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2002 Local Awards
Are
your neighbors listed among these special awards for helping others
Oct. 27, 2001? Find
honorees in your state!
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Alabama
Encore Award
Montgomery. Military personnel and families at the Maxwell Air Force Base and Gunter Annex became national honorees for transforming an estate into a home for foster children in 1999. The next year, they renovated another building for victims of domestic violence. Last fall, the base's Air Command and Staff College painted and cleaned needy Peterson Elementary and raised $1,235 for school uniforms; 16 base groups scouted up $4,647 in supplies for six other schools and $2,321 in pet supplies for a shelter. The $2,500 award, funded by the Gannett Foundation, benefits the Montgomery Humane Society and Montgomery County Public Schools.
Newspaper Awards
 Decatur Daily. 8 North Alabama Mensa members challenged their bodies by harvesting vegetables for the elderly and homebound for 5 hours. The group, which assisted volunteers from the Care Assurance System for the Aging and Homebound community garden, also cleaned flower beds and moved tools, tomato cages and scarecrows to the group's new yard adjacent to the Huntsville Botanical Gardens.
Dothan Eagle. 50 Eurekette Girls Club members, ages 8 to 16, collected 500 items of clothing -- some from their own closets -- which were given away Oct. 27. Among the 200 benefiting: 28 grateful residents of a Dothan girls' home. In an ongoing effort, the club now maintains 4 clothes closets.
Gadsden Times. Bobbie Beasley's 24 2nd-graders at C.A. Donehoo Elementary collected 150 children's books for the Rose Haven Shelter.
(Jasper) Daily Mountain Eagle. 75 active volunteers at the Argo senior center held an uplifting dinner for citizens affected by the 9/11 tragedies. The volunteers served dinner for 100, held a prayer vigil and inspirational sing-along and gave away food to the needy.
Montgomery Advertiser. 48 Montgomery Academy 8th- and 9th-graders, their parents and advisers sponsored a reading initiative day for underprivileged kids. The group read books to 55 children, gave them books to take home and fed them snacks and goodies.
Opelika-Auburn News. 15 members of Living Way Ministries Youth Group, with the help of other volunteers, installed a septic tank at a makeshift activity center (actually a barn) that serves impoverished Lee County kids. There had been no restrooms on site.
Selma Times-Journal. 15 students and staff representing the Montgomery Job Corps Center Facilities and Maintenance class traveled 50 miles to Selma twice a week for 3 weeks, including Oct. 27, to build a Habitat for Humanity home. It was completed in time for a needy family of 6 to move in for Thanksgiving.
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Alaska
Newspaper Awards
Juneau Empire. 12 VFW Post 5559 Ladies Auxiliary members collected $1,025.87 in items for Glory Hole, a shelter and soup kitchen that houses 38 homeless people and serves 150 meals a day. The women collected soap, shower caps, sewing kits, razors, combs, shampoo, lip balm and hand lotion.
(Kenai) Peninsula Clarion. Their senior member, Monica Messick, 95, died a few weeks before Make A Difference Day, but Anchorage RSVP volunteers knitted together to complete their planned project: 58 people met at 3 locations (2 community centers and a shopping mall) to sew or knit 1,000 hats, mittens and scarves for needy Alaskans.
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Arizona
National Award
Phoenix. Changes popped up all over Phoenix as 4,200 volunteers tackled 76 projects that benefited 50,000 people in a first-time-ever, citywide effort engineered by the Volunteer Center of Maricopa County and the Valley of the Sun United Way. More than half of the registered projects were bricks-and-mortar, nuts-and-bolts activities -- painting, landscaping and repairing. Collections of books, clothing, food and pet supplies piled up. The $10,000 award, funded by Newman's Own, fuels good work via the Volunteer Center of Maricopa County.
Newspaper awards
(Bullhead City) Mohave Valley Daily News. For the 4th year, Natalia Arend's 3rd-graders at Desert Valley Elementary School volunteered: 20 students made cards and care packages for residents of Silver Ridge Village nursing home, delivering them Oct. 27.
Casa Grande Dispatch. 6 Arizona City First Baptist Sunday school students made cards for 40 elderly neighbors. The children, ages 7 to 11, delivered the cards door-to-door with their teachers.
Kingman Daily Miner. In a weighty effort called "Pound for Pound," Kim Jantzen's 23 7th- and 8th-graders at Palo Christi School collected more than 600 pounds of food and $200 for the Kingman Area Food Bank. Jantzen, who has shed 119 pounds in the past year, challenged her at-risk language-arts students and her wellness clinic to match her weight loss in donations -- but they collected 6 times their goal. She also baked 100 loaves of bread for her Grace Lutheran Church and shut-ins in recognition of the difference 1 pound at a time can make.
(Lake Havasu City) Today's News-Herald. Anglers United of Lake Havasu rallied 72 volunteers, ages 12 to 80 from various business and community groups, to beautify a barren hillside. They planted 40 trees and 80 types of shrubs and ground cover, built retaining walls, installed an irrigation system, and erected a bronze memorial to victims and heroes of 9/11.
(Phoenix) Arizona Republic. 500 "Gilbert Cares" volunteers adopted the blighted Sonora Town neighborhood. They refurbished 10 houses, installed a playground and landscaped.
(Prescott) Daily Courier. Pastor Bob Jones led 10 of his flock from Spirit of Joy Lutheran Church in Cottonwood to make over the Old Town Mission. They sanded and painted a trailer used for collecting holiday meals for the needy, remodeled the office, painted hallways and installed linoleum flooring in the bathrooms.
Sierra Vista Herald. 8 adults and a 7-year-old cleaned a mile of bank along the San Pedro River, a popular spot for illegal border crossings. The group, which calls itself SPYS, hauled 27 30-gallon bags of rubbish, including shoes and plastic, to the dump.
(Sun City) Daily News-Sun. Jim and Nancy Vogt, both 63, spent 5 days and 32 hours removing debris from Lake Powell's shoreline, as part of a "Trash Trackers" program sponsored by the National Park Service, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and Aramark. A boat and pilot were provided.
Tucson Citizen. Compassion in Action organized more than 3,900 volunteers to help 16,000 poor and homeless people. Volunteers provided 2,300 free medical tests and procedures, 1,000 haircuts and manicures, 100,000 pounds of groceries and tons of new clothing. They even organized entertainment for the kids: moon bounces, music and pony rides.
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Arkansas
Newspaper awards
Benton Courier. With the goal of helping Little Rock's poor women prepare for job interviews, 12 volunteers kicked off the city's "Dress for Success" program Oct. 27. The group held an open house to collect suits and accessories and recruit volunteers. 50 outfits were received, and a dozen women signed up to help run the program.
Blytheville Courier News. 75 people from Arkansas, Tennessee and Missouri attended a foster care/adoption awareness festival hosted by the Apostolic Temple of Jesus Christ. 3 families who attended are pursuing the opportunity to become foster families.
(Conway) Log Cabin Democrat. 10 Junior Girl Scouts from Troop 368 helped a homeless shelter by soliciting donations for the facility's depleted pantry. They passed out 90 bags containing lists of items needed, along with thank-you notes. The troop collected 95 bags containing 1,000 items of toiletries, clothing and necessities.
(El Dorado) South Arkansas Sunday News. 14 Union County Extension Homemakers stitched yarn and love into 114 items for the Arkansas Children's Hospital in Little Rock. The group made afghans, isolette covers, canvas bags, dolls, and caps for babies and children at the facility.
(Fort Smith) Southwest Times Record. 27 literacy enthusiasts went to schools, churches and businesses to raise awareness for the Aux Arc Literacy Council's Make A Difference Day book drive. 1,100 residents donated 1,540 books, which were cleaned, repaired and given to 5 community services organizations.
Harrison Daily Times. Staffers at the Harrison Daily Times led 300 volunteers in 3 community-wide Make A Difference Day projects: a health and safety fair attended by 1,000 children and parents that distributed 400 car seats; a hazardous waste collection effort that garnered 1,000 donations of paint, oil and pesticides; and a weatherization program that winter-proofed the homes of 40 elderly residents.
(Hot Springs) Sentinel-Record. 10 children planted 100 daffodil bulbs at a Malvern park. They also picked up trash at the site of a future library. "I'm proud of my hometown, Malvern, Ark.," wrote student Shareka Davis about Make A Difference Day. "We may be small, but we love our community very much."
Jonesboro Sun. 18 Hoxie Elementary School 2nd-graders wanted to share the joy of reading with hospitalized children, so they raised enough money to buy 18 books, cassette players and tapes, canvas tote bags and batteries. They tape-recorded the books, painted each tote with pictures featuring the book's characters, and put the books, batteries, recorders and cassettes inside the bags. The 18 totes were delivered to the library of Arkansas Children's Hospital to be enjoyed by young patients.
(Mountain Home) Baxter Bulletin. For their 1st Make A Difference Day effort, 33 VFW and Ladies Auxiliary members, plus 4 Junior Post 3246 volunteers, took 10 disabled veterans fishing. The group went to Norfork Lake, where they pursued bluegill, crappie and bass, and ate a picnic lunch.
Paragould Daily Press. 40 students, 1 teacher, 3 Humane Society volunteers, several dogs, 1 kitten and 1 large black-and-white cat dressed in a pumpkin costume visited the Paragould Nursing Center to brighten the day of 90 residents. The animals and their handlers went door-to-door, sitting with each senior and sharing smiles, photos and laughs.
Pine Bluff Commercial. The Barnes Community 4-H Club, kids from the Mount Olive Missionary Baptist Church and the Jefferson County Cooperative Extension Office hosted a community health fair that screened 80 people for high blood pressure and diabetes. Attendees at the fair also learned about fire and food safety, medical issues and depression.
(Russellville) Courier. 8 Boys and Girls Club Keystone members got doctors and dentists to share their professional skills at a health fair sponsored by Kiwanis and Kroger supermarket. Children helped at the event, which reached out to 400 residents.
(Searcy) Daily Citizen. 42 White County quilters stitched 63 lap robes for the wheelchair-bound patients at the Arkansas Children's Hospital in Little Rock. 6 members completed the final quilt Oct. 27 and presented the collection to the facility.
