Stories

Boyd Pickens - 4/6/2008 7:55:55 PM Our church is trying to get started on a mission's project to help with senior. We have been stuck with the question of how to get started. People want to help but are reluctant to do something. What are some of you suggestions on getting started and organizing and recurting volunteers? I think if we were prepare and organized the project would take off - but how? thanks for these wonderful ads and advice.

Dan - 1/29/2008 12:46:02 PM I read that a fraternity brother had celebrated his 100th birthday. I took another friend with me to conduct a 60 minute video history. The centenarian was thrilled with the visit and grateful that we cared to record stories from his life. The visit did wonders for me and my friend. He died a year later.

Jeff Keller - 11/15/2007 7:33:14 AM My son, a 13 year-old Boy Scout wanted to volunteer and needed some hours for a service project. We went through VolunteerMatch and found 3 different opportunities for young teens to volunteer. We have placed repeated calls to the organizations listed for Columbus, Ohio that haven't been returned. There wasn't even a "No thank you, you're too young" or any other excuse. Are your organizations that flush with volunteers that they can ignore repeated attempts to help?

Downtown Dave - 6/30/2007 Living in an older community downtown, many seniors have to walk to shop for groceries, get prescription drugs, and buy health/beauty goods. As kids like to ride their bikes, skateboards, inline skates, and scooters on the sidewalks, many seniors are afraid to go out downtown. Our Mayor and City Council members, along with our Police are frustrated as to what to do to keep our streets and sidewalks SAFE for everyone. So here is a 1 Act of Kindness suggestion: Remind the kids that every Senior could be their OWN Grandma or Grandpa, and watch how their attitude Changes! Small Steps to a Safer Situation…

