Volunteering: Lessons From Outside The Classroom

Today’s high school seniors have learned some lessons that can’t be found in the classroom. Volunteers from around the Spokane Valley gave their time and aid to our community’s elderly, young and needy.

One helped a teenage mom. Another organized the region’s Girl Scout cookie sale. A third volunteered as a translator for Vietnamese refugees. Many worked on Christmas projects.

What follows is not a comprehensive listing. But it’s a wide-ranging sample of good works by Spokane Valley teens.

East Valley High School

Jenny Wilkinson, 17, has volunteered at the Spokane Food Bank, Koats for Kids and the Salvation Army. At the Valley Hospital and Medical Center, she has worked in the pediatrics unit, rocking babies or entertaining the older children with a favorite game.

Sarah Binder, 17, has volunteered three days a week at Group Health Riverfront, including observing surgery. At Alderwood Manor and St. Lukes Extended Care Center, she spent time with patients who don’t get many visitors.

Jose Sanchez, 18, has visited young patients at Shriners Hospital who couldn’t go home at Christmas, volunteered to pack Thanksgiving groceries at the Salvation Army, and helps with organization of the Royal Fireworks concert, through the sponsoring group Allegro.

Jacob Terpko, 18, sang carols with the youth group at his church, Spokane Valley Baptist, for seniors or people who were sick at Christmastime. He also regularly visited a housebound senior citizen.

Justin Kappen, 18, volunteered through Boy Scouts to help with cleanup along the Spokane River, and worked at the former Walk in the Wild. He also worked as a lifeguard at summer camp and participated in food drives at his school.

Dana Langford, 18, worked at Christmastime on a Tree of Sharing benefitting babies with fetal alcohol syndrome. She helped prepare a Christmas dinner for the needy, and through her church, Berean Bible Church, visited patients at convalescent homes, volunteered at the Union Gospel Mission and worked as a camp counselor and lifeguard.

Russ Freund, 18, visited kids at the Shriners Hospital at Christmas time and helped sell raffle tickets for the Inland Northwest Car Club Scholarship Fund.

Angela Overdorff, 18, volunteered in a Camp Fire program called Suicide Awareness is Life, talking with younger students about preventing suicide. She also worked on a Halloween party put on by Teens in Action and volunteered at Camp Dartlow.

Amber Sine, 17, served as a regional coordinator for the Girl Scout cookie sale. “The cookies all came to my house,” she said. Sine, a violin player, also organized a strings music camp and helped establish a fifth-grade orchestra at Skyview Elementary School. Through DECA, she worked on a Halloween carnival at U-City Mall.

Sara Hamilton, 18, has volunteered at Camp Easter Seal and in PACE, Peers Advisory Community Education. That is a Spokane Health District program that puts high school students in middle schools to encourage younger students to develop “refusal skills.” She also worked with Special Olympics.

Tam Ngyen, 17, has volunteered for two years with the Valley Hospital and Medical Center information desk and pharmacy. Also, through the Vietnamese Community Church of Spokane, she has volunteered as a translator for refugees.

“It makes me feel good to help the newcomers,” she said. “Someone helped me when we were new.”

Kristin Sederstrom, 19, volunteered for three years at Sacred Heart Medical Center’s kidney center.

West Valley High School

The following seniors were enrolled in a civics class taught by Marcy Groesbeck. Class assignments included a service project.

Calen Boutilier, 18, created a pamphlet geared toward getting 18-, 19- and 20-year-olds to vote. The pamphlet explained the difference between Democrats and Republicans and their views on issues affecting young people. “My project informed the new voter on politics so they were not going in blind,” he said.

Josie Naccarato, 18, volunteered three times a week at Centennial Middle School with eighth-graders during volleyball or running lines. “Eighth grade is a rough time. If you’re not good at the game or stand out, everyone makes fun of you. I tried to show it was OK to mess up.”

Duane Lutz, 18, and Lori Maier, 17, created on a video on homelessness. They also worked on a school-wide baby food drive. Along with Jolie Jensen, 18, all three worked to redecorate an office at the Vanessa Behan Crisis Nursery. They stripped wallpaper, repainted walls and put up a Winnie the Pooh border.

Jesse Cox, 18, volunteered at Sacred Heart Medical Center in the cryogenetics lab to learn more about genetic engineering. She got to “cut and paste” chromosomal images there and also did a survey of her civics class in which she learned that while most of the students are against genetic engineering, 89 percent admitted they know little about it.

Christina Eubanks, 18, worked one-on-one with a teenage mom, helping her gain her G.E.D., getting in contact with welfare and other resources. “We did parenting classes so she was properly equipped with parenting skills.

“I chose this project to help the children of parents who don’t have the knowledge or ability to properly raise a child. It opened both of our eyes to different ways of life.”

Angie Brown, 17, researched abortion. She wanted to educate her class, but mostly herself.