(Springdale) Morning News of Northwest Arkansas. 100 middle-school students and 5 teachers in Rogers organized a yard sale to raise money for the Red Cross and Meals on Wheels. Each student brought in items for the sale, which raised $600 for the 2 organizations. Leftover items were donated to the Salvation Army.
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California
National award
Loma Linda. When help flooded to 9/11 recovery efforts, vital donations dried up for local charities across the nation. But in Loma Linda, Calif., Ronald McDonald House leaders felt lucky. "Many charities were struggling, and we weren't," says executive director Susan Patane. So for Make A Difference Day, the House organized multiple drives to help needy charities help needy people. In all, 10,048 volunteers -- including Boy Scouts and Brownies, sororities and Soroptimists, and employees of Harley-Davidson, Verizon Wireless, Avon and the Good Sam Club -- simultaneously collected and sorted 2,000 toys; assembled 150 hygiene packets and gave them to a homeless shelter along with 15 cases of toys and more than 100 T-shirts; gave books and bears to 200 children at 11 area hospitals; raised $17,617 for families struggling with illness; and redistributed food donations. The $10,000 award, funded by Newman's Own, benefits Ronald McDonald House Charities of Southern California.
Newspaper Awards
Auburn Journal. Kyle McDaniel, Dainen McDaniel and Zachary Marks, who call themselves the Junior Garden Gleaners, were core organizers in the harvesting of 360 pounds of apples and 95 pounds of fruits and vegetables -- surplus from area farms and orchards -- to help feed the needy. 20 4-H volunteers helped pick produce.
(Barstow) Desert Dispatch. 633 people collected 267 coats for the needy (recycling enough glass and cans to buy 54 more); cleaned parks, streets and vacant lots, picking up 67,092 pounds of trash; collected 1,914 pounds of hazardous waste; and held 35 garage sales to raise money for needy families and non-profits.
(Chico) Enterprise-Record. Judy Alberico, 61, was so troubled by the events of 9/11 that she became consumed by her oil painting hobby. She asked firefighters to pose for 10 paintings, which she displayed Oct. 27 at the Chico firefighters ball, raising $2,500 in a silent auction to add to the $30,000 donation by Los Angeles firefighters from Station 10 for FDNY Engine 10's relief fund.
Davis Enterprise. 40 members of the Golden Key International Honor Society of the University of California at Davis lobbied organizations and toy companies and collected 115 toys for patients at the university's Children's Hospital.
(Fairfield) Daily Republic. 100 Vacaville volunteers -- drawn from American Legion Auxiliary Unit No. 165, 5 youth groups and 2 churches -- made and delivered 5,000 cookies, plus 1,500 packages of popcorn and candy, for active-duty, reserves and employees at Travis Air Force Base.
(Fremont) Argus. In a 1st-time effort, the Irvington Neighborhood Network engineered a railroad cleanup: 40 volunteers filled dumpsters with trash, old tires, appliances and furniture from both sides of the tracks.
(Grass Valley) Union. Concerned by the lack of heat at AIDS patient Shiloh McNabb's mobile home, nurse Judy Steffens of the Sierra Foothills AIDS Foundation contacted builder Bruce Ivy for help. Ivy arrived Oct. 27 with 6 trucks and 8 construction workers, who repaired McNabb's heating system, cleaned the roof, caulked windows and doors, cleared debris and built sturdy steps and railings. Other volunteers made lunch, measured for draperies, and fixed plumbing and wiring. Said McNabb, 56: "It looked like the cavalry to the rescue. It's the most totally amazing thing that has ever happened to me, to know that there are people out there who care."
Hanford Sentinel. In Corcoran, Celeste Cooke's 38 6th-graders at John Muir Middle School -- disturbed by the threat of hate crimes in the wake of 9/11 -- launched Project SAFE (Students in America for Friendship and Encouragement). They made and delivered cards for 13 Middle Eastern shop operators and successfully lobbied the City Council to declare Corcoran a "Hate-Crime-Free City."
(Hayward) Daily Review. Downtown has no city park, so 8 members of the Prospect Hill Neighborhood Association adopted a vacant lot with the hope of creating the city's 1st park. On Oct. 27 they pulled weeds, cleaned garbage, planted trees and removed graffiti.
(Lakeport) Lake County Record-Bee. 52 volunteers from the Lake County Hunger Task Force, AmeriCorps, Big Brothers Big Sisters, American Red Cross and Kelseyville High collected 2,275 pounds of food from 9 supermarkets countywide. The food, which will feed 500 people, went to food banks in Clearlake and Finley. Volunteers also planted a winter garden at a homeless shelter.
Lodi News-Sentinel. 10 friends in the Big Kids Care Club, founded by siblings Jake and Kaila Baumbach, ages 10 and 8, conducted a book drive at school. They collected 240 volumes for 3 free or low-cost health clinics for distribution to needy children.
Lompoc Record. 750 residents, led by City Council members and the Lompoc Volunteer Center, tackled 23 projects. They planted 20 trees; cleared 3 trails; cleaned cemeteries, gardens, vacant lots and beaches; collected $500 worth of household items, 1,500 pounds of food and $355.60 in pennies; picked up 8.2 tons of trash; and held a drug resistance awareness rally for 300 kids.
Madera Tribune. 3 VFW Post 559 Ladies Auxiliary members brightened a senior's day by bringing her lunch, an American flag and an eye-catching bouquet of plants and treats.
(Marysville) Appeal-Democrat. Delivering care packages to 19 low-income seniors at a Wheatland apartment complex, students from Bear River School met an 84-year-old woman who barely spoke English and had no food. The students brought her food that day. Since then, they've returned to visit and help her with health and social services. The care packages were part of a project that included 400 treat bags for 5 pediatric hospitals and 2 shelters. Pupils from Bear River and Wheatland elementaries collected the items in the week before Make A Difference Day.
Merced Sun-Star. 89 members of the Southwest 4-H Club organized a health fair for 200 residents of public housing. Each household received a flag to display in their window as a sign of unity.
Napa Valley Register. The Redwood Middle School Block R club coordinated a food drive to benefit Napa Valley Food Bank. 100 volunteers, including students from neighboring schools, collected 6.5 tons of food and raised $7,200.
Oakland Tribune. 60 people hit the streets of Oakland to take food, clothes and sleeping bags to 350 homeless people. Some went out during the day, others at night, searching to help the needy under bridges, at dump sites, in the woods and near railroad tracks.
(Ontario) Inland Valley Daily Bulletin. 75 volunteers -- Kaiser Fontana Medical Center staff members, former cancer patients, parents and high school students -- hosted a bash for 300 family members and pediatric cancer patients at the hospital. The kids dressed up and enjoyed the festivities in a ward that had been transformed into a magical fall harvest farm.
(Palm Springs) Desert Sun. 15 area students united with Palm Springs Desert Museum Youth Initiative teachers to eradicate non-native plants from a nature preserve in Morongo Valley. The teens weeded 3.5 acres of desert park, sometimes finding tumbleweeds the size of compact cars.
(Palmdale) Antelope Valley Press. 120 students at the Pueblo Learning Center in Littlerock wrote letters and sent toiletries to veterans in Southern California Veterans Administration hospitals. "I often discover that students don't know any veterans and don't know what a veteran is," teacher Teresa Walden said. "So I started this project, and now they want to make cards and write letters to cheer these people up."
Pasadena Star News. 10 Boys and Girls Club youths and a staffer mulched and fertilized trees at the largest park in Monrovia. The group also pulled weeds, raked and picked up trash at the facility, which is used by 20,000 people a week.
(Pleasanton) Tri-Valley Herald. 16 members of Special Olympics and the Tracy Adult School held a bake sale, raising $278 for the medical expenses of a former teacher's spouse.
Porterville Recorder. 7 Family Housing for Education supporters and members of the Lutheran Brotherhood erected a fence at a home that will be used by families who want to better themselves through education. A new concept in transitional housing, this "home for education" is 1 of 8 planned to serve as many as 160 low-income families. Rather than a lease, an educational contract is signed, periodic reviews are made, career counseling and tutoring are provided, and, once the goals are met, volunteers help residents find and keep a job.
Red Bluff Daily News. Kourtney Petty, 16, has held Make A Difference Day clothing drives for 5 years. In 2001, she expanded the effort to address the needs of 12 Corning-area families displaced by wildfires. Donations of appliances, toys, blankets and clothes filled a van and an 8-by-5-foot trailer.
Redlands Daily Facts. Fresh from helping run a penny drive that netted $1,431 for 9/11 disaster relief, 5th-graders at Kimberly Elementary set up a booth at a school fair to encourage food pantry donations. They collected 4 boxes of food for the Redlands Family Services Association pantry.
Sacramento Bee. For its 1st Make A Difference Day venture, Barn Raisers -- a group that helps the disabled fix their living space -- landscaped the home of Camille Austin, a 7-year-old with cerebral palsy. The 35 volunteers built a level pathway for Camille's wheelchair, installed an herb garden and a frog pond, fortified a seasonal stream so Camille can enjoy the sound of trickling water in the spring, and planted a butterfly garden.
(Salinas) Californian. On previous Make A Difference Days, dental hygienist Noel Kelsch collected bags of dental hygiene supplies for migrant farm workers, the needy and the homeless. In 2001, Kelsch rallied 27 hygienists and 3 dentists to work morning, noon and night to examine, clean and X-ray the teeth of 150 uninsured children.
(San Bernardino) Sun. For years, graffiti "taggers" vandalized a wall in the Rialto neighborhood of Casey, Kathy and Cory Stewart. The family faithfully repainted the wall; each time, it was vandalized again. On Oct. 27, the Stewarts decided to adorn it with an 8-by-35-foot American flag mural. The effort didn't end the vandalism but did slow it down. The wall now goes months without being spray-painted, and neighbors have pitched in to maintain it. "Our small event made a difference in our neighborhood, instilled pride and brought people together. And for 6 weeks, no graffiti!" Kathy Stewart said.
San Francisco Chronicle. 70 Bay Area Camp Fire Boys and Girls reached out to senior citizens: 11 clubs visited, cleaned or held parties at nursing homes. The youth, ranging from 1st-graders to high school seniors, helped 500 elderly people.