Peter Lespier - 6/8/2007 My name is peter Lespier and I am an ex-con, addict. I emerged from a heroin haze 13 years ago with a singular purpose, to raise awareness among at risk youth about prison. I am a graduate student completing my second Masters in Education in the fall of 2007 and I founded the S.T.O.P. program. S.T.O.P. is an acronym for Straight Talk On Prison. It is a nonprofit (pending) consulting organization of former inmates and other interested parties. S.T.O.P. works to enhance and improve the lives of at-risk youth by teaching them about the realities of incarceration, evaluating their needs and the needs of their families, and assisting them to make better lifestyle decisions. It is the mission of the S.T.O.P. Program to reduce youth violence by utilizing the testimony of parolees who have successfully completed the S.T.O.P. Program. S.T.O.P. engages the community in a holistic approach to assisting at-risk youth in the inner city schools of Richmond, California. By sharing their own experiences, the parolee-speakers of S.T.O.P. help to open the eyes of many young students who have never been incarcerated but are living their lives making poor choices that will eventually land them in prison. I oversee the complete research and development of the S.T.O.P. Program. I supervise the entire staff in all day-to-day functions and attend community events, meet with elected officials, school officials, and officiate at P.A.C.T. (Parole and Community Together) meetings every first and third Thursday of the month. I also attend workshops and symposiums related to youth violence and meet regularly with church and community leaders. As Director, I preside over all meetings and policy-making decisions. The S.T.O.P. program is a comprehensive program that offers services to at-risk youth and their families as well as the community at large. The objective of STOP is to deter young students from a life of crime and subsequent incarceration. The STOP program can be described as a win-win opportunity. Students win by hearing about the harsh realities of prison life from those who actually experienced it. The speakers win by utilizing their negative experience in a positive way, through sharing with students the consequences personally experienced as a result of poor choices. STOP provides a multilayered approach offering mentoring services, tutoring, career counseling and family and community support through case management. STOP offers referral services to over 2500 providers in the greater Contra Costa County. It is the goal of the STOP program to create an atmosphere of learning and character-building by pooling the resources of the family, community and the school. The young people of color in our community are no longer the only victims. Parents, teachers, and the education process all lose when one of our bright young people ends up in a prison cell. It is through the STOP program that the harsh realities of the prison system and those stories of violence and drug abuse are shared by those who have actually traveled the road that placed them at the very threshold of the prison cell. These rare individuals who have endured prison seize the opportunity to recreate, in very real terms, their experiences from a constructive standpoint and take that negative event and present it to these vulnerable youth to create a positive outcome. Sharing the consequences of making poor choices helps both the former inmate as well as the adolescent. The community must unite in a collaborative and set aside its private and personal agendas, and create an opportunity for these powers to come to bear. We all say that we want to serve the needs of the youth, so lets do just that! Serve them by inviting them to the countless gatherings that take place yet do not bear their presence or their voices. Let’s involve them, and celebrate THEM! The program will seek to prevent/reduce the risk of violence and substance abuse among the at-risk children in our elementary and high schools by combining a consensus-building model (Communities That Care) with an exemplary violence and drug abuse preventions approach. The parolee contingent who serves the S.T.O.P. Program comes from difficult social conditions. With risk factors such as poverty, drugs, domestic violence, incarcerated family members, gang involvement, poor health care and health education, and race, S.T.O.P. is trying to prevent a future crop of prison inmates who, if they survive the prison experience, come out of the penitentiary on parole themselves. When they return to the community they face the same social conditions that they left behind when they entered prison. The S.T.O.P. Program offers the parolee an opportunity to use the prison experience as a mentoring tool to help deter at-risk youth from making the same poor choices. By participating on an ongoing basis the parolee can graduate to a stable and fulfilling lifestyle that will benefit him/her in their future endeavors. It is a win-win situation for both parties. The S.T.O.P. program bases its philosophy on the belief that every life has meaning and purpose. I would like to add that if one man (Stanley ‘Tookie’ Williams) can reach thousands of at-risk youth from the confines of an 8 X 11ft cell all over the world with his books and writings, why is it that we as a community are failing to serve our own young right here in Richmond? Yes, we are helping pockets of youth here and there, but Richmond’s approach to helping at-risk youth is fragmented and unity is what is needed to create a safety net that will prevent them from falling through the cracks. In reverence to the honorable work of former founder of the “Crips” and Noble Peace prize nominee the late Stanley ‘Tookie’ Williams, Asante Sana! Staff Profiles Peter Lespier (R) is a native New Yorker who has lived in the Bay Area since 1985. He and his wife, Mary, are both earning their Masters degrees in Education. Peter has a Masters in Humanities and Leadership and is passionate about working with youth.

maria papadakis - 4/30/2007 my great grandmother, who died about 5 to 6 years ago, lived to be 93. we put her in a home because we knew they’d take care of her better. it was a beautiful home with friendly people, and she had good company. i always thought she was happy there. Once in a while, my grandma would take me to see her. it was always so fun visiting her because i had such a great time with all the elderly people. I would see my grandma, and help the nurses take care of all the other old people i became friends with. But, being so young, i didn’t always know better. My grandma would ask me if i wanted to go to the home, and most of the time i would say, “no, i don’t feel like it.” she would always tell me, “one day your great grandmothers going to pass away, and you’ll regret saying no so much.” Well, she was absolutely right. I was visiting a friend about a month later, when my mom called and told me she had died. I’ll never forget that day… I regret not visiting her as much now. If only i could go back i would visit her MUCH more. i guess i had to learn the lesson the hard way, and now i try to spend as much time with my elderly family, and everyone else i know. because you never know when their time could come.

Carmel Joyce - 4/22/2007 On Saturday April21st 2007 I went into a variety store in Sisteron ,France to purchase an English paper and while in the line to pay I noticed an eldery man bent over trying to put his paper into his bag and his baguette kept falling out and all round him just looked on and did not help and he was holding up the line so nobody could move as it were. I did and helped him just by holding his baguette while he got the paper into the bag. He was very grateful indeed and another cashier came out to help at the counter and seeing what I did called me up ahead of some others so I got away sooner than expected .By helping and caring for this man I was rewarded on sight and the morel of this story is …..if we all help a little we all help alot.So pitch in without asking being asked when and where you can .A kind act never goes astray.

