Youth Volunteer of the Year
SPONSOR: Bank of Marin
2011 Awards Recipients:
- Kyra Deeth-Stehlin: Catholic Charities CYO's Canal Family Support Program (Kids Club)
- Dilsy Mendez: Education, Excellence & Equity (E3)
- Ernesto Garcia Jr.: Next Generation Scholars & Canal Welcome Center Ecobaby Project
- Rachel Blackman: Marin Humane Society & Sir Francis Drake High School
- Ivan Shaw: Next Generation Scholars & Spectrum, LGBT Center Youth Pride Coalition
Kyra Deeth-Stehlin
Kyra started volunteering with CYO’s Canal Family support program with the goal of sharing her passion of playing soccer with children in her community, especially those who lacked the resources to participate.
Kids Club provides after school and summer services at Pickleweed Park Community Center that support after-school, cultural, physical and social development of children in the Canal Community.
Kyra offered to coach a free soccer clinic for the girls in the summer program. Soccer has been an important part of her life, giving her confidence, teaching her teamwork and determination, and she wanted to provide that for girls.
She recruited her teammates to help with the clinic and focused on teaching the girls how to be part of a team, on developing a sense of camaraderie, and showing them that sports can be fun and rewarding.
Due to the close relationships she built during the summer she offered to come back to volunteer with the after-school program. She adapted her soccer clinic into weekly enrichment activities for the 3rd, 4th and 5th grade girls and she continued to prepare skill-building lessons and games.
As the year progressed she realized that the girls needed significant help with their homework and began to tutor them one on one, as well as in small groups.
Always pushing herself to do more, Kyra is now organizing a team of girls for the San Rafael spring league. She volunteered to coach the team and to fundraise to collect registration fees. This will be the first opportunity that many of the girls have had to participate and be part of an organized sports team. Kyra would like to mentor those interested in continuing the sport in middle and high school.
Through a website she created, Kyra collects uniforms and equipment and partners with organizations around the world to distribute them.
Kyra will be missed when she leaves for college, but she has taken the initiative, mentored new volunteers and modeled for them, the importance of taking their role seriously so that others fill her shoes.
Dilsy Mendez
Dilsy has logged on average 15 hours per week year round. She applied for and received a mini grant from Friday Night Lights to design and teach a weeklong health and cooking class as part of the E3 bi-lingual summer program. The class taught 7th and 8th graders about healthy food that they could cook themselves as an alternative to drugs and alcohol.
Dilsy is also a regular volunteer with Youth Voices spoken word presentations.
In addition to her work with youth, Disly has played a role in many “community walks” led by local youth for teachers to walk the communities that their student’s live in.
Often coming before events to set up, staying after to clean up and driving students home, Dilsy shows her passion for helping at-risk youth overcome institutional and social barriers on their way towards achieving success.
She shares with youth, “I didn’t only come from where you come from, but I also perpetuated many of the negative stereotypes that people have of being a young Latina immigrant”.
One of the ways she impacts youth participants is through her frank discussions of youth issues through Spoken Word. Here is one of her pieces that highlights her life:
If you think you have problems,
What about the child that gets beaten at home
If you think you have problems
What about the girl that is sexually assaulted
If you think you have problems
What about the children that get their parents taken away
What about the kid that gets in trouble just to be seen
What about the kid who is scared because of the being dark
What about the kid that is scared because he is over weight
We all have problems
And we’re all scared
We all have problems
Life is hard, but believe that you can overcome, because I believe in you, why? Because I believe in you…why… because I believe in you and, you should believe in yourself.
Ernesto Garcia Jr
Over the past three years, Ernesto has been building his EcoBaby Project. Based on a simple idea: recycle the baby items from communities of privilege into communities in struggle.
Every other month Ernesto coordinates several mini vans, picks up goods, does hundreds of loads of laundry, communicates in two different languages with organizations and families, negotiates with multiple nonprofits, sizes and sorts mounds of clothes, organizes volunteers, sets up and takes down the mini-store and coordinates fundraisers for supplies.
With each event, lines form outside the Canal Welcome Center and he makes sure everyone is served. Staff communicates in Spanish and Vietnamese so he is able to serve a wide diversity of people in their native language.
By stretching the idea of recycling beyond paper and plastic, Ernesto has been able to push being ‘green’ into alleviating poverty. This action goes beyond charity; it is an act of social justice.
Ernesto’s passion for poverty alleviation comes from experience.
Growing up in subsidized housing, the son of two hard working immigrants he watched how difficult it was to get needed things for his twin sisters.
EcoBaby is not a one-time event; it is an organization the community can depend on. Donors know their items are being recycled and families in need know to go to the mini-store where they will be welcomed and treated with respect.