San Mateo County Times. Led by the Peninsula Family YMCA, 30 staffers, members, friends and others collected furniture, computers, bikes and gifts of services, including tutoring and hair-braiding, to fulfill the wish lists of 41 low-income families.
Santa Barbara News-Press. 20 volunteers from Flower Empower -- part of the Dream Foundation, which grants the wishes of terminally ill adults -- made bouquets from donations and leftover flowers at the Santa Barbara Farmers Market to take to seniors and shut-ins. 45 people received arrangements, chocolate chip cookies and handmade cards.
Santa Cruz County Sentinel. 1,500 Volunteer Center of Santa Cruz supporters embraced a dozen projects. The volunteers ran clothing and toiletry drives at a mall, painted over graffiti in residential areas and spruced up a home for senior citizens. 10-year-old Lindsay Rasmussen ran a booth at a shopping center where she asked children to decorate envelopes and insert dollars for President Bush's Afghan children's fund. 50 children participated.
Santa Maria Times. United Way of the Central Coast mobilized 30 volunteers to adopt 2 low-income senior citizens' mobile home parks, performing chores on 40 homeowners' wish lists. Projects included replacing floors, washing windows, painting, cleaning gutters, weeding and even flipping a mattress.
(Santa Rosa) Press Democrat. 12 Youth in Action volunteers teamed with 7 firefighters to perform safety inspections and install smoke detectors in a Calistoga mobile home park for seniors and a low-income Hispanic neighborhood. The bilingual kids helped bridge the culture and language gap between the firefighters and the residents.
(Torrance) Daily Breeze. 300 volunteers in 16 states made, sewed or delivered 600 quilts for Victoria's Quilts, a non-profit organization based in Redondo Beach that sends blankets to cancer patients.
Tulare Advance-Register. 50 Pixley residents rolled up their sleeves to clean their unincorporated community. Volunteers from the high school, sheriff's department, churches and town council picked up 100 bags of trash. "We don't have any services here. No street sweeper or cleanup crews," said resident Louise Rambo. "The results of our efforts Oct. 27 were spectacular." (Victorville) Press-Dispatch. Larry Warren, 40, picked up $100 worth of recyclables and redeemed them for cash, which he used to buy new uniforms and badges for employees of a Victorville security company.
Visalia Times-Delta. 60 members of 6 Lions Clubs banded together to frame a Habitat For Humanity house in North Visalia for a needy family.
(West Covina) San Gabriel Valley Tribune. 30 children, staff members and adults of the Bassett Unified School District's Project Rainbow after-school program in La Puente decided to beautify a playground wall that reminded leader Sylvia Casillas of a "prisoners' exercise yard." A vine and leaf mural was painted on the wall.
Whittier Daily News. Crystal Cathedral parishioners -- children, teenagers and adults -- worked together on 4 projects. They baked 5,300 cookies for prisoners, planted flowers and installed park benches at an elementary school, painted a mural and made crafts, played games and read with impoverished kids.
(Woodland Hills) Daily News of Los Angeles. 32 volunteers for Food on Foot, a group that feeds 500 homeless people in Venice and Hollywood each weekend, granted the wishes of 160 homeless. The volunteers, who were not allowed to give money to fulfill the wishes, met needs ranging from finding a man's relative in Iowa to giving eyeglasses, a backpack and a new double sleeping bag.
Colorado
Encore Award
Lakewood. Howard Waller was one of eight inmates from minimum-security Colorado Correctional Center in Golden honored with a national award for renovating a boys group home in 1993. After serving time for fraud, Waller became assistant pastor at Bear Valley Church in Lakewood and co-director of Straight Ahead, a ministry for juvenile offenders. Make A Difference Day, he teamed with 16 inmates and church volunteers to renovate a rundown Denver hotel to be used as transitional housing for 25 needy families. Says Waller: "What was a dream on Make A Difference Day has become a reality." The $2,500 award, funded by the Gannett Foundation, benefits Straight Ahead Ministries.
Newspaper Awards
Durango Herald. 15 volunteers from the Southern Ute Community Action Program collected and cleaned 100 coats and donated them to needy families in Ignacio.
Fort Collins Coloradoan. The Boys & Girls Clubs of Larimer County collected 587 pounds of cans and took them to Colorado Iron & Metal, which ground them up and gave them $254. The Fort Collins-based Stryker Short Foundation matched the amount. The money will be used to build a Boys & Girls Club, which will provide a safe place for Larimer County youth.
Denver Post. 473 Summit County citizens volunteered at 27 non-profit agencies and schools. They extended bike trails and revegetated 1,000 square yards of land near the Dillon dam. They painted and cleaned all the rooms at a senior citizens' center, day care center, hospice center and recycling center. They also cleaned windows, painted, planted gardens and inventoried school libraries.
Durango Herald. 60 citizens of Ignacio, ages 5 to 75, rebuilt the entrance to the town's main park, making it accessible to the handicapped and adding a raised planter, rose garden, rock dam and shallow pool.
Fort Collins Coloradoan. 23 volunteers from Estes Park -- including 6 nurses, a pediatrician and a pharmacist -- traveled to impoverished Juarez, Mexico, to spread knowledge on health and nutrition. They held free clinics in 2 neighborhoods and 1 prison. 350 adults and children were examined and treated.
Greeley Tribune. 2 members of VFW Post 9461 Ladies Auxiliary worked at the La Salle food bank, cleaning, restocking and resorting shelves.
Montrose Daily Press. Olathe schools, along with 4-H'ers and Cub Scouts, held a fall festival that raised $400 for the Montrose/Olathe Senior Transportation program through sales of food and toys.
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Connecticut
Newspaper Awards
(Bridgeport) Connecticut Post. 19 girls from Stratford's Lordship neighborhood held their 3rd Make A Difference Day carnival to benefit 2 children whose lives were changed by tragedy. The girls raised $736.05 toward school funds for a 17-year-old paralyzed in a car accident and a 2-year-old whose mother was murdered.
(Manchester) Journal Inquirer. 200 seamstresses met at 2 locations to make bears for Enfield-area hospitals and emergency services. The 100 comfy critters will be passed on to children experiencing illness or crisis.
(Meriden) Record-Journal. 100 volunteers from Cheshire and as far away as Seward, Neb., sewed 1,000 polar fleece and cotton kerchiefs for chemotherapy patients who had lost their hair. The head coverings were donated to Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.
(New Britain) Herald. 12 Vance Village School special education children, 8 choir students and 5 adults visited a senior center to entertain adopted grandparents with songs, sonnets and smiles.
New Haven Register. In 1998, Amy, Allie and David Steinmetz were devastated when their 34-year-old father died suddenly from a heart arrhythmia. The siblings, now ages 10 to 14, wrote a diary about the experience of losing a parent. They mailed their heartfelt tale to 8 charities that counsel 9/11 victims. Now, 2 groups -- Save the Children and the Child Study Center of the New York University School of Medicine -- plan to use the diary to help all kids who have lost a parent.
(Norwalk) Hour. For the city's 6th Make A Difference Day, Westport rallied 2,500 volunteers (up from 1,500 the year before) for 112 projects. They collected sports equipment, socks, phone cards and books; made meals, laundry bags and book totes; and cleaned yards, cemeteries, parks and gardens.
Norwich Bulletin. 2 inmates at the Brooklyn Correctional Institution led an effort among fellow prisoners to refurbish 50 bicycles for needy children. BCI staff members, State Police Troop D from Danielson, and inmates Karl Kozlak and Emilio Flores distributed the bicycles, along with 50 donated helmets, to kids at a rodeo and bike- safety event.
(Torrington) Register Citizen. 5 Big Brothers Big Sisters distributed 12 refurbished bikes to kids.
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Delaware
Newspaper Awards
(Wilmington) Sunday News Journal. James Harmon IV, 11, who lives near Bethany Beach, collected 115 bags of non-perishables from residents of Blackwater Village. With help from his parents, he loaded the bags, containing 650 items, into the family SUV Oct. 27 and delivered them to the Community Food Pantry in Selbyville. His donation fed families for 2 months and enabled the pantry to purchase chickens for 80 Thanksgiving food baskets. The project was 1 of 80 throughout the state, involving 6,400 volunteers.
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District of Columbia
Newspaper Awards
Washington Times. 75 delegates from the American Red Cross' Youth Leadership Development Camp took on 5 projects in the nation's capital. With the help of Miss America Katie Harman, youth volunteers helped renovate 6 former drug dens that are being turned into shelters. Others cleaned and landscaped parks, sent placards of appreciation to D.C. firefighters, sorted items at a thrift store and prepared food at a soup kitchen.
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Florida
National Award
Pensacola. For seven years, students at Florida's Pensacola Catholic High School have embraced Make A Difference Day, with 80% participation. Their annual mission: to help the elderly maintain their homes and to pitch in around the community. On Oct. 27, 450 students fanned out and painted four houses and an elementary school; built nine picnic tables; cleaned two neglected cemeteries; weeded a community rose garden; spruced up a homeless shelter's playground; and made $1,300 at a car wash for the school's Make A Difference Day scholarship fund. The good example of Pensacola Catholic High has spread. Two other schools have adopted the challenge, and the dire needs of Pensacola's elderly are slowly being met as the kids find, year after year, that fewer homes need to be painted. The $10,000 Make A Difference Day Award, funded by Newman's Own, goes to Catholic Charities of Northwest Florida Inc.
Newspaper awards
Boca Raton News. For its 7th year, Temple Beth El faithful completed 40 projects -- double last year's effort. 100 participated in a 5K run/walk, raising $4,000 for Tay-Sachs research in honor of a 6-year-old congregation member with the disease. Also, 55 pints of blood were given; high-schoolers entertained at a home for abused children and donated 27 rolling suitcases and baby clothes; 8,000 peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches were made for the Daily Bread Food Bank and soup kitchens; 22 adults' and kids' bikes were repaired and donated; and baked goods were delivered to 4 nursing homes, where temple choirs performed. For the first time, 5 teens were project captains, including aspiring vet Alex Wolfgang, 15, who collected a vanload of toys and food for homeless animals; and 2 teen boys who led 36 volunteers in a bowling excursion for developmentally disabled adults. Also donated: 2 coat racks full of career clothing for women at a domestic abuse shelter; 20 bags of clothes; 186 pairs of eyeglasses; 5 boxes of caps for cancer patients at Miami hospitals; and books and sports equipment for needy kids.
