Five Youth Volunteer of the Year Awards of $1,000 each are presented to full-time middle or high school students serving a Marin nonprofit in the community, education, or faith environment.

First Youth Volunteer of the Year: Lyla Stanger, Children for Change.

Lyla, a sophomore at Marin School of the Arts, has been a part of Children for Change for four years.

Children for Change started by students in 2014, believes real, systemic and lasting change can occur in a generation, and sees young people as a key driver.

As the founder and leader of a club at her school, she guides members through curriculum about topics such as hunger and homelessness, diversity and inclusion and women’s rights. She creates opportunities to discover their passions, exercise their advocacy muscle and fundraise.

One such fundraiser was a dine and donate day. Lyla and team set up a booth in the restaurant to educate customers about the issues around homelessness and shared information on Downtown Streets Team raising $1,500.

She brought together the talent of her schoolmates at Marin School of the Arts for a talent show. The event was streamed and raised over $3,500 for homeless organizations.

Lyla interviewed the Mayor of Novato on gender inequality, organized a menstrual product drive at her school, organized an activity to write cards for retirement home residents, participated with Community Heroes to make superhero capes for children in hospitals, and organized a panel of women in male dominated careers to talk about their experiences. 

The second Youth Volunteer of the Year is Lizbeth Mendieta-Alvarado, Youth Leadership Institute and North Marin Community Services.

Lizbeth Mendieta is a junior at Novato High School and first joined Youth Leadership Institute in 8^th grade.

Lizbeth was a participant in the Student Advocacy Council, a group of students that work on improving their school and uplifting student voice.

She was one of the co-chairs of the youth commission, whose role it was to facilitate and lead the commission. The role comes with a lot of responsibility, but last year was especially challenging due to COVID.

Lizbeth led a commission of 22 other youth via Zoom, and kept engagement high. In addition to her role as chair, Lizbeth also served on the Racial Equity committee.

Lizbeth and her committee hosted county-wide racial affinity spaces for youth across the county to create safe places for BIPOC youth to share, reflect, and honor their experiences. The committee also hosted a workshop for Marin County teachers, to share tips and tools on creating safe spaces for BIPOC youth in the classroom.

On average, Lizbeth spends 10 hours a month engaged in some form of youth commission related meetings and activities.

In addition to YLI, Lizbeth has volunteered with the North Marin Community Services, Novato Teen Clinic. She is one of their most committed Peer Health Promoters supporting reproductive health, mental health and being a part of our community.

The third Youth Volunteer of the Year is Aidan Williams, Crescendo Connect.

Inspired from a sophomore English project begun during the pandemic, Aidan created and founded a nonprofit called Crescendo Connect.

Introduced by his English teacher Ms. Bruno, Aidan pitched his idea to investors at The Changemaker Global Pitch Presentation.

He organized efforts to collect, repair, and donate instruments. He created a website, raised money to pay for instrument repair, set up a virtual music class program that serves underserved youth, and recruited and trained over a dozen high school instructors to teach virtual classes.

After winning funding from the global youth entrepreneurship competition, he got to work.

Over the past year and a half, Aidan has collected instruments that were going unused or collecting dust. Using donations and seed money, Crescendo Connect has paid to repair these instruments and given them to nonprofits located in San Rafael. Over $10,000 in collected instruments have been donated.

Last summer in collaboration with Parent’s Project, Aidan rolled out a virtual music program that connects high school volunteer instructors with San Rafael youth looking to learn how to play piano. The volunteers, recruited by Aidan, come from Texas, Michigan, New York, and California.

Aidan’s virtual music program is projected to provide

over 500+ hours of musical instruction to underserved youth by the end of the academic year.

The fourth Youth Volunteer of the Year is Xochitl Komarmy, Redwood High School English Language Development Program

Xochitl is a senior at Redwood High School where she has been serving as a Peer Tutor in the English Language Development Program.

