For Arlene, it began when she was a young girl and her mother, then a Mary Kay representative happened upon a person from Healing the children back in 1979. She was so touched with the story that she wrote to the founder and began to send money. Eventually, her heart strings were being pulled… so she asked her children for their support in being a part of Healing the Children. She started the Northeast chapter in 1980.

It was two years ago that Arlene also felt the pull. She accepted the position as the executive director and plans to continue this path until God gives her another direction, she says.

There are three core programs with Healing the Children: Local kids programs, an international/inbound program and a medical missions program. They also have relief programs overseas to bring medical supplies to other countries.

Families have many ways to help out. We can donate our time by contacting local chapters and helping out in the office or with families. We can also become a host family for any of the children who are coming from around the world. There is a thorough application process, a background check, references, and a home study to ensure the safety of the children coming. The average stay is 3-4 months in your home and your family is basically the family that the child does not have. (Normally, the parent does not accompany the child.) When I asked about language barriers, Arlene simply stated that as long as the child feels love and safe, they oftentimes leave the United States knowing English!

So, Moms and Dads… if this episode speaks to you and you feel so inclined in your heart of hearts to volunteer as a parent or a medical professional or even be a host family, please log onto www.healingthechildren.org and you’ll find all the information you need. All you have to do is to look into their eyes, Arlene said and you’ll know…

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Dara shares with us that through personal struggles with depression, fear, unworthiness and a few other things, she began to learn how to transform this energy into more beneficial ways. She started to research the nature of illness and how it unknowingly contributes to the states of our health.

For many years, she talked with hundreds of women of a wide background and they all needed a greater understanding of who they were and their purpose in life. Dara learned about dis-ease, women, the nature of energy and medicine. Deepening her commitment and understanding, she felt a calling in 1999. She created and facilitated workshops and seminars for women to strengthen their personal power.

In 2005, Soulful Moments was born. Dara realized that if we made it, every experience was indeed a soulful moment. Women are always stronger and greater than we even realize. To celebrate Soulful Moments, there will be a launch event on July 12th at the University of Central Florida’s Key West Ballroom in the Student Union. From 11 am to 4 pm, you will meet other incredible women and hear inspiring stories that you will be able to take home and start to implement in your own life.

So, please take the time this Saturday and value your own self and create a soulful moment for you…

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As a mother, Heather began to see and understand how family and community are both interrelated. She started to volunteer simply by making dinner for an elderly woman in her neighborhood and brought her young daughter with her. Now, years later, she still brings meals and her children have now grown up with this warm woman who is now a part of their lives.

Heather’s daughter made this incredible statement that summarizes it all, “I feel so big when I volunteer…” Indeed! You can read this sentence any way you wish, because whatevery age you are… you DO feel BIG! Big hearted, big spirited, big ALL OVER!!! I just love that what she said!!!

We know that it is hard to find places who will allow you to volunteer with your children, so Heather decided to make this wonderful resource for families. She has over 30,000 volunteer opportunities in over 40 states! All you have to do is log online to www.volunteerfamily.org and type in your zip code. She has cleverly arranged her site to your family’s interests. She has sections according to parents and teachers, elderly, animal lovers, saving the earth/environment, and the list goes on. What I love best about Volunteer Family is that it covers just about everything! Out of all the sites that are out there, Volunteer Family is one of (if not THE) best website, resource for our families to take that step to incorporate volunteerism as a family.

I’ve volunteered with my family for the past three years and the children have learned SO MUCH!!! Heather shares with us how we can start at home. For example, your children and you can make cards at home for the ill children in the hospital or make a welcome mat for a family with Habitat for Humanity! Or you can go to a nursing home and have a sing-a-long! How about a grandfather and his grandson going to the cemetary and replacing the flags on the veterans’ grave sites?

Other stories are siblings making a blanket for families who suffered from Hurricane Katrina or sending candy to troops in Iraq. Or how about sending teddy bears to foster children or playing with the children at a homeless shelter?

Heather reitereates that when you discuss this with your children as a family, you will discover some really incredible ideas to help others in your community!

When I asked Heather how we can help her, all she wanted was for you to share your volunteer stories with her on her website. Also, you can donate to her organization which helps her help others in need. She is another example of a parent who had a desire to help others.Her passion has translated into a phenomenal resource for families all over the nation to use and to begin the dialogue with their children on how volunteerism makes a huge impact on others.

Volunteering as a family teaches your children about diversity, generosity, resourcefulness, and loving all humanity! Imagine what our world would be like when our children understand these basic concepts at an early age!!! Please log onto www.volunteerfamily.org and share this with everyone you know! I guarantee this is one thing your children never will forget and will thank you for doing this for them!

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I know this may be a biased interview, but I am only sharing the experience I had when I volunteer in her classroom. For 60 whole minutes, Sheryane’s energy scale did not dip once!!! She engaged the children, encouraged their spirits, challenged their thinking, and incorporated humor in her lessons that morning… Imagine how wonderful the children feel after an entire school day of that! Once I saw that, I just HAD to have her on this show to share with all of you how teachers do make a DAILY difference in our children’s lives!