Bradenton Herald. 247 young people from the ManaTEEN Club and Manatee Community College, with support from Lowe's, assessed and addressed the safety needs of 343 elderly residents, providing or installing smoke alarms, fire extinguishers, anti-slip mats, surge protectors, weather radios, levered door handles, peep holes, bathtub rails, raised toilet seats, better lighting, fans and space heaters.
(Crystal River) Citrus County Chronicle. 11 3rd-graders from Dunnellon Christian School registered 110 new users at the Dunnellon library. They also created 60 bookmarks for 30 underprivileged kids who attended their original puppet show and reading demonstration that day, as part of Pizza Hut's Book It! program.
(Daytona Beach) News-Journal. 50 Gap employees from 9 stores in the Orlando district collected 60 bags of clothes for 3 domestic abuse shelters in Volusia County.
(Fort Lauderdale) South Florida Sun-Sentinel. 96 5th-graders at Pine Crest School crafted and sold 1,000 flag bead pins to raise $5,361 for 3 girls, ages 7 to 12, who lost their dad on 9/11. A firefighter captain, he led 50 people to safety before dying in the World Trade Center collapse; he was related to a school staff member.
(Fort Myers) News-Press. As she had the past 2 years, Mandy Meyer, 12, planned to collect toys and books for young chemotherapy patients to honor her aunt who died after a long battle with ovarian cancer. But in the aftermath of 9/11, Mandy instead created condolence books for victims' families by wrapping 4 marbled composition books in red foil and getting as many Fort Myers residents to sign as possible. She set up a booth outside Toys "R" Us Oct. 27 to collect sentiments and sell lollipops, raising $500 for a victims' fund.
(Jacksonville) Florida Times-Union. 4 adults and 2 teens hauled glass, ceramic tiles and paper waste -- remnants of a bathroom renovation -- from the streambeds of Red Bay Creek, near a footbridge used by Terry Parker High students. They weeded and cut back mulberry bushes that obstructed the path, raked and bagged 240 cubic yards of trash.
(Leesburg) Daily Commercial. 35 female educators -- 28- to 83-year-old members of Alpha Delta Kappa, Delta Gamma Chapter, in Sumter County -- donated an SUV-load of baby basics, books and school supplies for Haven of Lake and Sumter County, a center for abused spouses and children. Said organizer Roslyn Davidson: "It's 1 of the most cheerless places you've ever seen, with a small garden and chilling sign that says: 'In honor of those who walked through this door, and in memory of those who never made it.' " The group has since adopted the center.
(Marianna) Jackson County Floridan. 13 volunteers from the Jackson County Community Traffic Safety Team held a bicycle safety rodeo in Sneads for 125 residents, giving 72 helmets and 2 car seats to needy kids. Each child maneuvered through a course that included 4-way intersections, blind driveways, figure 8's and obstacle courses.
(Melbourne) Florida Today. South Brevard Habitat for Humanity cast their lot with the city of Melbourne, Brevard Neighborhood Development Coalition, the Booker T. Washington neighborhood, churches and corporations -- 250 volunteers in all -- to paint 5 houses and a church, trim trees and clear brush at an overgrown public housing playground, and help 20 elderly residents with yardwork. 60 students from Space Coast FIRST Robotics Team, Mu Alpha Theta Sorority, Beta Club and Florida Tech helped in a neighborhood trash sweep, recycling 43 pounds of aluminum cans, 200 plastic containers and 400 pounds of glass.
(Panama City) News Herald. 11 graphic designers from Applied Research Associates at Tyndall Air Force Base created a colorful workbook, I Am Little But I Can Do Big Things, for 13 Panama City 1st-grade classrooms to spur monthly service projects. Dinosaur mascots include Dewey Do-It and Sophie Softheart. Among Make A Difference Day efforts: book drives, nursing home visits and fund-raisers for 9/11 victims.
Pensacola News Journal. 32 members of Pace High School's Student Government Association spent 3 weeks collecting 10,000 articles of clothing for an Oct. 27 giveaway that outfitted 197 needy neighbors. Leftover clothes were given to Olive Baptist Church's "Suit Yourself" program in Pensacola for women entering the workforce; Renee Allen, who leaves clothes on the porches of needy Pensacola families with a note attached reading "A gift from God"; and 2 nursing homes.
(Port) Charlotte Sun Herald. 38 real estate agents, co-workers, friends and family of Century 21 Aztec & Associates in Charlotte Harbor raised $1,500 in a car wash to cover instrument rental fees for 20 underprivileged music students, including 1 honors 8th-grader whose mother recently went on disability and no longer could keep up with her daughter's flute payments.
(Sebring) Highlands Today. In a 1st-time effort, 50 correctional officers and staff of the Florida Council on Crime and Delinquency Chapter III in Avon Park collected 80 books for their adopted special-needs class at Park Elementary; spent 4 hours face-painting at McDonald's in exchange for 20% of the proceeds, which they used to buy more books; donated 24 pints of blood to the Central Florida Blood Bank; and donated 1,500 bags of chips and 500 pieces of wrapped candy to the Fellowship Baptist Church's Oct. 27 fall festival.
St. Augustine Record. In their 5th year of participation, a dozen members of St. Johns River Community College Honor Society, Phi Theta Kappa, plus 10 friends, painted the home of an elderly St. Augustine woman -- the exterior, trim, fence and even a birdhouse. They also built a wheelchair ramp for a disabled neighbor.
(Winter Haven) News Chief. 152 volunteers from high school Key Clubs, the Kiwanis Club of Winter Haven, Lake Martha Neighborhood Association and city offices collected 2.3 tons of trash and assorted debris (tires, bicycles) from Lake Martha and Kiwanis Park. They also landscaped with 75 plants and 4 magnolia trees and spread mulch and sand under the swing sets and in flower beds.
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Georgia
Newspaper awards
Albany Herald. Career and technology students at Monroe Comprehensive High School focused on helping domestic violence victims in Dougherty County, which ranks 5th in the state in terms of domestic violence incidents. They raised $320 and collected 2 vanloads of clothing, toys and toiletries for residents of Liberty House, a shelter for battered families where a classmate once had found refuge. Classes baked cookies for residents and donated houseplants from the school greenhouse.
Americus Times-Recorder. The Kiwanis Club of Sumter County organized a 3-hour story time for 30 children, ages 5 and younger, at the Lake Blackshear Public Library where Dr. Seuss and Curious George proved to be the most popular selections. 12 readers, including several Habitat for Humanity vice presidents, read to the children.
Athens Banner-Herald. 14 youth from Holy Cross Lutheran Church treated 14 young domestic abuse victims to a Halloween party featuring games, face painting, crafts and treats. The children, ages 5 to 11, also enjoyed a meal of hot dogs, chips and sugar cookies they decorated themselves.
Augusta Chronicle. Now in its 7th year, a 1-day food drive covering 80 neighborhoods in Columbia and Richmond counties and North Augusta, S.C., garnered 35,000 pounds of food and $18,000 for the Golden Harvest Food Bank, a regional food bank serving 23 counties; the take represents 90,000 meals. The drive, called "It's Spooky to be Hungry," involved 1,000 volunteers of all ages coordinated by trained block captains.
Brunswick News. Participating for the 2nd year, 10 members of the Ladies Auxiliary of VFW Post 8385 in Kingsland collected $2,000 worth of suits and other work attire (much of it new) and delivered it to Camden House, a domestic violence shelter in St. Mary's. Auxiliary members also delivered 80 stuffed bears to the Camden County Sheriff's Office in Kingsland for distribution to traumatized children.
(Canton) Cherokee Tribune. As part of ongoing efforts to draw people to a former textile mill downtown, Canton Alive held its annual fall event, WILD Weekend, featuring entertainment, arts and crafts and information booths for environmental and other service organizations. 2,500 attended.
(Carrollton) Times-Georgian. 30 students from Sewell Middle School and Bremen High kicked off a Christmas project by sewing and decorating red felt stockings for needy children served by the Haralson County health department. They completed 24 on Oct. 27 and 6 more in time for holiday delivery. 15 school clubs decorated and sold holiday wreaths, raising $400 to buy clothing, toys and candy to fill the stockings.
(Cartersville) Daily Tribune News. Renee Hibbard, daughter Francie, 13, and her friend Elyse Kendrick, 14, washed windows at the home of an elderly widow whose disabled son suffers from cancer. The widow contacted Hibbard last spring after reading about her church youth group's Make A Difference Day project.
(Conyers) Rockdale Citizen. The outdoor classroom at Pine Street Elementary got lots of attention from 54 volunteers, mostly students and staff. The 3 biggest jobs: spreading 20 yards of mulch, transferring 1 ton of river rock to the pond and getting 1 dump-truckload of sand into the sandbox. 8 middle-schoolers in a program for students with disciplinary problems handled the first 2 chores, and a bucket brigade of kindergartners took care of the sand. 10 members of a church built a trellis for jasmine to cling to; other volunteers planted flowers and bulbs.
(Dalton) Daily Citizen. 235 volunteers from Whitfield and Murray counties converged on Cheerhaven, a Dalton non-profit that provides care and therapy for mentally challenged adults, renovating a gym, landscaping the grounds, clearing out and painting a storage room for use as office space and washing buses and vans used to transport clients. Value of labor and donated carpet, paint, food and other supplies: $35,000. The United Way of Northwest Georgia coordinated volunteers, including students from 17 public and private schools, 3 colleges and numerous businesses.
(Douglasville) Douglas County Sentinel. The South Cobb High PTSA coordinated a month-long collection of toys, clothing, school supplies and toiletries for Open Gate and Another Chance, homes for abused and neglected kids. They delivered 3 carloads of goods, plus 60 Halloween treat bags and a homemade meal of chili, salad, corn bread, banana pudding and apple pie.
(Dublin) Courier Herald. To emphasize the importance of reading together, the Oconee Regional Library invited families to the children's department for a family reading session. 150 Laurens County families accepted the challenge. Each child received a package that contained a copy of The Little Engine That Could, bookmarks, a puzzle, and library, literacy and health information. 12 parents who couldn't read attended, and library staff discussed literacy programs with them.