Ruth - 4/13/2007 About 2 months ago, my eighth grade english class began a project called “100 acts of kindness”. Basically all you had to do was 100 acts of deliberate kindness. When we first began, I kind of felt that I was in for a difficult few weeks, but as time went on, I found that being kind came more naturally to me, and I began looking forward to an opportunity to help someone out. One of my major acts of kindness was helping Matt. Matt is a homeless man who lives a few streets down from me with his little girl. I decided to go through my things and give them what I could. I filled three boxes with clothes, blankets, pillows, stuffed animals, canned goods, toiletries, etc. When I went to give these things to him, he was all alone. It turns out that his daughter was taken away from him because he was unable to provide a safe environment for her. Even so, he was touched by my gift to him, and since then, I’ve done the best I can to bring him a hot meal at least twice a week. It makes me feel good to know that I can actually help someone. I even sent my favorite teddy bear to the foster home the daughter was placed in from her dad. When I told him this, his eyes welled up with tears, and I knew he greatly appreciated it. I am glad I was able to make his life a little better, and I know now that a single person really can make a difference.

Oultrepreu - 4/2/2007 What wonderful child you are……I’m touched with you’re stories together with your mom.

Chrystal - 3/4/2007 A couple of weeks ago, my husband went into our local pharmacy to refill a prescription. While he was sitting and waiting for his meds, a small elderly woman came in. She went to the pharmacy counter and explained that someone had stolen her walking cane. My husband begins to overhear this conversation. Who would steal a cane from such a feable woman?? The pharmacist explains to the lady that medicare will not pay for her another cane for a couple of months. (She had just received the one that was stolen.) The woman begins to cry and my husband steps in and purchases her a new cane. He said he could not bear to see her cry, that it felt like the right thing to do. Needless to say the woman was very thankful!!

Andrea - 2/18/2007 My 4-h group and I realized that the local food pantries were going low , so me and my sister had a neighborhood food drive. That encouraged others kids in our 4-h group to do that aswell and now the local food drives are full ,and a lot of people have gotten the idea of doing neighborhood food drives and clothing drives through the neighborhoods and have been helping greatly

Kay - 1/9/2007 I am a full time caregiver to my mom with a full time job. My older sister comes to help me in the evening for 4 hours. My mom (Regina) has been bed bound for the last two years and didn’t not get out of the house alone for the last 10years. She once had beautiful gardens, once was lively. At 84 she still has those ideas, but now I have taken over it all for her. I bought a laptop computer, I made it so it is wireless. I go around the neighborhood and take pictures of what she no longer can go see. I take pictures everywhere I go, of people, places and things. I put these on my computer and set it on her lap. She is in a hospital bed in the living room where she can see out the window everyday. My pictures tell her stories, she sees through my eyes what is going on in the world. This has been a GREAT help at her remembering when she forgets. I just pull up the pictures and show her how things change. I wish I could be more of a help to other older people, can someone make my day longer than 24hrs.

Genna - 12/28/2006 My friend’s family is struggling with deseases and has no food. So what I am doing, is donatind food to them. They also are very poor. They don’t have a house. I am giving them tooth brushes, blankets, pillows, and Since I am a child, I can only afford to give them a large, strong, box to give shelter to them. They used to live at my house. Thanks to me, and my family we raised enough money to put a home over their heads. Still today they are living at that same house. I guess that’s just the kind of person I am. Don’t almost give.[GIVE]

Raphael Spiro - 10/4/2006 My grandfather has been bedridden in a nursing home for the last four years. When he originally got there, my brother and I found that there was little to do when the aids asked us to leave the room. So we began to bring books and magazines to the home. Some were to entertain us, but others were to keep my grandfather interested in the world outside his room. We came to the realization that many nursing homes had a shortage of books, so we started delivering books to local non profit nursing homes. After a while, our program grew and we included nursing homes, schools, shelters and members of the military. It’s afforded me the opportunity to meet many new people and to show my community that a student can make a significant impact on the world around him www.bedsidebooks.org “A room without books is like a body without a soul” - Cicero