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October 31, 2009

Anonymous The Kokomo Tribune Sat Oct 31, 2009, 09:29 PM EDT

Even when she isn’t feeling the best due to her own problems, 12-year-old Kori Brown keeps planning, raising funds and working for others, especially those stricken with cancer.

The Maconaquah sixth-grader’s dedication to and zeal for raising funds for the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life in spite of her own congenital blood disease led producers of the ABC television show “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” to choose her family as the recipients of a brand-new home that was unveiled Tuesday.

Numerous businesses and hundreds, if not thousands, of people volunteered to help tear down the old house and build a new one for the Cowan-Brown family. Volunteers worked throughout the day and night to make sure the house was completed on time. So many volunteers turned out at times that there were too many to work on the home site. Many were sent to work for organizations in Kokomo that needed help.

But now that the lights and cameras are gone and the show’s producers are sorting through hundreds of hours of videotape to create the January show, the need for volunteers in the Cass, Miami, Howard, Tipton and Carroll county areas remains.

Plenty of area organizations who support individual and community needs, hospitals and nursing homes, schools and museums, youth sports and Scout groups all are in need of volunteers to give a boost to their activities. The directors of all those groups will tell you the volunteers are at the heart of their services.

Let’s take the effort that began two weeks ago and turn it into an everyday occurrence. Take time out of your life and volunteer. It doesn’t have to be working on a home, although groups such as Habitat for Humanity would certainly appreciate the help.

Take time to coach young people in sports or take them camping. Spend a few minutes each week helping someone learn to read or to help a child with homework.

Volunteer to spend time with an elderly person confined to a home or a health-care facility. It brightens people’s days, and it will make you feel better about yourself.

Don’t let the spirit of volunteerism die now that the TV crew has come and gone because one thing is certain: Kori won’t quit just because someone has recognized her efforts.

That young woman is probably already looking for a new way to raise money for Relay for Life.

– Pharos-Tribune, Logansport, and Kokomo Tribune

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