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Community Impact Awards
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.
Kylee Fuhr
St. Lucie Public Schools
As the school district’s Homeless Student Liasion, Kylee works hard to ensure that the homeless students in our community have every available opportunity to access school and school resources. The work she does never goes unnoticed.
Cindy Bridges
The Lindsay School of the Arts
Cindy Bridges is a Florida native, and is a graduate of Nova Southeastern University. Her background and love for dance and the performing arts started at a very young age. Cindy has worked in human services and education for over six years and has devoted her life to helping children and their families. She is extremely passionate about the children and homeless community in St. Lucie County.
Mindi Fetterman
Inner Truth Project
Mindi Fetterman founded the Inner Truth Project with a goal to offer a safe place for sexual assault survivors to heal and grow.
Mindi works tirelessly to ensure that survivors who visit her center have every opportunity to heal in their own way. She is a true champion for survivors in our community and beyond.
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.