The Littlest Volunteers
Written By Jeff Wagenheim
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Grand Prize
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Nathaniel and Madelyn Dohm, ages 4 and 3
Geneva, Illinois
Every other month, Nathaniel Dohm is at the grocery store with a mission. His mom already has a long list of food and household things to buy for the family they'll be visiting, but she needs her consultant and his little sister to pick out the right kinds of cereal and snacks, the kinds kids like (pudding, fruit leather). Then the Dohms — parents Amy and Stephen, Nathaniel, and Madelyn — pack the groceries into the trunk and head out.
For the past two years, the family's been visiting a woman we'll call Stella, who lives in nearby Aurora with her daughter and four grandchildren. Stella asked that her real name not be used because she has AIDS, and she's "not sure how people around here would react to that." The families were matched by the church organization Love in Action when the Dohms decided they wanted to do more than write checks for good causes.
When they learned they'd be visiting a woman with AIDS, "I was 99 percent okay with it, but I felt this tiny fear," Amy says. "When you're a mom and you're getting your kids involved ..." She knows you don't contract HIV just by being in somebody's home or by touching them, but still, there was this momentary pause — "all the time it takes for even well-intentioned people to pull away," she says. "Which is why people with AIDS are so isolated, so alone. We didn't want to add to that."
"The first time they came," Stella says, "I thought they would just drop off some bags of food and go about their business. But they came in, they sat, and we talked."
That is, the adults talked. Nathaniel and Madelyn heard a familiar theme song from upstairs, and soon they were sitting in front of the TV with Stella's grandchildren. Common ground holds sway with the kids more than differences, and the Dohms have become like family to Stella. "Madelyn comes in, pulls off her shoes, and is right at home," she says. "Nathaniel gives me a hug and runs upstairs to play. They act like they're my own children."
"The kids always put a smile on [Stella's] face, and I get the feeling she doesn't smile an awful lot," Amy says. "But it's not a one-way thing — my children love the attention and get an extremely valuable lesson."
"We wanted to start this when they're young," Stephen says. "This way, as they grow, it becomes part of their DNA. We want our kids to see that in our family we've always done this, and it's what we should always do."
Photo: Madelyn's on shopping-cart duty.
Next page: Grand Prize winner Gabriella Alvarez