In her second year, Xochitl has volunteered one class period a day to help newcomer English Learners in the Classroom.

Xochitl serves as a conversation partner, reader, pronunciation coach, cheerleader for encouraging students to speak out loud, a role model, and an expert on school culture.

She is friendly to each student, eager to connect, and also respectful, and kind. She can relate to the newcomers, and they respond to her. Xochitl is part Hispanic, and she is learning Spanish as they learn English, a beautiful give-and-take.

As an example of one of her days, Xochitl helped with the class opening question with three students sitting near her to prepare their spoken response, she took notes for the class on the board commenting and encouraging when appropriate, and then worked for one-on-one with a student helping her compose a paragraph.

From August 2020 to April 2021, Xochitl’s service was over Zoom. She was never absent, and added much to the online ambiance helping to motivate students. This class had perfect attendance many days, in part because students came to chat with Xochitl.

The final Youth Volunteer of the Year is Luca Cuffe, Marin Search and Rescue. 

Luca, a senior at Tamalpais High School, joined the Marin County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue Unit in 2018 when he was a freshman. Luca has attended nearly every training and mission in the last 12 months and accrued nearly 700 hours of service, the most of any of the youth members, and more than most of the adult members.

Last year, Luca was elected Youth President, a position voted on by his peers, putting him in a leadership role helping to run the business of the team.

Lucca put together the summer team training, a difficult task due to a new venue in the Sierras and pandemic-related restrictions.

In 2021, Luca responded to 16 different missions in counties including Mendocino, Toulumne, Fresno and Marin. Luca was on the team that made finds on seven different missions. His attentiveness led him to the discovery of a footprint on a search in Mendocino, and following that track helped his team find the location of the missing person, who was unfortunately deceased. Luca and his team then helped the incident commanders facilitate recovery of the body.

Luca is a strong team member and participates in some of the most arduous backcountry missions. 

Sponsored by: Redwood Credit Union

This award, and $5,000 for the participating organization, is presented to an executive director who has demonstrated excellence in leadership and whose vision has inspired meaningful and lasting change benefiting the organization and community.

The 29th Annual Heart of Marin Award for Excellence in Leadership is presented to Omar Carrera, Canal Alliance.

Canal Alliance exists to break the cycle of poverty for Latino immigrants and their families by lifting barriers to their success.

Omar Carrera came to Canal Alliance as a client in 2003 and was hired as a technology instructor. He became the Executive Director in 2016.

His accomplishments include:

• Partnering with the County of Marin, San Rafael City Schools and the City of San Rafael to implement a WIFI network providing broadband for hundreds of Canal residents and students.
• Completed a feasibility study and research project to define a housing strategy to increase the availability of affordable housing.
• Partnered with Marin Clean Energy to implement no-cost energy upgrades at the Marin Villas Estates.
• Oversaw the addition of workforce programming, including a construction certificate program, and a Small Business Course to support Latino business owners.
• Dedicated staff to direct Marin’s 2020 Census work, resulting in a 5% increase in response rates.

Omar facilitated early COVID testing for 45 residents that resulted in a 33% positivity rate. Realizing that this was about to become a crisis, he trained Canal residents to help test their neighbors. Over 10 weeks, nurses from UCSF and trained residents provided 2,100 free tests.

After converting the food pantry distribution to follow health guidelines he set up home delivery for at-risk seniors serving 500 families each week.

$2.5 million was distributed as direct cash assistance to more than 4,000 households who lost jobs and wages.

To address challenges brought on by COVID the staff helped clients access financial and rental assistance, unemployment insurance and small business loans. Staff provided case management to connect people who tested positive to resources and hired 5 bilingual contact tracers.

All of these accomplishments require a bold and courageous leader that moves fast. Omar is all that plus he is a fierce advocate for the Latinx community, and for people of color and low income families.

He is strategic thinker and has done much to shift the narrative in Marin to appreciating the assets brought to the community from Latinx immigrants.