(Gainesville) Times. Flowery Branch residents Anthony "A.J." Collins Jr., 9, and brother Christopher, 8, walked 3 miles around the track at North Gwinnett High School, raising $121 to buy items such as diaries, crayons, stickers and children's card games for "Smile Sacks" for foster children. They put together 50 paper sacks, decorated with smiley faces, and mailed them to Gilmer Friends of Foster Families in Ellijay for distribution, along with 3 coats, 4 pairs of mittens, 2 hats and 5 teddy bears donated in 2 collection drives, including 1 on Oct. 27.
Griffin Daily News. As part of their ongoing project to adopt 12 indigent residents of the Georgia War Veterans Home in Milledgeville, 20 members of the Ladies Auxiliary of VFW Post 6542 in Barnesville sorted 168 shirts, 150 pairs of slacks, socks, sweaters, jackets and handkerchiefs collected over 6 weeks, filling 7 boxes for the veterans. Auxiliary members continue to send the veterans holiday and birthday cards and delivered gifts at Christmas.
(Jonesboro) News-Daily Herald. 19 1st-graders in Tammy Peters' class at Eagle's Landing Christian Academy in McDonough collected 150 books for A Friend's House, a children's foster home setting up its 1st library. The effort, in which pupils wrote weekly letters to the school paper encouraging peers to pitch in, was done in conjunction with Pizza Hut's Book It! program. 50 books will be used in care packages sent to foster kids after they are placed or return home.
LaGrange Daily News. Coordinated by Care Link AmeriCorps, 135 volunteers conducted safety checks at the homes of 35 Troup County seniors, installing bathtub safety bars, hand-held shower heads, elevated toilet seats, ramps and railings, smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, deadbolt locks and non-skid rugs. Volunteers came from churches, hospitals, fire departments, businesses, Troup County high schools and AmeriCorps. The level of need prompted Care Link AmeriCorps to establish an ongoing program to address home safety issues for senior citizens.
(Lawrenceville) Gwinnett Daily Post. Led by their school volunteer center, 125 students at Collins Hill High just outside Suwanee participated for the 4th year. Results: 50 pints of donated blood, 100 native ground cover plants in place at Collins Hill Park, a trash-free 1-mile stretch of Collins Hill Road near the school and 8,000 canned food items for the Gwinnett Clearing House.
Marietta Daily Journal. 30 members of Students in Free Enterprise at Kennesaw State University held a conference on entrepreneurship for 80 Cobb County High students and 40 parents. Entrepreneurs conducted seminars on college opportunities, community resources and development of business plans. Attendees put their handprints on a flag banner to pledge support for American values and raised $200 for 9/11 victims.
(Milledgeville) Union-Recorder. Members of Pleasant Grove United Methodist Church collected towels, washcloths and toiletry items for a year, sorting them into 60 packets and delivering them to the Maranatha Mission for the homeless. The 20 children's packets included toys from fast-food children's meals. The project involved 60 people, including 20 members of Gamma Sigma Sigma sorority from Georgia College & State University, and was 1 of many carried out as part of the Baldwin County Make A Difference Day, organized by United Way of Central Georgia.
The (Newnan) Times-Herald. 20 members of the Newnan High School psychology club refurbished a neglected playground at the Burwell Center, a school for developmentally disabled children. The students removed grass and dirt that had overgrown the cement basketball court and painted a hopscotch game on the concrete, installed rims and nets on freshly painted basketball poles, removed old tires partially buried in the dirt, carved out a volleyball court and installed other equipment such as a wooden climbing tower with plastic sliding board, a porch-style swing for teachers, and bird feeders. A member of the art club painted an abandoned concrete drain pipe to look like a castle. The improvements were financed by the psychology club's T-shirt sales and donations from businesses.
Rome News-Tribune. Berry College doubled its participation of the year before, with 270 volunteers representing 33 student groups at 28 sites in Floyd County, ranging from hospitals and nursing homes to parks and apple orchards. 1 highlight: opening a Saturday soup kitchen to be run by Berry volunteers to supplement weekday soup kitchens rotated among churches. 50 people eat at the kitchen each Saturday; additional programs, such as a story time and literacy courses, are being considered.
Savannah Morning News. With help from 500 volunteers, the 3rd Infantry Division (Mechanized) at Fort Stewart spent their 1st Make A Difference Day refurbishing 73 playgrounds used by 15,000 children living on base. Soldiers and their families, Scouts, Army civilians, Eastern Star members and students from Bradwell Institute and Liberty County High in Hinesville perked up equipment with fresh paint and cleared the heavily treed grounds of 200 garbage bags of debris and pine straw.
Statesboro Herald. 106 Statesboro High students put their construction curriculum to work at a 3-bedroom, 2-bath house they are building for Habitat for Humanity of Bulloch County. 14 students staffed a haunted house fund- raiser for the project, which netted $26,000. The students have since completed the house and begun work on another.
Thomasville Times-Enterprise. Scott Elementary's 1st Make A Difference Day -- a cleanup of school grounds -- drew 50 volunteers, including 8 Girl Scout troops, a school board candidate, parents, staff and neighbors. Other chores included landscaping and painting games such as 4-square and hopscotch on the driveway and sidewalk.
Tifton Gazette. Charles Spencer School students treated 20 senior citizens to lunch, a talent show and crafts activities, then sent them home with laminated place mats designed by 4th-graders and a small plastic bucket full of donated items such as pill containers, magnets, stationery and stamps. The most treasured gifts: phone numbers and addresses of luncheon partners. Many of the seniors still are in touch with the children and their families, joining them for dinners and church services.
Valdosta Daily Times. 18 Air Force ROTC cadets from Valdosta State University conducted safety checks at the homes of 9 elderly in Valdosta, Lakeland, Clyattville and Lake Park. Cadets installed night lights, smoke detectors and hand-held showerheads and evaluated the safety of items on a checklist provided by the health department.
(Warner Robins) Daily Sun. The Bonaire Middle School Y Club organized "Adopt a Grandparent Day" at Peachbelt Nursing Home, pairing each of the 25 members who attended with a resident. Activities included a student talent show, card games, manicures, war stories and trips outside.
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Hawaii
Newspaper Awards
(Hilo) Hawaii Tribune-Herald. 16 members of Malama o Puna, a grass-roots environmental group in Pahoa, collected 3 tons of garbage from rural Puna roads. The haul included large appliances, car parts and furniture. Hawaii Metal Recycling donated a truck.
Honolulu Advertiser. 70 volunteers from 7 environmental and community groups dived in to help Ala Wai Watershed Association's stream cleanup. Collected: 135 bags of trash, plus bed frames, shopping carts and tires.
(Kailua Kona) West Hawaii Today. The Sweethearts 4-H Club in Kailua Kona wanted to do something to help children in New York City after 9/11. The 10 girls, ages 13 to 15, grabbed sewing machines and fabric, made 150 "Aloha Animals" and sent them to a New York fire station for distribution.
(Lihue) Garden Island. For the 4th year, Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge volunteers organized a community work day at Kilauea School's environmental education site. They cleared trails, harvested native plants, planted bulbs and collected compost.
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Idaho
National Award
Hailey. Any given night in this town, between six and 10 teens "couch surf" -- sleep at friends' houses or in cars -- because their parents have kicked them out. And few foster families in the county are willing to take in teens. A proposed solution -- turning an old house into a teen shelter -- just wasn't getting done. Enter Emmanuel Episcopal Church. On Make A Difference Day, 25 parishioners scrubbed and painted each room of the old house. They tiled the bathroom and installed a new tub. In the kitchen, they filled cupboards with donated dishes and hooked up a donated refrigerator. Around the house, they arranged donated furniture including rugs, armoires and bunk beds. In one day, it was transformed. This month, the lovingly decorated house, called Our Place, is expected to get its final permits and open its doors as a tangible sign to teens that someone values them. The $10,000 award, funded by Newman's Own, will benefit Our Place shelter.
Newspaper Awards
(Boise) Idaho Statesman. 6 members of Epsilon Sigma Alpha, a philanthropic sorority, decorated 2 rooms and adjoining bathrooms at the Elmore Medical Center Longterm Care Unit in Mountain Home. That brought the group's total to 9 rooms and baths, plus 3 other bathrooms. In addition to colorful wallpaper borders, each room got a special touch in the alcove: either a floor-to-ceiling wallpaper scene or a hand-painted mural. The group plans to raise more funds to decorate other rooms at the 25-room facility.
Coeur d'Alene Press. The North Idaho-Western Washington chapter of Project Linus raffled off a Halloween-themed quilt, raising $117 for the medical expenses of a 4-year-old boy undergoing chemotherapy after partial removal of a brain tumor. Mackenzie Kennedy, 7, who won the quilt, donated it to the sick boy. Project Linus also organized a session for 20 grade-school kids to make fringed fleece blankets for children in transitional housing in northern Idaho.
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Illinois
National Award
McHenry. Fabiola Scholnick decided to honor her sons Jeremy, 17, and Jonathan, 14, who died in a car accident, by helping the needy people they had a soft spot for. She rallied 22 volunteers, including 14 teens, to raise $1,400 and collect more than 40 boxes of food and toiletries. All the help went to an agency serving McHenry County's estimated 1,000 homeless. "We were just about empty when those bags came in," recalls Anna MacMeekin. "It was a miracle." Scholnick found what many Make A Difference Day volunteers discover: Helping others is a powerful way to help yourself. "I never thought I could smile on this day." But, as action overcame grief, she did. The $10,000 award, funded by Newman's Own, will go to Main Stay Therapeutic Riding Program and McHenry County PADS.
National Award
Mundelein. Lisa Giannini nearly died from complications of routine gallbladder surgery on Oct. 27, 2000. During her three-month hospital stay, she deeply questioned why she was going to live. Eventually, she decided she was alive to help others, starting on Make A Difference Day by paying the medical bills of Alexis Ehrhart, a toddler with a rare form of cancer. She rallied businesses, family, friends and 1,200 co-workers at Pepper Construction to hold a raffle. Giannini, who still owed $4,000 on her own medical bills, bought two of the 30 raffle prizes: a TV and a printer. On Make A Difference Day the Ehrharts received nearly $7,000 in cash and gifts. "It's obvious what a special person Lisa is," says Alexis' dad, Larry. "She didn't know us and got nothing in return. As a firefighter, I know what it feels like to know you're helping someone. But that's my job. She just did this out of the kindness of her heart." The $10,000 award, funded by Newman's Own, will help other families via Hope Children's Hospital Pediatric Oncology Fund in Oak Lawn, Ill.
