated by tragedy: A former base enlistee is in prison for the murder of one of her children, but her surviving 5-year-old daughter is now in the Dicksons' foster care. Now, thanks to the base, other kids in trouble have a safe new home. "You just don't find that kind of help in life," says a dazzled Linnie Dickson. "It made me want to join the Air Force!"
$10,000 award from Paul Newman benefits The Shepherd's Staff
Making luck for lupus - Sparks, Nev.
Bobbie Vaden, 41, was hospitalized with complications from lupus, an energy-sapping arthritic illness that forced her to quit her job. Nearly 2 million Americans have lupus; that's more than AIDS, cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, sickle-cell anemia and cystic fibrosis combined. "I was kinda scared, 'cause I didn't know what was gonna happen," says daughter Diana, 10, who stayed with her best friend, Kristal DeRuise, 10, while her mom was hospitalized. But then Kristal suggested they raise money for lupus research. Says a choked-up Bobbie: "When I was in the hospital, we were all scared, and to have Kristal, a child, come forth ..." Kristal, brother Trevor, 8, and Diana took action: Collecting round rocks from a nearby lake, they worked at a kitchen table to paint them like ladybugs to be sold for $2 each. For Make A Difference Day, they set a goal: sell 500 ladybug rocks ($1,000) for the Lupus Foundation. "Lucky Ladybugs for Lupus" opened for business Oct. 23, 1999, outside Wal-Mart. Not only did the children meet the goal, but continued ladybug production has earned $300 more. "Hopefully," Kristal says, "we'll give the Lupus Foundation enough money so they'll find a cure."
$10,000 from Paul Newman benefits the Lupus Foundation of America.
No job is too small - Schuylkill County, Pa.
Ann McGee, shown at right with two of her third-grade students, told her class she was shocked to see a homeless man in St. Clair, one of 67 small towns that dot rural Schuylkill County (pop: 152,000) in eastern Pennsylvania. The kids rallied the school to collect $800 (80,000 pennies) for the homeless for Make A Difference Day. Within days of their gift, they learned three people had been helped. That's the tip of the iceberg: 9,700 volunteers in this economically struggling area pitched in on 145 other projects, touching the lives of more than 5,000 needy neighbors. Among the recipients: six nursing homes; eight food pantries; 23 non-profits; 22 individuals, families and groups; two animal shelters; three libraries; and six parks. Together, the accomplishments proved awesome and provided invaluable lessons. Take Robert Hughes and daughter Hayley Marie, 4, who picked up all the trash in a park: "I wanted her to understand she can make her own back yard a better place to live, no matter how small the task."
$10,000 award from Paul Newman benefits Schuylkill County Department of Human Services.
Standing with other youth - National
"It made me proud; those walls were sturdy," says Sam Chasing His Horse, 20, who helped build an indoor maze for the Flat Head Reservation Boys and Girls Club in Ronan, Mont. The Native American group was among 7,000 Job Corps volunteers from 97 centers in 44 states who turned out for Make A Difference Day, an increase of 40% from 1998. The main thrust of the academic, vocational and social-skills training organization is to give something back while preparing young people who may not have many advantages to lead better lives. Give they did. In the Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia, 145 students and staffers in Smyth County made meals for the homebound, did house- and yardwork for two elderly sisters, and stocked the food pantry with food to last months.
$10,000 award from Paul Newman benefits Donald A. Buchannon Scholarship Fund, Seattle
Big gift from sick boy - Alpena, Mich.
Andrew Libka was so excited the night before Make A Difference Day, he couldn't sleep. The 10-year-old's project: sell his toys to help other cancer patients. Andrew refers to his cancer as "It." Diagnosed with skin cancer last year, he had to travel 500 miles to the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, N.Y., for his therapy, a difficult thing for a little boy who doesn't want people to know he has "It." While there, he and and his parents stayed at a Ronald McDonald House. For Make A Difference Day, Andrew decided to help the Ronald McDonald House and a drive to create a cancer treatment center in his own town at Alpena General Hospital. He planned to sell toys -- some of his own, some donated -- at a Make A Difference Day garage sale. He called on neighbors, his church, even the hospital to give. Total collected: $615.46. He hand-delivered the hospital $307.73 -- a drop in the bucket toward funding a $6 million cancer center, but when raised by a young cancer patient, inspired.
$10,000 from Paul Newman is split between the Cancer Center Development Fund at Alpena General Hospital and Ronald McDonald House in Buffalo, N.Y.
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