Many volunteers give of their time and energy to Carver kids each year. These tutors, mentors, homework helpers, career counselors, and other skill-specific project leaders offer their support, feedback and student praise. The Carver Community Center utilizes volunteers for community events such as Career Fairs, talent contests, student and family awards ceremonies, holiday celebrations, and food drives. Corporate teams produce daylong events for our youth and generously undertake extensive renovation and cleanup projects.

Our student volunteers are especially helpful to our CASPER (K-5) kids at the Carver Community Center. Today there were four high school students: Nadia Torees, Emily Becerril and Sebastian Samperez, each 10th graders from Norwalk High School, and Samantha Cioffi, a 12th grader from Holy Child School in Rye, NY.

These volunteers are paid in six figures: S-M-I-L-E-S. They both give light and reflect the light of Carver students back to them. High school students do not have a lot of free time and their presence at Carver shows just how much heart they do have. In words of a bright and courageous high school student in history, Anne Frank, “How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” And in the words of Dr. Seuss, “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”

To all Carver volunteers, Thank You for your conviction, for leaving behind all that is familiar and comfortable to serve others. Thank you for your compassion and your awareness, for seeing the need and responding. Thank you for sharing your skills and knowledge to help improve lives and build the capacity of our Carver students. Thank you also for knowing that the experiences you will live and the youth you will encounter at Carver will teach you more than you could ever imagine. And thank you for your kindness, care and love and for being the inspiration Carver and the world need.