Community Impact Awards

The Children’s Services Council of St. Lucie County, in coordination with the St. Lucie Chamber of Commerce, presents the Community Impact Award each month to an outstanding individual working with children and families in St. Lucie County. The Children’s Services Council is committed to recognizing the good work being done in our community by those who dedicate their lives to helping others. The most recent award winners are listed below.

You can also watch interviews with our winners on All In, (shows linked below) a partnership between Children’s Services Council of St. Lucie County and the St. Lucie County Chamber of Commerce to highlight individuals in our community who are "All In". On each episode, hosts Terissa Aronson and Sean Boyle will recognize a Community Impact Award winner as well as introduce local non-profits with opportunities for residents to get involved.

Jessica Bright

Inner Truth Project

Jessica is an amazing peer advocate and certified nursing assistant with exceptional administrative and communication abilities. Working as the Outreach Coordinator for the Inner Truth Project, Jessica has helped that relatively new organization expand throughout our community while bringing knowledge about sexual abuse to our residents. Jessica has volunteered for many local organizations in the community, assisting the homeless and working with substance abuse clients. She was born and raised in Parkland, FL and is the mother to an incredible little girl.

Kathy Derringer

Helping People Succeed

Kathy Derringer absolutely represents the heart and soul of Helping People Succeed. Working at the agency for 35 years, she has touched nearly every part of the work being done in our community and those surrounding us. As the Vice President of Successful Families at Helping People Succeed, Kathy oversees programs including Baby Steps, Healthy Families, Music & Movement Classes, Infant Massage, Early Intervention and the popular BRAIN program (Building Readiness Among Infants Now!). These programs serve children between birth and five years old in Okeechobee, Martin and St. Lucie counties.

Kathy works tirelessly in our community to ensure that families with the youngest residents are equipped with everything they need to ensure a successful start for their babies young lives. To learn more about the programs that HPS provides in our community, visit them online at www.hpsfl.org.

Oralea Marquardt, MSW

Treasure Coast Hospice

Oralea Marquardt is a Grief Counselor at Treasure Coast Hospice in their Youth Grief Program. She lover her work with grieving children and their families and always strives to do the best for each person that she works with. She has presented to Universities and the Florida Hospice and Palliative Care organizations on supporting grieving children as well as working with parents who have lost children.

She is a creative therapist who works hard to connect with children, even creating grief specific games and art modalities to work with kids. She is a shining example of someone who takes difficult situations and turns them in to something meaningful. Learn more about Treasure Coast Hospice's programs and their Camp Good Grief here on their website.

Kaitlyn Spera

Boys & Girls Clubs of St. Lucie County

When COVID hit, Kaitlyn Spera jumped into action. Kaitlyn is the Club Director at the Garden Terrace Center for the Boys & Girls Club and when her kids could no longer come to the club, she and BGC found a way to bring the club to them by way of virtual workouts, mental health check-ins and reading groups. Kaitlyn also helped organize a tea party with Love Shack Fancy for girls in her club. The tea party focused on more than just fun, though. In her role as the Social and Emotional Learning and Trauma Informed Liaison with BGC, she found a way to incorporate those lessons into the tea party as well. Kaitlyn enjoys working with children to help them overcome behavioral barriers and reach their full potential.

Darcy McFolley

IGNITE Youth Alliance

In 2015, Darcy McFolley was the first street outreach worker hired through Restoring the Village Youth Initiative (now IGNITE Youth Alliance). He quickly stood out as a leader among his peers and was soon promoted to lead outreach worker, and finally to Supervisor for the whole street outreach team. With solid street credibility and innovative ideas, Darcy has had a huge impact on the street outreach component of IGNITE. He is a positive adult and advocate for hundreds of youth in the community, as well as a mentor to the rest of the outreach workers at IGNITE. In addition to his job at IGNITE he also works full-time as a behavior technician at a drug rehab facility and is active in his church, (often seen in the streets of Fort Pierce, delivering meals to the homeless.) Darcy is married and has three children.

Jessica Drew - Annual Community Impact Award Winner

PACE Center for Girls

Jessica Drew is a hidden gem at PACE Treasure Coast. She is a passionate advocate for the girls that she serve on a daily basis. Every year she prepares them for an annual poetry event, encouraging them to use the traumatic situations they have gone through as their testimony.

Jessica once picked up a student every day because she lived within a 2 mile radius of the school and she could not get a bus assigned by the district. Jessica wanted to ensure that the girl attended school daily because she was close to graduation, so she added this student to her "Magic School Bus" route.

Jessica ensures that the girls remain connected to the community keeping them involved in the Youth Leadership and the Mentorship Program. She advocates tirelessly for the girls in the program ensuring that all of their academic and social/emotional goals are met. There isn't a battle or a neighborhood tough enough to keep Jessica Drew out of, when it comes to serving our girls.