American University student chooses nonprofit media as a major

(This post was originally written May 31, 2009)

The third installment in our series of youth volunteer stories is from Tasha Miley currently a student at American University and a member of Alpha Phi Omega the coed community service fraternity.

Typically people volunteer because they want to make a difference in the lives of others. There is nothing wrong with this mentality; in fact, that was the mindset I had when I started to volunteer. However, since volunteering with Pass It Along my outlook on service has transformed into something much more meaningful. I have realized the impact volunteering has made on my own life.

The programs and projects I have organized and participated in with Pass It Along have helped shape me as a leader and an individual. The experiences I had while volunteering with Pass It Along helped me discover my love for filmmaking and influenced my decision to become a film major in college. Pass It Along ignited within me the desire to be a voice for social change through documentary film and non-profit media. Pass It Along is not just an organization that provides youth with opportunities to serve, but instead it is an organization that provides individuals with the opportunities to mature, learn, and grow.

I have learned more valuable life lessons and leadership skills through volunteering with Pass It Along then I did all four years of high school. The lessons and skills that I acquired over these past few years have proved to be invaluable not just at home, but also at school and in the workforce. What I want people to realize is that Pass It Along is not just a typical nonprofit, it is so much more than that. Pass It Along is an organization that creates sustainable change not just in the community, but in its volunteers as well, change that will last a lifetime.

-Maria Miley

Jefferson High School AmeriCorps member discusses volunteering

(This post was originally written May 28, 2009)

For Brittany Jerkovich, a senior at Jefferson High School in Northwest NJ, serving her community is something she does as an individual trying to do her part to make a difference in this world.

Brittany began serving with Pass It Along as a freshman in high school and is now finishing up a year of serving 300 hours as a minimum time AmeriCorps member. Brittany decided to put into video format her idea of a perfect world as well as what volunteering and serving others has done for her.



-Maria Miley

Local Youth Speak Out On Service

(This post was originally written May 26, 2009)

As a typical nonprofit struggling in these harsh economic times, Pass It Along is striving to do many things with very little financial resources. We take great pride in one of our greatest non-financial resources, our teen volunteers. In this capacity we are rich beyond compare.

Over the next week I am going to share some thoughts written by some of our teen volunteers. Please enjoy them and even share your thoughts. Franklin D. Roosevelt once said, "We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future." At Pass It Along our mission, to awaken, validate and nourish the innate desire to give back by mobilizing youth as community partners, was inspired by this wisdom and we feel that these stories exemplify this.

Luke Huelsenbeck is currently a senior at Sparta High School in Northwest NJ. He has been a volunteer with Pass It Along since 5th grade, but more recently he as been serving with us as a minimum time AmeriCorps member. As a minimum time member, Luke is serving 300 hours in one year and will receive a $1000 scholarship upon his completion. Here is Luke's story in his own words:

I have helped build a playground. I have slept in a box to help raise homelessness awareness. I have mentored youth from both the inner city and our own county. I have seen the crippling misfortunes of others down on their luck. And I have seen the unyielding power that exists among a group of volunteers. Pass It Along has been the gateway to my love of volunteerism, whether it is cooking for a soup kitchen or raking an elderly woman's lawn, I feel I am able to connect with my community, other people, and myself.

I first started with Pass It Along at a young age, but did not quite comprehend the impact I was making. More recently, I joined Pass It Along as an AmeriCorps Member (the domestic version of the Peace Corps). I had no idea what I was getting into. From the first time I walked into the office I was greeted with at least four smiling people, immediately treating me like one of the family; I thought they were crazy. As time moved on I served on more projects; participating with Tilly's Kids, working with Interfaith Hospitality Network (IHN) to raise homelessness awareness in Sussex County, and doing anything I could to help out.

However, it was not until my first trip to Newark under a program called "Cooking with a Mission" that I realized I was a part of something special. It seemed like a routine thing: enter the mission, cook, serve, and clean up. But something happened that day that will stick with me forever. A little boy named Clarence came into the kitchen, and immediately made us all smile. It was amazing to see that through all of the hardships, the bad luck, and the uncertainty that filled his own and his parent's lives, we could all see the innocence of this child. I was quick to notice a change in my own thought: we were no longer the middle-class helping the poor, nor were we the well-off helping the needy; we were humans, helping humans, through the love and compassion that we all shared in our common struggle of life.

I cannot say I was suddenly enlightened, and suddenly my life's goal was drastically changed. I can't even say that I went home that day and gave up all my possessions because I was so moved. All I can say is that I learned how to appreciate the life that is within all of us as well as the connections established through volunteering that are able to traverse all races, cultures, and backgrounds. I realized why on my first day I had been greeted with so many smiles; it was my first connection in my career of volunteerism, a salute to a fellow humanitarian, and the welcome to a world that has changed countless lives, including my own, forever.