Newspaper awards
(Alton) Telegraph. Matthew Brown, 15, of Dorsey and 17 volunteers, including Boy Scouts, applied the finishing touch to a playground for abused children at the Community Hope Center in Cottage Hills -- 20 tons of shredded tire ground cover worth $8,500. Brown took on the playground as an Eagle Scout project, spending 400 hours refurbishing rusty play equipment donated by a fast-food chain and soliciting donations to pay for primer, paint and the ground cover, with the goal of finishing on Make A Difference Day.
(Arlington Heights) Daily Herald. 7 home-schooled children in Hanover Park, ages 3 to 11, delivered 31 backpacks filled with toiletries and comfort items such as a pillow, fleece blanket, and stuffed doll or bear to a crisis shelter and food pantry. The kids -- Tom and Joey McNamara and Danielle, Derek, Lauren, Megan and Adam Dittmer -- began collecting items for the backpacks during the summer. Nursing home residents helped them make pillows. They plan to deliver 25 backpacks 4 times a year.
(Aurora) Beacon News. 21 literacy volunteers read to 250 children at 4 events organized by the Waubonsee Community College Adult Literacy Program, including a Spanish story time that drew 30 children on Make A Difference Day. 40% of the community is Hispanic.
Chicago Sun-Times. Led by the neighborhood group Imagine Englewood If ...!, 100 residents, including 40 children, reached out with a Resource Fair at Nicholson School. 700 people participated in the fair and other volunteer activities, including a free blood pressure clinic, storytelling and children's workshops, voter registration and painting the porches of 4 homebound seniors.
(Crystal Lake) Northwest Herald. 25 volunteers from Alden-Hebron School District 19 -- including students and adults -- raked leaves, cleared trash and installed storm windows to help 6 senior citizens prepare for winter. 30 packages of toiletries, canned food, gloves and hats also were delivered to seniors, and a lasagna luncheon for 25 was held at the senior center.
(De Kalb) Daily Chronicle. In honor of a youth group member recovering from serious burns caused by a school chemistry lab explosion, 12 Faith United Methodist Church youth spent the day completing the volunteer project the burn victim had started planning before the accident. They spruced up the church and its grounds -- scrubbing floors, washing 3-story plate-glass windows, vacuuming the sanctuary and raking leaves -- and helped elderly congregants with yardwork and chores such as window-washing.
(Dixon) Sauk Valley Sunday. Doubling last year's total, East Coloma School students collected 1,468 pounds of non-perishables in a week-long drive for the Rock River Christian Center in Rock Falls and the FISH Pantry in Sterling. Pet food and $13 went to the Tri-County Animal Shelter.
Du Quoin Evening Call. 7 members of the Pioneer 4-H Club distributed fliers, baked cookies, served refreshments and staffed the sign-in table at an American Red Cross blood drive in Tamaroa that attracted 27 donors. 3 adults helped.
(Elgin) Courier News. 70 at-risk teens enrolled in the Youth Leadership Academy, an Elgin Community College-based college prep program for low-income youth, washed windows and doors at a mental health center, stuffed 5,000 envelopes for a service club's holiday solicitation, cleaned up after a YWCA Halloween hike, organized bingo for 20 retirement home residents, and painted and cleaned the homes of 4 senior citizens.
(Galesburg) Register-Mail. Expanding a project started the previous year, Pilot Club members distributed helmets to 30 children attending the group's 1st bicycle safety rodeo. The club donated 100 more helmets to police officers for later distribution. Club members also made and distributed 15 flannel baby blankets at 2 hospitals. Earlier in the week, members treated nursing home residents to bingo and Halloween candy.
(Harrisburg) Daily Register. Members of 2 Southeastern Illinois College business organizations -- Phi Beta Lambda and Students in Free Enterprise -- recorded children's storybooks depicting the free enterprise system and a strong work ethic, such as The Tortoise and the Hare. They donated 40 book bags, each containing a book, cassette recording, tests and activity sheets, to 7 libraries, a campus day care center and 2 elementary school libraries in Holland and Yugoslavia.
Jacksonville Journal-Courier. A health and safety fair sponsored by the Virginia Christian Women's Fellowship drew 300 in Virginia, a town of 1,800. The event, aimed at low-income families with children under 8, featured a bike rodeo, car seat inspections, fire truck rides and firefighter demonstrations, ambulance tours, crafts and information. Free bike helmets and child car seats were distributed, as well as $500 in prizes such as bikes and microwaves. After the fair, firefighters installed 10 smoke detectors as well as 60 batteries for existing detectors at senior citizens' homes.
(Joliet) Herald News. 23 8th-graders from Taft Elementary School in Lockport, accompanied by 7 adults, collected 1,500 canned food and paper items for the FISH Food Pantry by delivering fliers the week before Make A Difference Day, then returning Oct. 27 for the filled paper bags.
(Kankakee) Sunday Journal. For 8 months, members of the Modern Woodmen of America Youth Service Club of Bourbonnais, ages 3 to 11, collected books, stuffed animals, toys, toiletries and snacks to fill colorful, pillowcase-sized drawstring bags for children at Harbor House, a shelter for battered women and their children. Businesses helped with donations. On Make A Difference Day, 40 children and parents stuffed 108 "bedtime bunny bags," so called because most contained leftover Easter bunnies donated by stores.
(La Salle) News Tribune. 6 classmates in a personal communication class at Princeton High School designed, sewed and filled 50 care bags for Freedom House, a domestic violence shelter that has served some of the students. The students baked and sold chocolate chip cookies at the school and secured donations from 20 organizations and businesses, raising $400 to buy items such as makeup, calculators, coloring books and notepads.
Macomb Journal. 3 members of the Macomb Ladies Auxiliary of VFW Post 1921 delivered 16 dozen homemade cookies and 4 pounds of popcorn to the Macomb Senior Living Center, along with a box of yarn, fabric, buttons and other items for craft projects. Auxiliary members also provided centerpieces and candy cups for 48 seniors who were served lunch that day.
Mount Vernon Register-News. 13 members of the Mount Vernon Township High club Health Occupations Students of America, plus 10 parents, siblings and instructors, cleaned the home of a woman raising her grandchildren; did yardwork at a senior citizen's home, filling 8 bags with clippings, branches and trash; played games with children at the United Methodist Children's Home; and entertained nursing home residents at Mount Vernon Countryside Residential Center with manicures and "Name That Tune."
(Rock Island) Dispatch. 21 co-workers and family members from the Moline-based national headquarters of The Sedona Group, a staffing agency, packaged $1,750 worth of diapers, wipes, onesies, blankets, bibs, bath supplies, toys and photo vouchers for distribution to 81 sets of new parents through Partners for Healthy Families.
Rock Island Argus. 15 Longfellow School students and teachers concluded a school-wide campaign to honor New York City firefighters by packaging 120 bags, each containing Life Savers and other treats and at least 1 handwritten thank-you note from a Longfellow student. The notes bore messages such as "You are my hero" or "You are a life saver." The items, including dog treats for rescue animals, were donated by merchants and Longfellow families, 70% of whom are low-income.
Rockford Register Star. The House, a neighborhood resource center serving primarily low-income African-American families in western Rockford, increased awareness of its services and reduced the size of its wish list. 40 volunteers -- including 7 members of Phi Theta Kappa at Rock Valley College -- staffed collection sites at The House on the west side of town and The Home Depot on the east. They tallied $400 in cash, 2 automobiles, a VCR, computer software, dozens of books, and bags of non-perishables and cleaning supplies.
(Sterling) Sauk Valley Sunday. 10 members of Coleta United Methodist Church used a forklift tractor, heavy chains, a pickup truck and lots of muscle to remove 150 diseased 15- to 20-foot pine trees from rural property just outside Coleta owned by an elderly woman and her daughter, both in poor health and of limited income. The bulk of the work was done in a 6-hour session on Make A Difference Day; another session completed the job a week later.
(Tinley Park) Daily Southtown. 8 Girl Scout troops representing 90 girls, ages 7 to 11, collected 1,500 new and gently used toys for St. Terrance Catholic Church in Alsip to distribute to needy children at Christmas. Each Scout distributed 10 fliers and plastic bags to family and friends, then picked up the donations for sorting and checking on Oct. 27. So many items were accumulated that several bags were donated to Worth Township's holiday distribution.
(Waukegan) News Sun. The Libertyville Junior Women's Club donated cleaning and laundry supplies for 10 housekeeping starter kits for The Haven, a shelter for abused women. 25 club members and children also played bingo and served juice and cookies for nursing home residents at Winchester House. Club members donated the refreshments and 100 bingo prizes.
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Indiana
Newspaper Awards
(Columbus) Republic. 40 volunteers, mostly teens, cleaned 9th Street Park, installed kitchen cabinets and cleaned at the Red Cross office, stocked and cleaned at the food pantry, and repaired and painted an elderly woman's storage shed. Hair stylist Nadine Turnbow exchanged 8 haircuts for $50 in donations to the Red Cross 9/11 fund. The good deeds were coordinated by the Volunteer Action Center for the 3rd year.
(Crawfordsville) Journal Review. 35 volunteers ranging in age from 6 to 92 -- including Girl Scouts, middle-schoolers in a club called Kids Care, nursing home residents and the Waveland Quilters -- finished 168 blankets for newborns, the sick and the needy. The 6-hour session at Grace and Mercy Ministries, organized by the Binky Patrol, doubled last year's effort.
(Elkhart) Truth. 24 Church Community Services volunteers fanned out to 3 Kroger grocery stores to encourage Saturday shoppers to purchase items for the non-profit's work helping the needy and those in crisis situations. The 4-hour collection netted 1,000-plus pounds of canned goods, plus small household items, baby supplies and diapers, including $36 worth of items donated by co-workers at 1 store.