Sherayne Flowers has been an elementary school teacher for over 7 years and knew within the first nine weeks of college in Boston that she was meant to teach. It was also there that she experienced prejudice for the first time. She knew then that it was her mission” to teach the beauty of each individual.” She also talks to us about the first time in Boston that a family felt “uncomfortable” with her due to her ethnicity. But, rather than be defensive or upset, Sherayne used it as an excellent opportunity to share her love for the children and being an educator with this family. By the end of the year, the family learned that being of a different culture/ethnic background does not matter. It still amazes me that with all that we have accomplished in today’s society this still exists?!

She continues to share with us her “Ms. Flower-isms” such as the certain cheers and phrases her students use to praise their own efforts while learning. She is a hands on teacher who encourages the children to also express their own individuality and uses it to learn. Her “fun-loving style” shows her students that learning is FUN! Even when the subjects are boring, she puts a unique twist on it. She truly celebrates each child’s successes and gently encourages if success is not achieved in the first try.

Sherayne discusses how she greets and says good-bye to her students with a huge hug and why that is such an important gesture in her classroom. Eloquently, she ends our conversation with saying that the student-teacher relationship is really a student-family relationship where it is “a team effort just like a sport. (We have to) communicate with each other….” How true is that! We sometimes forget that it IS a team effort…

This show shares with you only one extraordinary teacher in the sea of millions of extraordinary teachers. I hope that after listening, you may want to incorporate some of her “Ms. Flower-isms” with your own children to celebrate how wonderful they are! I have and the children love it!

If you have any other teachers you’d like to share with us, please let me know! I’d be honored to share his/her story! Email me at sboyette@parentseverywhere.com or comment on this week’s blog. Teachers chose to become the change agents in education and we need to give kudos to those who continue to make a difference in the hearts of our children…Thanks so much!

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The book, Where the Blind Horse Sings has one story after another about amazing animals such as Rambo! We meet all sorts of characters in the sanctuary and learn to love them as much as Kathy does. The pictures also help us see who these creatures really are.

The Catskill Animal Sanctuary is open April through October on the weekends. When I asked her what we could do for the animals, she simply said that there are many ways for us to help. For those in the New York area, volunteers are always welcome. (Even us who are far away. We can come up and volunteer as a family! How cool would that be?! That’s one trip I would love to take my own family on…) We also have the opportunity to adopt animals, sponsor animals where we can pay online for the animal’s care on a monthly basis, or donate money so they can purchase food, bales of hay ( they need over 800 bales of hay /week), cotton ropes, halters, you name it, they need and would welcome it!

Please purchase the book and learn about all the wonderful animals they have there! If you ever wondered what your pet was thinking, this book may give you a little insight on how our pets really do have feelings, thoughts, and do love us as much as we love them.

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Kathy Stevens was a teacher in Boston for over 11 years before she decided to combine her two passions of education and her love for animals. After much preparation and planning, she opened the Catskill Animal Sanctuary in Saugerities, New York in 2001. Since then, she and her fabulous Sanctuary family have saved over 1,200 animals who have been injured. They nurture them back to health and watch the gradual healing of both their physical and psychological ailments. These animals come to Kathy Stevens with broken spirits. It takes time to heal, just like with humans. Some may be violent or some may cower in fear due to the injury the animals have endured. However, with love and patience, time truly heals all wounds…

In her book, Where the Blind Horse Sings, Kathy so eloquently tells us the story of her beloved animals at the Catskill Animal Sanctuary. I was particularly interested and intrigued in her chapter about pigs! Lesson #3 was that Pigs Cry. I was thinking, “Pigs cry? You’ve GOT to be kidding. What is she talking about?!?” So, Kathy relates to us the human side of pigs and how they cry, especially this tale with Petunia the pig whose feelings were hurt by a goat at the farm. She honestly sounded like a child crying. It turns out that it was Petunia “crying”. Kathy reports to us that pigs have the intelligence of a 4-5 year old child and the will of one as well. I was totally amazed at how pigs had feelings!!!

There are plenty of animals on her farm and the book very humorously tells us all about each one. She shares their unique personalities and their stories that touch our hearts. However, we ended our show this week just before she was able to share with us the story of Rambo, the sheep and the turkeys. So, all animal lovers out there, stay tuned next week to find out what in the heck a sheep named Rambo would want with a bunch of unruly turkeys… I loved this book! She will also share with us how we can (even here in Central Florida) can help the Catskill Animal Sanctuary, what they need, how we can donate our time or our money, and all the things we can do to aid in the care for these beautiful creatures. Thanks for listening!

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She discusses with us how in the early days of the Beta Center, volunteers did just about everything… from cleaning to directly helping with the young girls. But, of course, as the Beta Center grew, the volunteers were also needed in other areas of the Beta Center.

Now, volunteers can help out in the pantry, in the nursery, with the young toddlers in the room, or with community service activities. They still are able to administer pregnancy tests, but the close interaction with the young residents are now shared hugely by the master’s prepared professionals who can assist the young girls with any special problems. This is not to say that Mary does not help with the girls, but she also does a million other things too!