-Maria Miley

MLK Day of Service, Celebration and Reflection

(This post was originally written January 23, 2009)



"Everyone has the power for greatness, because greatness is determined by service."
~ Martin Luther King Jr.
Monday January 19, 2009 a bus full of students from around Sussex County left Sparta at 7:30am for PS 33, an elementary school in Jersey City. The forty or so youths gave up a day off from school to participate in a day of service and celebration in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. with Pass It Along.
The service project in the morning was spent painting murals at an underserved elementary school as part of a project arranged by Jersey Cares. From the service project the group headed over to Grace Episcopal Church in Newark to celebrate the life and dreams of Martin Luther King Jr. At the celebration the youths were also asked to reflect on the service they had participated in that morning. One teen in particular stated that she was excited to do the work because the students at the school would have a brighter place to spend their day.

-Christine McDermott

Pass It Along's Adopt a Grandparent program links Sussex and Morris county seniors and students

(This post was originally written December 4, 2008)

Pass It Along' s Adopt a Grandparent program at Knoll View assisted living facility in Sparta brings together local senior citizens with high school students from around Sussex and Morris counties.

For one hour every other Saturday, the youths play games, share photos and memories and simply talk with these elderly residents. Learning lessons from those of a different generation is something both old and young will hold with them for a very long time.

-Christine McDermott

Pass It Along volunteers join Make a Difference Day

(This post was originally written November 5, 2008)

Every year on Make a Difference Day, which this year fell on Saturday, October 25, people young and old join together for a day of service. Three million people volunteered nationwide, participating in diverse projects, from rehabilitating homes to planting trees.

Locally over 60 of our volunteers joined the Pass It Along staff to make a difference in the lives of senior citizens from Stanhope to Sussex.

At five private homes of senior citizens with limited sight, volunteers cleaned their yards and winterized their property. A senior citizen complex was the site of a massive cleanup and volunteers also visited with seniors as part of our Adopt a Grandparent program. In addition, volunteers painted rooms at our partner agency for women recovering from addiction and teen volunteers were part of a training to mentor young children. We are very proud of the volunteers who came out on a very rainy day to help people in need throughout our neighboring communities!

The volunteers who came out for Pass It Along varied in shape, size, and age; the youngest volunteer being a mere five years old. However, despite the variety in age and personalities the groups worked together to help make lives easier for dozens of county residents. At one home in Sparta a group participated in a massive yard clean-up, even taking down some larger trees. At the end of the day the project leader, Herb Butzke of Sparta, let the elderly man know that he left him one tree to keep the active man busy with work until the spring.

Although the recipients of Pass It Along' s Make a Difference Day were mostly elderly, and due to age could no longer complete tasks such as raking leaves and cleaning gutters, they did not hesitate to open up to the groups who volunteered their Saturday morning. Another group in Stockholm, led by Pass It Along Special Events Director Susan Loyas, spent their morning making sure her yard and gutters were ready for the winter. After a rough morning the homeowner, an elderly woman who lives on her own, invited the group in to see her handmade porcelain doll collection. The youth volunteers were so moved that this woman, although living alone and slightly disabled, had found her passion in life.

The rainy Saturday morning ended in many sunny moments all around. Every participant seemed to gain a warm experience, eager to participate in the next service event with Pass It Along.

-Christine McDermott

Sussex teens sleep in boxes to help understand the local homelessness crisis

(This post was originally written October 21, 2008)

In Sussex County alone there are 297 people living without a home this year. Even more shocking -- 187 of them are children with the average age of nine. Also frustrating is that among the three shelters in the county for families: Samaritan Inn, Interfaith Hospitality Network, and DASI, none of them can service single men.

Many of these families are just like you or me, but come across a streak of bad luck; an illness or job loss can put a comfortably living family out on the streets. With the bad economic times we are all suffering it is harder to job back from a job loss or keep your home after a serious illness. Foreclosures have tripled since the beginning of 2008 (The Record).

Recently, 106 Sussex County high school students came together to increase awareness of the local homelessness epidemic.

-Christine McDermott

Another Successful Year!

(This post was originally written October 10th, 2008)

The energy was high at Pass It Along's seventh annual Youth Conference Thursday, September 25th. Over 200 teens from 11 high schools around Sussex and Morris County gathered together, yet again, to celebrate service. The teens were really in tune with the message, 'Dare to Be Different.'
By the end of the day every one of our programs' sign-up sheet was full of names; students from every school were asking substantial questions like: "What else can I do?" and "How to start a chapter at a school which does not already have one?" All the organization's ongoing programs, including the Youth Council, were reenergized with youth fervor.

-Christine McDermott