(Fort Wayne) News-Sentinel. More than 100 volunteers -- Scouts, church groups, schoolchildren and residents -- planted 600 native Indiana trees as a buffer between homes and the new Indian Trails Park in Aboite Township. Volunteers also spread a special mulch of recycled leaves and lumber provided by Hoosier ReLeaf, which also donated the trees.
(Gary) Post-Tribune. In a 1st-time effort, 18 cat lovers from the Mew Haven Cat Care Education Foundation in Highland distributed fact sheets on the importance of spaying and neutering pets to 160 Lake County schools and 30 veterinary offices. The volunteers stuffed and mailed the envelopes on Oct. 27.
(Greenfield) Daily Reporter. The MOMS Club, a support group for 36 stay-at-home mothers, hand-delivered personalized gift bags to 130 children at the Indiana Soldiers and Sailors Children's Home in Knightstown. Club members and their children filled the bags so they overflowed with toiletries, toys, sports gear, magazines and candy, either donated by members and businesses or bought with proceeds from a car wash and garage sale.
Indianapolis Star. Darcy Rund's 4th-graders at Heritage Christian School brought famous Americans and classic literary characters to life for 90-plus inner-city children at the Wheeler Mission. The costumed 4th-graders told stories, then presented the children with $1,525 in hardcover books, including 1 for each child to take home. The 4th-graders, a Pizza Hut Book It! classroom, raised money for the books by collecting pledges for time spent reading to retirement home residents.
(Kendallville, Auburn, Angola) Kendallville Publishing Co. 18 volunteers from the LaGrange Community Hospital emergency room services departments helped a 78-year-old Wolcottville woman confined to her home since July, when one of her legs was amputated. Her caregivers had trouble lifting the woman's wheelchair, so the emergency workers built a wheelchair ramp at her home, enabling her to go outdoors on her own. "She was just ecstatic," said ER nurse Marilyn Emmert.
(Lafayette) Journal and Courier. Completing last year's project, Deborah Bradford and 7 family members painted interior walls, cleaned carpets and landscaped at a Lafayette house she hopes will provide low-cost housing for women over age 50 recovering from drug or alcohol addictions.
(Michigan City) News-Dispatch. Launching its monthly "free admission" day, the ABC Children's Museum asked 148 visitors -- triple the expected turnout -- to decorate paper- plate wreaths for donation to nursing home residents. The craft projects will continue on each free-admission day, with results going to clients of social service agencies.
(Muncie) Star Press. To thank Grissom Elementary School for the use of its softball and volleyball facilities, 21 Special Olympics athletes and coaches winterized the school's outdoor learning lab. The athletes, ages 12 to 60, made stepping stones for a pathway, transplanted worms for composting soil and hung bird food -- strands of cereal, cranberries and popcorn, net bags of seed, and pine cones covered with peanut butter and seed -- in trees and along a fence.
(New Castle) Courier Times. Shawna Boas and son Brandon, 6, inspired neighbors along Lincoln Avenue to donate clothing, toys and toiletries to the Christian Love Help Center homeless shelter. The Boas family delivered a minivan full, plus Halloween goody bags Oct. 26; follow-up calls on Make A Difference Day generated an additional 4 garbage bags full of donations.
(Noblesville) Daily Ledger. Working at 2 sites in Westfield, 8 volunteers from VFW Post 10207 collected $130 in cash and food items for the Amanda Strong Food Bank for the Needy and $175 in cash and used clothing for the Indiana Veterans Home in West Lafayette.
Peru Tribune. Despite snow, 250 families enjoyed carnival games and free hot dogs and sloppy joes at the First Church of Christ's annual clothing giveaway. Each family left with at least 2 large garbage bags full of clothes and toys. Church members, who donated the food and clothes, took leftover items to the Salvation Army.
(Richmond) Palladium-Item. 18 Bethel A.M.E. Church youth conducted a month-long clothing, shoe and bedding drive, garnering 30,120 pounds of used items for distribution to the needy in the United States and Third World countries and raising $600 each for church missions and the Make A Difference Day Scholarship Fund. 4,200 pounds were collected Oct. 27. Church adults, including 9 senior citizens who staffed the church drop-off site daily, pitched in by chauffeuring the kids to pick up items.
(Seymour) Tribune. 9 members of the Ladies Auxiliary of VFW Post 2021 in North Vernon visited the North Vernon Nursing Home, distributing $100 worth of toiletry items to 135 residents.
Shelbyville News. 100 volunteers -- Boy and Girl Scouts, politicians, parks department maintenance workers and neighborhood residents -- pulled weeds and scrubbed tombstones at the 235-year-old City Cemetery as part of ongoing efforts to restore the long-neglected site. An American flag was raised for the 1st time in years, in compliance with a state law that requires such a display at any cemetery where war veterans are buried.
Wabash Plain Dealer. For more than 9 hours in sleet and rain, breaking only to check on her diabetic mother and to prepare lunch, Rose Alice Akers, 49, raked a 1-acre section of Hopewell Cemetery, near her home, and picked up twigs. She collected 31 garbage bags of debris, which she took home to burn. Akers' father is buried in the cemetery.
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Iowa
Newspaper Awards
(Council Bluffs) Daily Nonpareil. 98 Denison Job Corps participants put their skills to work by completing a siding project at an airport, painting a Jaycees building, cleaning wheelchairs, tidying up Yellowsmoke State Park and picking up trash along a 2-mile stretch of highway in Denison.
Des Moines Sunday Register. 200 Jefferson volunteers raised funds for a youth center by building a temporary miniature golf course in a middle school gym. 18 businesses each sponsored a putt-putt hole; 280 donors played the course. The event raised $2,500 for the center, which will give 200 kids a place to go on Friday and Sunday nights.
(Dubuque) Telegraph Herald. 42 volunteers organized by the Dubuque Target store sold 4,000 root beer floats for $1 each; proceeds of $4,000 went to the Dubuque Food Pantry.
Iowa City Press-Citizen. 2 University of Iowa Hospital employees spent 8 hours distributing fliers about the Mother's Milk Bank, a new program that aims to provide pasteurized breast milk to hospitalized newborns whose mothers can't provide milk. Volunteers raised $300 for the program.
Sioux City Journal. Nuns on the Run -- a group of 18 women from Danbury who don't belong to any religious order but dress in habits and lip-sync inspirational songs to uplift, entertain and raise money for the needy -- did their shtick for patients at the Siouxland Regional Cancer Center and distributed pamphlets on cancer and mammography, plus letters of awareness about the center's needs.
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Kansas
Newspaper Awards
Dodge City Daily Globe. Plains Elementary School 6th-graders helped senior citizens with yardwork. 21 students raked, weeded, cleaned flower beds, mowed and picked up trash for 9 seniors.
Garden City Telegram. As a community investment, members of the Cimarron Area Chamber of Commerce sponsored a Make A Difference Day volleyball tournament to raise college scholarship money for teens. The two-day, 30-team event netted $3,000, which will fund 10 $300 scholarships for young adults with a track record of volunteerism.
Hays Daily News. The spirits of the Andrews Sisters, Frank Sinatra and Rosie the Riveter appeared in WaKeeney Oct. 27: The American Legion post, VFW Post 3449, the clubs' ladies auxiliaries, and the civic organization WaKeeney PRIDE put together a World War II-themed dinner show to honor veterans. 143 attended; $300 raised in unsolicited donations was given to 7 charities.
Hutchinson News. In January 2001, a mysterious geological disaster struck Hutchinson; 2 residents died when natural gas escaped from salt mine storage areas, traveled underground, surfaced and exploded in homes and businesses through wells dug in the 1800s. The faculty and students at Hutchinson Community College wanted to quell the fear of fire that city children now have, so they organized "Project Fire Safe" for 244 children and 84 parents. They took part in a fire safety fair, toured fire stations and competed in a safety coloring contest.
Kansas City Kansan. 130 Bishop Ward High School students conducted a community cleanup in their neighborhood. Some raked leaves and spruced up yards of elderly residents; others cleaned animal shelters; and 8 students served meals at a soup kitchen.
Lawrence Journal-World. If not for University of Kansas volunteers, 700 children would have gone without Christmas presents. The university's Center for Community Outreach held a 5K run to collect toys for its annual holiday party. 70 toys were donated and placed in a growing cache. At the party, 700 children each received 1 toy and 1 book. Leftover items were distributed to the Salvation Army and the Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center.
Leavenworth Times. 30 members of Les Novellettes, a women's social club, collected blankets, food and school supplies for Neighborhood House. They also treated residents of the facility to new hairstyles and a storyteller.
Newton Kansan. 20 volunteers from VFW Post 971, American Legion Post 2 and their ladies auxiliaries held a Halloween party for Newton children. They also educated children on the dangers of crossing, walking near or playing on railroad tracks. Newton, a hub on the historic Santa Fe railroad, still is dominated by tracks.
Olathe Daily News. 2 Crosswinds Community Church volunteers held a food drive in Gardner to benefit the town's Multi-Service Center pantry. Gathered: 12 overflowing boxes and $208 in cash.
Salina Journal. With the help of several prison inmates, the Ellsworth County Historical Society tackled a historic railroad depot in need of renovations. The group removed fixtures and tile, replaced window sills, cleaned floor boards and bead board, whitewashed, removed plasterboard, and painted and repaired wainscoting.
Topeka Capital Journal. 70 Westar Energy employees, retirees and family members winter-proofed the homes of 9 needy senior citizens. Volunteers installed weatherstripping, insulated water pipes, caulked house seams, repaired damaged window sills and hung plastic over windows to help reduce electricity bills.
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Kentucky
Newspaper Awards
(Henderson) Gleaner. 50 Henderson County High students representing 3 teen groups made a difference for 80 people. The teens gave manicures and hand massages at 3 assisted care homes; cleaned bathrooms in preparation for the opening of a women's emergency shelter; raked leaves for elderly shut-ins; carried bags for grocery shoppers; pumped gas and washed windshields for service station customers; delivered homemade cookies to fire, police and hospital personnel; cleaned around the high school; raised money by joining the American Heart Association's walk-athon; and served a meal at the Salvation Army soup kitchen. The manicures were so popular at the assisted care home that students have turned it into a monthly project.
