Volunteers Give Back

Lucy Beckett has always been “a summer camp kid,” as she puts it. So it’s no surprise that when it came time for the longtime Girl Scout to apply for the prestigious Gold Award, Beckett was inspired by her love of summer camp.
The gold award is the highest honor a Girl Scout can receive for planning and implementing a “take action” project that provides a sustainable, lasting benefit to the girl’s larger community.

Alice Levine’s favorite projects are those that “get built and have a long public purpose.”
A city planner by training, the Poverty Ridge resident has put her schooling to good use during her 32 years in Sacramento by helping to save the Ella K. McClatchy Library when it was on the brink of closing—including refurbishing the upstairs to host art shows and other community gatherings—and to reopen the Southside Park public pool.

“Anything can be healed by music,” says Bill McAleavey, the Sacramento coordinator of Frets & Vets Six Strings Stronger, a guitar instruction program for veterans offered for free through the local VA. “It gives people a sense of purpose once they see what they can do.”
A veteran of the Navy himself, McAleavey is also an accomplished guitar player—he used to play in a rock ‘n’ roll band that performed at weddings and parties, although he admits they “never made any money at it.”