Service Learning

National Volunteer Week

By on April 11th, 2016

Meet WingoNational Volunteer Week is being celebrated from April 10-16th this year.

What a great time to reflect and to take action! Martin Luther King, Jr. said it best, “Everybody can be great. Because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve…You don’t have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”

Eleven years ago, our dog died, leaving a big impact on our family. My children were young and the whole family was devastated. Concurrently, I was the Principal of Winter Park High School. I had developed a close friendship with a parent who was a volunteer puppy raiser for Canine Companions for Independence. Continue reading


Service Learning

By on June 24th, 2015

Volunteer 2015“Volunteers are not paid—not because they are worthless, but because they are priceless.”

Do you volunteer or did you when you were young?

Do you remember who Candy Stripers were? They were hospital volunteers. Working as a Candy Striper was my first experience volunteering and it taught me real-world experiences that helped shape my future.

I volunteered each Sunday from 12 – 4 p.m. at Pembroke Pines Hospital in South Florida. There were many rules and the expectations for the teen volunteers were high, dauntingly so. We received intensive training that resembled that of a NASA Astronaut. Continue reading