Sponsored by: Marin Community Foundation

This award, and $5,000 to the participating organization, is presented to an organization that has demonstrated exemplary service to their constituents.

The 29th Annual Heart of Marin Award for Achievement in Nonprofit Excellence is presented to North Marin Community Services.

As the anchor human services organization serving North Marin, this multi-service organization is called upon to address health disparities for children, adults, families, seniors and immigrants.  

Some of their accomplishments include:

• Preventing hunger for 5,079 people (1,464 households) including seniors on fixed incomes, children living in poverty, and single parents.
• Distributing 605,634 pounds of food a 106% increase over the previous year. 
• Providing rental assistance to 355 households of low-income seniors, children and adults.
• Distributing $455,000 in cash assistance to 910 individuals.

In addition, last year:          

• 21 community health advocates working directly with the Latinx and immigrant communities to connect them to available resources.
• Mental health clinicians provided Tele-mental health and face-to-face interventions to support 1,853 children, transitional age youth, adults and families.
• Teachers increased the development skills of 165 children through their on-site enrichment, childcare for essential workers, and a virtual learning developmental playgroup. 
• 315 volunteers contributed 9,710 hours. 
• Staff and board received diversity, equity and inclusion trainings.

North Marin Community Services has a strong future – their advocacy priorities include: Affordable housing and tenant protections; Universal childcare access; financial assistance and income tax credits to support economically vulnerable people. 

The Finance Department has built a strong system with a liquidity ratio that would sustain up to 18 months of operations; and no debt or mortgages on their two buildings. And, they are committed to retaining a diverse staff with competitive wages and benefits.

This award, and $5,000 to the participating organization, is presented to an individual who has made a positive and notable difference during their career by significantly contributing to address a cause, issue, or discipline. The recipient will have inspired others to high standards and raised awareness to address that particular cause. 

The 29th Annual Heart of Marin Award for Lifetime Achievement is presented to Robert Currier, Marin Shakespeare Company.

Robert Currier is the founding Artistic Director of the Marin Shakespeare Company, a position he has held for 33 years. 

Marin Shakespeare Company provides programs that engage our community.  They aim to spotlight injustice and the urgent need for change.

Onstage, in schools, in prisons and online, they bring people together to learn from our past and imagine our future, and spark cultural engagement, learning, and change through the arts.

Marin Shakespeare moves people to laughter and tears through the artistic performance of the wisdom, wit, and insight of Shakespeare. 

In 2003, Robert helped create Marin Shakespeare Company’s Shakespeare for Social Justice program, which started at San Quentin and has since served 14 California state prisons, offering opportunities for people who are incarcerated to use the power of theatre to change their lives. 

Participants have dropped out of gangs, pursued higher education and reunited with family members. The program includes the Returned Citizens Theatre Troupe, giving people who have survived incarceration the opportunity to tell their stories through theatre and engage in community dialogue about issues of importance.

In 2020, Robert spearheaded the renovation of the Forest Meadows Amphitheatre at Dominican University, upgrading the 50-year old venue.

Now under construction, Robert is the primary force behind the creation of a new Center for Performing Arts, Education and Social Justice on 4^th Street in San Rafael.

His contribution to Shakespeare for Social Justice has helped raise awareness about mass incarceration and the need for social change. Robert was the first in the US to work with actors who came out of a Shakespeare in Prison program, and has cast three different actors in productions.

In 2016, he directed Dameion Brown in the title role in “Othello,” just a year after Dameion was released after 23 years in prison. The production won “Best Entire Production in the Bay Area”, and Dameion was also nominated for “Best Principal Actor”. Following his performance, Robert hired Dameion as MSC’s Artist in Residence.

MSC’s work has been a powerful bridge, creating compassion and understanding between people who are or have been incarcerated and the general public.

Robert’s passion for Shakespeare and Theatre has inspired thousands of people to enjoy, appreciate and learn from the arts.

Sponsored by: Kaiser Permanente, San Rafael