(Hopkinsville) Kentucky New Era. Hoping to brighten long winter days for residents of Shady Lawn Nursing Home in Cadiz, 18 members of Buffalo Lick Baptist Church, including 13 youth, planted 50 daffodil bulbs, 250 tulip bulbs and 80 winter pansies where the blooms could be seen from a lounge window. Some of the youth visited with residents indoors and painted the fingernails of the ladies.
(Louisville) Courier-Journal. Kicking off a yearlong commitment to Haven House, an emergency family shelter in Jeffersonville, Ind., Clarksville Middle School's after-school service learning club, SUPPORT, cheered the 65 residents with a fall festival featuring free haircuts courtesy of a beauty school, a meal revolving around the book Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs and activities such as apple dunking, pumpkin painting and chalk art. 15 SUPPORT members delivered the results of a schoolwide collection of shelter needs: 400 rolls of toilet paper and 150 toiletry kits. The students return at least monthly to tutor children and deliver more supplies.
(Madisonville) Messenger. Teenagers from TOP, a service organization at Madisonville-North Hopkins High, presented puppet skits addressing physical, sexual and mental abuse to audiences at the mall and city park. Social service agencies dispensed information on abuse topics, and a karate studio taught moves that could be used to avoid abuse. In response to 9/11, students raised $200 for the Afghan children's fund and $900 for the Red Cross fund. Other efforts included planting 200 tulip bulbs and entertaining children with face painting and balloons. 90 students, including 10 from a newly formed TOP chapter at Hopkins County Central High School, participated.
Paducah Sun. Eager to comfort children of firefighters killed on 9/11, 9 members of Bethel Cumberland Presbyterian Church, ages 5 to 12, each filled a clear plastic shoe box with items of friendship: a treasured Pokémon card, copies of favorite poems, a flag T-shirt. The boxes, accompanied by letters from the children and their pastor, were sent to New York's fire department for distribution. The children also joined 9 other members of their group, the Crusaders, to sing to residents of an assisted living home and give out Halloween treats in a hospital pediatric ward.
Richmond Register. St. Mark Middle School students raked leaves and planted bulbs at the Pregnancy Help Center, then helped set up and serve a fund-raiser dinner that night. Another group of students cleaned trash at Wal-Mart, focusing on a ravine where litter collects. The entire school -- 49 students and 3 teachers -- helped.
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Louisiana
Newspaper Awards
(Alexandria) Town Talk. 1,000 BellSouth employees agreed to donate 1 pair of slippers each for needy seniors in Louisiana. The project, dubbed "Bearing Our Soles," distributed 1,025 pairs of slippers to the elderly in Alexandria, Shreveport, New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Lafayette and elsewhere.
(Hammond) Daily Star. In its 1st multisite effort in the chapter's 20-year history, the St. Tammany West Habitat for Humanity organized 100 volunteers at 3 building sites in Covington, Abita Springs and Mandeville and at 2 Habitat stores. Highlights included the kickoff of a "women's build" in Mandeville and the 1st push by high school Key Club members raising money with an ongoing aluminum recycling drive. The turnout enabled a woman and her 3 children to move into their home for Christmas.
(Lafayette) Daily Advertiser. With a little help from deaf activist Justin Osmond (son of Merrill Osmond of the Osmond Brothers and spitting image of famous uncle Donny), the St. Landry-Evangeline United Way held a "hearing awareness" campaign that educated the 35,000 residents of Evangeline Parish and screened 25 for hearing aids.
(Monroe) News-Star. Since Lee Junior High School received a 1999 Make A Difference Day state award, the students have changed, but the spirit remains the same. This time, 500 students collected 1,000 pounds of red beans and rice -- enough to feed 3,500 poor people in Ouachita Parish.
(New Iberia) Daily Iberian. Taylor DeGroat, 11, and his brother Trey, 8, topped their 2000 Make A Difference Day effort by collecting 200 school uniforms for the domestic violence shelter SNAP (Safety Net for Abused Persons), up from 150 the previous year. The pair also persuaded classmates at Daspit Elementary School to donate 200 stuffed animals to shelter residents.
(Opelousas) Daily World. Scientists debate whether humans have olfactory memory, but there's little doubt that familiar smells trigger thoughts of days gone by. 12 Girl Scouts from Troop 154 decided to refresh the memories of 100 seniors by growing herbs and giving them to nursing home residents. They also held clinics in which the seniors could enjoy fragrant plants and reminisce. "This is Louisiana, and we cook," said troop leader Clarinette Chenier. "It was so wonderful to bring out the parsley and hear them talk about their gumbos, or their tomato sauces with the basil."
(Shreveport) Times. 331 Grambling community and Grambling State University volunteers completed 15 separate projects. Most notable: restoration work at a neglected park. Students finished building a pavilion, painted gazebos and picnic tables, removed overgrown trees and shrubs, replaced bridges and repaired water pipes.
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Maine
Newspaper Awards
(Augusta) Kennebec Journal. Spirit of America Foundation, a Maine-based group that encourages volunteerism, collected $5,000 in food and clothing for social service agencies. A month in advance, members gave preprinted grocery bags to schools and churches publicizing agency wish lists; items were collected at Shaw's Supermarket. The "Feed Augusta, Clothe Augusta" project is in its 5th year.
Bangor Daily News. 25 middle-school girls joined adult mentors at the Old Town Public Library to sew quilts and pack baby supplies for 46 "Welcome Baby Boxes." The River Coalition distributed the boxes to families of newborns in 6 towns along the Penobscot River. 49 people helped for 6 hours, including members of GirlsTalk (a library-sponsored mentoring program) and 3 members of the Chin Wag Society (high school sophomores who graduated from GirlsTalk and continue to meet as a book club).
(Biddeford) Journal Tribune Weekend. The "Don't Shake Jake" Awareness Program showered 100 new or soon-to-be parents and caregivers with handmade blankets, outerwear, used clothing and toys, baby supplies and items to pamper harried parents. Pamela Belisle, whose 41Ž2-month-old son, Jake, was shaken to death by his day care provider in 1998, discussed her son's death and ways to prevent shaken baby syndrome. 20 volunteers helped with the shower at the Biddeford Community Center; 50 more donated items for gifts, raffles and door prizes.
(Lewiston) Sun Journal. Kim Simpson's 14 2nd-graders at Poland Community School held a bottle and aluminum can drive to raise money for President Bush's Afghan children's fund. They redeemed their collection, receiving $98.46 to donate to the fund.
(Waterville) Sunday Sentinel. 37 people gathered at Winslow Junior High to sew 150 "comfort pillows" for New York City children who lost loved ones 9/11. Volunteers included English teacher Linda Voss' 8th-graders, who organized the session, high school service club members, 3 staffers, 1 mother and 4 members of VFW Post 8835 Ladies Auxiliary. Many pillows featured a pocket to hold a loved one's photograph; all included a sympathy note from Winslow students. A Waterville trucking company delivered the pillows, plus 120 more completed after Oct. 27, to a representative of Cantor Fitzgerald, a firm that lost 700 people on 9/11.
Maryland
National Award
Edgewater. In 2000, cancer patient Nicholas Marriam of Edgewater, Md., his mom and dad endured 172 exhausting days at Children's Hospital in Washington, D.C. One small moment from that ordeal made a big impression on Nick. "He remembered," says his mom, Angel, "that when a friend of mine brought me a gift basket containing soap and shampoo, I cried." When Nick felt better he wanted to do Make A Difference Day -- "that day when you do nice things for other people." Nick's "nice thing" was easy to pick: gift bags for exhausted parents and ill children at his old hospital. Nick -- with the help of his mother, his third-grade class, employees at Coca-Cola, TGIFriday's and the Washington Capitals hockey team, to name a few -- gathered $7,500 in supplies, enough for 166 gift bags with toiletries, gift certificates, disposable cameras, movie passes, hockey tickets and pizza coupons. Nick's $10,000 award, funded by Newman's Own, will benefit Children's Hospital Foundation and Carol Jean Cancer Foundation/Camp Friendship.
Newspaper Awards
(Annapolis) Capital. Eric Kreutzberg, 4, and brother T.J., 14, took the family's Radio Flyer wagon door to door, collecting canned goods for an upcoming food drive. They gathered 2 big boxes of food for the Anne Arundel County Food Bank.
Cumberland Times-News. 300 Westernport Elementary pupils doggedly solicited pet food from community members for the Mineral County Humane Society in Rio, W.Va. The children collected 2,290 pounds of dog food, half of which was delivered Oct. 27 to the no-kill shelter.
(Easton) Sunday Star. 8 Charles Wesley United Methodist Church members entertained 45 Corsica Hills nursing home residents.
The Frederick News-Post. 50 Care Wear volunteers -- seamstresses, knitters and crocheters -- made 1,459 items (burial gowns, quilts, blankets, hats, booties, dolls, bears, bunnies, stockings and puppets) for Frederick Memorial Hospital and Johns Hopkins University Children's Center.
(Lanham) Prince George's Journal. 19 volunteers transformed the beige gym at High Point High by painting it with the school colors of gold and royal blue, a golden eagle and a sign that tells all who enter they've reached "The Eagles' Nest."
(Rockville) Montgomery Journal. 40 volunteers from the New Life Seventh-Day Adventist Church had planned an organ donor sign-up effort. But when an anthrax-tainted letter killed postal worker Thomas Morris in Washington, D.C., the Gaithersburg church decided to raise money for Morris' family, who live in Suitland. The church signed up 23 organ donors and raised $500 for the Morrises.
(Salisbury) Daily Times. Nanticoke Watershed Alliance volunteers tackled trash on the shoreline of Roaring Point Park and Cedar Hill Park in Wicomico County. 39 volunteers gathered half a ton of garbage from the beaches.
(Westminster) Carroll County Times. Nancy Houser rallied Carroll County community members to contribute necessities, treats and clothing for needy children. The donations filled 2 tractor-trailers and were delivered to the Christian Appalachian Project in Corbin, Ky.
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Massachusetts
Newspaper Awards
(Attleboro) Sun Chronicle. 190 karate enthusiasts and their families, ages 3 to 70, raised $10,900 for Thanksgiving dinners fo |
Honorees
