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Volvo for life Awards

Since 2002, the annual Volvo for life Awards has sought out and honored more than 17,000 everyday heroes and contributed millions of dollars to their causes. Although the heroes come from every walk of life and represent the nation in all of its diversity, a common thread links everyone – winners, semi-finalists, finalists, and nominees – celebrated in the program. These heroes are ordinary people who do extraordinary things to make a positive difference in the lives of others. And Volvo’s grassroots program has helped these American hometown heroes continue their work to better their communities.

Of the many benefits of the program, Volvo’s charitable donations provide among the most dramatic examples of the positive impact Volvo for life Awards can have in the lives and causes of finalists and winners. This year’s heroes, for example, have used their award monies to help various causes, programs, and outreach efforts achieve ambitious goals. For example, sixteen-year-old Eli Kahn, this year’s winner in the Environment category, states: “I can’t thank Volvo enough for enabling me to make such a sizeable charitable donation to Johns Hopkins cancer research.” The Baltimore, Maryland child hero adds, “The work done by the Pediatric Oncology unit leads the way to help many children find better treatments available to them.”

Kendall Phills – a Charlotte, North Carolina finalist in the Safety category for her initiative, Be Safe-Drive Smart – plans to use her charitable donation to create a documentary about teenagers who have lost their lives due to speeding.

A finalist in the Quality of Life category, Rev. Faith Fowler runs programs that benefit the homeless, mentally ill, and mentally impaired populations in her inner-city neighborhood in Detroit, Michigan. She has earmarked her Volvo for life Award donation for a new homeless shelter for men with HIV/AIDS.

A winner in the Safety category for her work to help American women abroad escape abusive relationships, Paula Lucas donated her award monies to the Domestic Violence Crisis Line. Lucas says, “The Volvo for life Awards charitable donation ensures that the crisis line continues to provide services, helping American domestic violence and child abuse victims in 175 countries around the world.” She adds, “The donation helps the Domestic Violence Crises Line offer additional services. These include anti-domestic violence advocacy, intervention, case management, safety planning, information, referrals, danger to safety transportation back to the United States, payment of legal retainers, and transitional housing.”

Laura Moore, a resident of Lilburn Georgia, was selected as a Quality of Life finalist for her work with Dream House. This transitional foster home serves medically fragile children and recruits and trains foster parents to take care of them. Moore has given her charitable
donation to the Family for Keeps division of the foster home. With this substantial windfall, the division can now train more families to care for their medically fragile children at home, thus keeping families intact and their special-needs children out of institutional care.

A Van Nuys, California mother, and one of this year’s Environment finalists, Robina Suwol continues her work to establish policies that protect school children from harmful chemicals. Volvo’s charitable donation enabled her to give a sizeable cash gift to California Safe Schools, an organization committed to protecting children’s health and the environment.

Volvo also named Bonnie Swanson of Vero Beach as an Environment finalist for guiding nine- and ten-year-old students in the Indian River County School System to create, and raise money for, a permanent local nature reserve. With her charitable donation, Bonnie chose to fund the Pelican Island Audubon Society of Indian River County, a venerable and well-regarded environmental group.

For this year’s Grand Award Winner, the 5th Annual Volvo for life Awards chose Rose Mapendo, an African refugee and mother of ten from Peoria, Arizona, as America’s Greatest Hometown Hero. Following sixteen months of imprisonment and torture by Congolese soldiers in the wake of the Rwandan genocide, Mapendo and nine of her children ended up in a refugee camp in Cameroon. From there, Mapendo resettled in Arizona and became a U.S. citizen. Once safely established in the United States, she helped establish Mapendo International. The organization works with the U.S. Department of State and the United Nations to identify and assist Africans at risk of falling through the cracks of humanitarian aid efforts. Mapendo currently serves as the group’s spokesperson while working full-time at a local hospice and, as a single mother, raising her children, all of whom attend school and college.

Months after the gala awards event in New York City, Mapendo is still moved that Volvo’s grassroots program selected her as the Grand Award Winner out of so many amazing nominees and extraordinary category finalists and winners. Of the charitable donation, Mapendo states, “I can’t thank Volvo enough for the money they gave Mapendo International.” That she won a Volvo for life makes the honor one to savor: “Driving my kids around in a new Volvo XC90 is a treat I never thought I would see in my lifetime.”

As Reverend Fowler says of the program, “Since becoming a Volvo for life Awards winner, I have learned what an incredible difference being a part of the program can make in the lives of others.” Rose Mapendo fully agrees, and adds, “I urge everyone to nominate their heroes and give them the opportunity to carry out their mission to help the community.”