The Heartbeats & Footprints of my Service Work

Service has played an important role in my life and my search for meaning. Being a part of service projects has changed and shaped how I see the world.

I am currently the Vice President on the advisory board of M-LISADA (Music, Life Skills, And Destitution Alleviation) an Organization for vulnerable (orphans, abandoned and abused children, street children, HIV+ children, and children that live in extreme poverty) children in Uganda. 

Many of my favorite and most meaningful experiences come from working with service-related projects. I have learned so much about all aspects of life and about myself by being part of the work that they do. The power of we has brought unparalleled meaning, purpose, and understanding into my life. I am honored to be able to play a supporting role and to do what I can to help serve others. Service projects are only able to work if there are people that are able to do all the different jobs that are needed for the projects to stay open and do the work that they do. I am blessed to be a bridge person for projects; a person that is able to connect the story of a project and the work that they do to a bigger world than they would otherwise have access to. I am also blessed to be the eyes, ears, and connection point for people that are interested in helping by supporting service-based projects in different parts of the world.

I am thankful to have played different roles in different service-based organizations in different countries. In addition to being Vice President of the M-LISADA advisory board and helping support Sathya Uddhyan children’s school and shelter in Nepal, I have volunteered at the Hope Project in New Delhi, India. I have helped run Seam The World, in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and have been on the board of Children For Change Cambodia, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. All of these places have been homes to me. Each of these special places have profoundly changed my life. Being part of them has taught me so much and given me more in return than I am able to give back to them.

I am also proud to come from a family that has a background in service: My grandmother Cushing Niles Dolbeare started the National Low-Income Housing Coalition in her garage. My great Aunt Alice Lynd and Uncle Staughton Lynd have been leading activists in many different fields for almost the entirety of their lives. Approaching 90 they are still working in prisons for prisoner’s rights. My great grandfather Henry Niles Dolbeare founded Business Leaders against The Vietnam War and was on Nixon’s enemy list. He also introduced someone from Gandhi’s non-violence movement to Martin Luther King. Legend has it that he also made a salad at Martin Luther King’s house and did a handstand for unknown reasons.