While EcoBaby has grown into a project with many volunteers serving hundreds of people, it is still Ernesto behind it all.
With all the work to ensure EcoBaby runs smoothly, schoolwork, track practice and his duties at home, he will remember when a new baby is on the way and find a baby bathtub for a family in need.
For Ernesto, EcoBaby is the beginning of a lifetime of service and an expression of how he transformed his own struggle and is able to make life easier, healthier, and happier for others.
Rachel Blackman
For the last six years Rachel has been a dedicated and active volunteer at the Humane Society taking on more and more responsibilities.
This year she created new programs and took on new challenges, such as:
In January 2011, Rachel’s Girl Scout Silver Award was approved and awarded. This was a project she worked on independently to create a special lesson and tour at the humane society. ‘The Rose Petal Tour’, now a permanent part of the Humane Society’s education programs allows Girl Scouts to learn about the work of the humane society, meet animals up close and hear a story about the founder of the Girl Scouts.
Last spring Rachel donated over 100 children’s books of her own and from neighbors. The books were sold with the proceeds benefitting programs.
Rachel donated cat supplies to the SHARE program which helps older adults and people with disabilities take care of their pets. Using some of her pet sitting income, finding sales and using online coupons, Rachel has been providing much needed supplies.
In May, Rachel helped prepare for the 200 children that attend summer camps and in June she was one of the teen camp assistants.
In November, she wrote to her principal and asked if the humane society’s SHARE program could bring animal assisted therapy dogs on campus during finals to help relieve stress.
Also in November Rachel submitted her ‘Jumping for Joy’ project to the Northern California Girls Scout Council. The project brings trained animal assisted therapy teams to do agility and therapy work with middle and high school students with autism giving them the opportunity to build confidence, improve motor and social skills.
She will be using her leadership skills to conduct trainings and delegate work to the team of mentors she has recruited to help her.
Rachel hopes to bring the idea to Massachusetts when she visits her cousin with autism this summer.
Rachel’s love for animals, compassion and desire to help brings an enthusiasm, creativity and leadership to all the work she does at the Humane Society.
Ivan Shaw
With the support of Spectrum, Youth Leadership Institute and the Gay-Straight Alliance of Marin high schools, Ivan founded Youth Pride Coalition to increase awareness of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning youth issues and to encourage positive change in our community by bringing youth together making their voices heard.
Starting January 2011, YPC met Saturday afternoons for 2-3 hours. After gauging the various group interests, two findings emerged:
1) There is a lack of engaging and dynamic support for LGBTQ youth in Marin; and 2) Contemporary discourse surrounding efforts to raise awareness about LGBTQ youth issues are linked to mournful events.
Ivan resolved to create a float in the San Francisco Pride Parade. He secured funding for entry and supplies, organized volunteers, created a marketing campaign utilizing social media, designed a website, coordinated with the Gay-Straight Alliances at Marin high schools and conducted research on the LGBTQ climate at high schools.
On June 26, they were cheered by 1.2 million supporters.
The float flashed statistics of every high school in Marin, giving every youth ‘out’ or otherwise, representation. For example:
“Terra Linda High School, total population 1,010; estimated LGBTQ populations 91; number of LGBTQ youth on float 2.”
On the float, Marin’s brave “out” youth celebrated their victory as their friends and allies marched alongside them in solidarity. “It was completely new to us, says Ivan, ”we’re usually on the other side of the fence”.
When Ivan first came out, he was the only openly gay student at his school. He dedicated himself to finding out why the school climate in his liberal community was so stifling for youth identified as LGBTQ.
At this year’s Gay-Straight Alliance Leadership Summit, Ivan presented data from the Youth School Climate Survey he conducted with his peers to gauge the acceptance climate in Marin high schools. There he collaborated with youth leaders to broaden the scope of research to include bullying in schools.
Ivan’s passion is undeniable! Ivan and the Youth Pride Coalition continue to support and develop the brave new voices that will speak for generations to come.
Up to five Youth Volunteer of the Year Awards of $1,000 each will be presented to full-time middle or high school students serving a Marin nonprofit in the community, education or faith environment.
Download 2011 Heart of Marin Brochure and Form
1. Please provide the school and grade of the nominee.
2. Using examples from the past 12 months illustrate how the nominee has made a significant, positive impact on the organization.
3. During the past 12 months describe how the nominee has demonstrated dedication and commitment to the organization, its constituents, and/or the community.
4. Briefly state the organization’s mission, services offered, how long the nominee has volunteered for the organization and type of volunteer service the nominee has provided.