“I’m pregnant and I needed to learn about abortion to make a final decision that would affect my life forever,” she said. Brown visited different clinics, sat in on an abortion couseling group and wrote a letter to President Clinton. “I went into this project pro-choice and I came out of it as pro-life.”

Todd Miller, 17, volunteered through Church World Service to help the people of Cambodia. He made necklaces out of bells that had been fashioned from artillery shells. “This helped Cambodian families do something productive with the old artillary shells. They made something unique and special out of what was a horrible and devastating thing.”

Feather Wagner, 18, attended two Democratic caucus meetings. “In a small way I feel I helped change the future of this country,” she said. Amber Hilliard, 18, worked with a developmentally delayed child, his therapists and classmates in a preschool class.

Michael Marshino, 18, volunteered at the AIDS Memorial Quilt Exhibition. “It made me realize just how many people have died from AIDS. My goal was to further my education,” he said, “and then go go back to my class and present to them and hopefully make a difference.”

Richalle Chase, 18, worked at Anna Ogden Hall, helping the cooks organize the food rooms and clean out the refrigerator. “The staff was great and the residents were very helpful in helping me understand their reasons for being there.”

Central Valley High School

Jerry Martin, 18, volunteered through DECA for a dog and cat food drive for the Spokane Humane Society. The students also collected blankets and beds for dogs at the shelter. Martin and other students in DECA also adopted four families at Christmas, and organized a pop can tab drive to benefit Spokane’s Ronald McDonald House. The drive at Central Valley collected 97,000 tabs this spring. “We all seem pretty fortunate,” Martin said. “It’s good to give back to the community.”

Chris Trefry, 18, a member of Future Business Leaders of America, helped organize a child identification project for Sunrise Elementary School. The project involved fingerprinting, photographing and recording the height and weight of roughly 600 children. Trefry and others in the business leaders group also adopted a family at Christmas. “That’s just a fun thing to do,” he said. The holiday “is supposed to be about Jesus, but giving presents to little kids is pretty cool, too,” Trefry said.

Solanj Sing, 17 and the senior class president, did volunteer work through the school’s Community Outreach class. Sing remembers collecting money at a football game to benefit Ron and Jill Schliebe, the Spokane parents who lost their four sons in a house fire. “I liked how even the teenagers reached in their pockets for change,” she said.

Sing also worked on a Christmas Tree of Sharing and, this spring, on a phonathon to benefit the Vanessa Behan Crisis Nursery.

Kelly Ray, 18, volunteered both through Future Business Leaders of America and Community Outreach. She helped organize a March of Dimes drive at Central Valley that collected $1,218 in one week. Ray also volunteered for Child Abuse Prevention Day, and at neighboring elementary schools tutored and gave talks on friendship and self-esteem as a DARE role model.

Carson May, 18, a Community Outreach student, helped with a fun run to benefit SIDS prevention, helped with a senior citizens dance and volunteered to help provide a Christmas meal and presents for an adopted family.

Anna Bersagel, 18, volunteered through Community Outreach and a newly revived Key Club. She helped at Family Affair and with children’s activities for Child Abuse Prevention Day.

University High School

The following students were enrolled in a leadership class that involves 20 hours of community service per semester.

Josh Frey, 18, worked with Toys for Tots. “There are kids out there who don’t have as many opportunities as others. I saw the chance to serve them,” he said.

Derek Wetzel, 18, worked in May on a blood drive that set a new record at U-Hi, with 126 units of blood collected.

Ryan Massey, 18, volunteered with Toys for Tots.

Sarah Stark, 17, volunteered for a fund-raiser to benefit Big Brothers and Sisters and worked on Bowl for Kids.

Tracie Vlahovich, 18, helped with Koats for Kids. “Our whole school got so many coats, they had no place to put them all. It was so cool,” she said.

Shanna DeLong, 18, taught Sunday school for St. Mary’s Catholic Church and volunteered at Bloomsday.

Salina Lyons, 18, taught Sunday school and volunteered at summer camp for Berean Bible Church. “A lot of these kids don’t get to go anywhere. I just like it,” she said. She helped with a food drive in the fall and Adopt a Tot at Christmas time.

Susan Hough, 18, volunteered last fall at a haunted house for Special Olympics and the food drive. Also, Hough helped with the blood drive, Koats for Kids and Toys for Tots.

Shelbi Weidman, 17, helped at Toys for Tots and Bowl for Kids.

Jamie Hills, 17, volunteered at Thanksgiving through Tau Sigma to provide dinner for a needy family.

Anna Conant, 18, headed the Adopt a Tot program for U Hi.

Angela Ayers, 18, worked through leadership class on a Tree of Sharing. She remembers in particular one family that saves year-round to be able to buy gifts for the tree. “That really surprised me,” she said.

Kelly Beecher, 18, worked as a chaperone for Special Olympics, including a trip to Seattle. “It’s a good cause,” she said.

, DataTimes