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"Ilene has been a huge help to both myself and all
the other kids. She's very enthusiastic about
putting in an extra effort to help us all out, and
she even brings us Blowpops and other lollipops!",
one of our kids observes.
Ilene
moved to Colorado from South Florida 11 years ago
with her husband and two kids. She has always enjoyed
working with children and welcomed the opportunity
to help homeless and at risk youth, when she joined
Stand Up For Kids in March 2001. She is certainly
an enthusiastic volunteer with Stand Up! Ilene is
involved in many different areas of the program, including
outreach coordination, outreach counseling, training,
public speaking, and more.
One
volunteer said of Ilene, "You can always count
on Ilene to be calling some of the volunteers to go
out and bring extra warm clothing to the kids, whenever
the weather looks wet and cold, and we are always
willing to help her with this!"
When Ilene had hip surgery, she
couldn’t bear the thought of missing outreach. After
healing for a couple weeks, Ilene was back out on
the streets. One of the homeless adults said, “You
really do care about these kids, don’t you? You’re
out here on crutches!”
Ilene
has formed close mentoring relationship with several
of the homeless kids in Boulder. Some of the kids
even refer to her as “Mom” because of her caring attitude
and persistence in helping. “Ilene is really nice.
She’s always there when I need her, sometimes even
when not. She’s kind of like a mom. She really cares,”
one of our girls said.
“When
you touch a person with caring and kindness, you cradle
the soul of humanity,” Ilene says. She certainly
lives out her insightful quote. |
