Volunteers are the heart and soul of the Y. Essential in fulfilling our promise to strengthen community, Volunteers help us innovate to provide relevant responses to the communities’ ever changing needs. They strengthen our leadership by serving on our boards. They build our capacity to serve by leading our annual and capital campaigns. They transform lives by serving as leaders in YMCA Project Cornerstone programs in the community.
Each year our YMCAs recognize a select few for their outstanding contributions of time and talent to improve the lives of our youth, adults, families.
YMCA Project Cornerstone is honored to recognize the following volunteers for their dedication and service towards building a healthier community where all youth can grow, learn and thrive!
2022 Youth Changemaker Award - Franky Chardos
Leaders inspire. Leaders guide. Leaders make things possible. Franky is one such leader, and at a young age. He shone as the face of the Asset Building Champion (ABC) activity videos. Sharing his personal experiences, he talked with elementary students in his own energetic, fun, and meaningful style. At a time when students were particularly isolated in online learning, his willingness to talk about real-life issues in the classroom helped them to do the same. Franky was also the co-emcee at the virtual Asset Champions Celebration. He amplified the importance of seeing youth in a positive spotlight and brought an authentic new voice as an encouraging role model. His words of wisdom lead students to learn from their past experiences and to find their own path much like him. Franky has shown us all that leadership has no (age) limits.
2022 Distinguished Service Award - Kim Flammer
When the pandemic forced a swift shift from in person programs to digital for Project Cornerstone, volunteer Kim leapt to action. She dedicated her time to bringing three core programs online - the ABC, Preschool/TK, and Los Dichos programs - so that young people would have the learning support they needed at a difficult time. Kim led the project from the start, contacting publishers and authors to secure permissions for student lessons, creating critical documents to ensure a smooth transition. To improve the online learning experience, she convinced several authors to record special readings of their books. Kim has been a gift to so many young people who have benefited in the past two years by the dynamic Project Cornerstone lessons brought to them online.