She also mentions a great nurse, Noreen Lantry who teaches the girls at the Beta Center how to take care of not only themselves, but also their growing babies. Noreen started out as a volunteer as well and now works there full time making a difference every day for over 20 years!

She encourages us to take the time to volunteer with such a worthwhile organization! Whatever you would like to do or are interested in, the Beta Center has that for you. All you need to do is ask and guaranteed, you will be hooked for life or at least 30 years like Mary was! See, when you volunteer you just find that you are there to stay. The girls of the Beta Center need you!!!

I also talk briefly about their Annual Hearts & Dreams breakfast that shares with the community about the Beta Center and how you can help. It is such a special event that always causes me to count the blessings of each person who make the Beta Center so successful for our youth that so need the Beta Center.

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Hope shares with us that the Beta Center is over 32 years old and serves three counties: Orange, Seminole, and Oseceola counties here in Florida. They teach teenagers how to communicate better with their children. The Beta Center is the only place in Central Florida where they have minors who have minors staying at their residence. She furthers explains that there is a school ( 6th grade to 12th grade), a childcare center, counseling, and residences for the girls to stay.

The staff at Beta- teachers, counselors, nurses, volunteers all support the girls and the overall Beta Center mission. Girls arrive lost and desperate. After Beta, the girls leave confident, self-sufficient, and loving mothers of our community. They know that they can count on the continued support of the Beta Center.

As a community, Hope tells us that we can all help the Beta Center by volunteering, donating to the emergency pantry (clothing, diapers, formula, gift cards to Target or grocery stores), and of course, through financial donations. (I donate my children’s clothing and gently used baby items there all the time. )The Beta Center is a community based funded program. They have two big events each year, Diamonds and Denim Gala & the Hearts and Dreams Breakfast. I’ve attended both for a couple of years and they are both phenomenal and heartwarming.

This is the first of a two part show for the Beta Center. I wanted you all to hear about the Beta Center from their wonderful CEO, Hope Kramer. I really love the Beta Center and support everything that they do for these wonderful girls of our community. I encourage you to come visit the Beta Center and take a tour. I guarantee you that when you leave, you’re going to have to find your heart somewhere in those rooms with the girls. Your heart is going to lead you right back… to volunteer at the Beta Center!

Next week, listen to hear from a Beta Center volunteer. I will also share with you my experience at the Hearts and Dreams Breakfast 2008. Thanks so much!

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I do have to say that one the first thing I noticed about Debbie was her genuine beautiful smile and how easily it was to just talk with her. It was as if we had known each other for a long time! She shares with us why they created Chix Making the Difference (CMD) back in October 2006 with only 8 members. Then, within a year, they had 40 members and are continuing to add more each week. Debbie emphasizes during our discussion that this is NOT a networking group or a support group, but rather a group just for women who need an outlet. We all know that women are not great organizers of “take-time-for-me” time, so Debbie and Terlisa decided to take the stress off and all women have to do is show up! (How awesome is that?!?)

In their once -a- month- 3- hour- long Saturday evening meetings/get togethers, they only share positive energy. (Imagine 3 hours of pure fun and laughter!) Any negativity is literally left at the door. I did have the wonderful pleasure of attending one meeting just this past month and everything she said was TOTALLY TRUE!!! I had so much fun and left with only peace and rejuvenated energy. I laughed so much and got to learn how to belly dance that evening. 30 women of all shapes and sizes were belly dancing and ENJOYING it! No judgements, no worries, just enjoying the moment! You will love them.

Chix Making the Difference is actively involved in Shepherd’s Promise and Compassionate Hands and Hearts Breast Cancer Outreach and has had some significant experiences with both organizations. This organization not only makes a difference in the lives of one another, but also in the lives of the women they touch in these organizations.

We can get involved simply by logging onto their website, www.chixmakingthedifference.com and choose which night you want to come join them. Also, you can join them in the various community activities they are involved in.

Trust me. This is one group of “Chix” that you can be yourself and celebrate what it means to be a woman! Enjoy! I totally love them!

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Our first show is really an introduction to what this show is really about. I wanted to share with you a little bit about how I found time to volunteer and give back to my community. At first, the thought was a bit daunting with having three young children, but you know that saying, “When there’s a will, there’s a way?” So, I did. I started with Meals on Wheels and eventually added other things.

I want you to learn about the amazing people right next door; the wonderful organizations; the fantastic events or fundraisers; the little things as well as the big things people do… all done in geniune love for helping others who need it the most. Some of us do it because we do want to change the world… in some way.

I want you and your family to realize that it doesn’t matter if you only have one hour a month or several hours a week. Whatever you can give is all that anyone can ask for. Your gift is your time and energy. And when we do this as a family,what a gift we give to ourselves! We become more connected to each other. What valuable life lessons we teach our children!

So, I encourage you to share with me. Tell me who you know that makes a difference and I’ll have them or you on the show. This is the time to shout out to the world what you are doing to make a difference. If enough of us do, we will make the change. We must be the change we wish to see in the world.

Email me @ sboyette@parentseverywhere.com or call 877.980.2828. Find out who’s making the world a better place and how YOU can too!

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