Spotlight on Volunteers: Claire Greenwood

As a junior at Pearl River High School with a full course load to contend with, Claire Greenwood displays an awareness about her world and motivation, born out of her compassion for others, to do something about it. 

This, coupled with her selfless attitude, has allowed her to, among numerous other activities, co-found Pearl River High School’s chapter of Charity Water with fellow junior Patrick Brosnan.

Born in Pearl River, she moved to Hong Kong for a few years and then back with her mother, father and older sister.  As a family, the Greenwoods have always been interested in the rest of the world, not only for traveling but also for doing their part to make it a better place for everyone.  It is because of this upbringing and the special kind of person that she is that she has made and plans to continue to make such a positive impact on our world.

When and why did you first get started volunteering?

Since I was a little kid, my parents always raised me with the notion that you have to give back to the world.  So that’s probably why, a lot of it comes from my parents and I just always feel that it’s the right thing to do.

When was your first volunteering experience?

I’ve always done stuff with my parents, but then on my own, two summers ago, I went to West Virginia and I renovated houses.  Then this past summer, I went to Nicaragua and I built a house with a group of kids, so that was awesome.

What was the organization that you and Patrick started?

Charity Water.  That’s the one that we mainly do together in school.  They build wells mainly in Africa for third world countries.  Each well costs $5,000 and it gives clean drinking water, so their whole campaign is that $20 can give someone water for 20 years.

What types of volunteer work are you guys currently involved with?

I make bagged lunches and stuff every other weekend and my family and I cook dinner in Nyack every now and then for people so that’s what we do within our own community and then I do trips during the summer and stuff.

What type of tasks or duties have you done as part of these organizations and what new things have you been exposed to?

Definitely working with kids a lot.  In Nicaragua, you have to work with the kids and they don’t really speak English, so you have to communicate then kind of through sign language and pointing and stuff.  Also, I learned a lot about construction that I didn’t know.  They don’t build houses the same way we do, they do classic, old school-style kind of swinging cinderblocks and you mix cement with dirt, so it’s hard labor that you learn and it’s what they have to do every day.

In what way has volunteering benefited you personally?

It just really teaches me to not take things for granted and I feel more educated in ways that I can sustain my world.  I’m definitely more conscious of things like unplugging my charger, not leaving lights on and not using as much water.  In the summer, I’ll even put a bucket in my shower and water plants with that, so it’s just little things to be really conscious of, because there are so many ways to be able to save our resources, because people don’t even have that as it is.

Could you say one thing, or maybe a couple things, about what you really like best about doing this type of work?

Knowing that someone’s going to have a better life because of you and that you’ve let someone have what you get everyday, for free.

How and why have you continued to find the motivation for volunteering with a busy schedule?

Just because it’s the right thing to do.  I’d so much rather spend my time helping people that need it instead of learning math equations that I’m never going to really need to use.  So, this to me, helping other people and doing things for the world is a lot more important than all the other stuff we learn about.

What do you plan to do after high school?

I want to go to college, but I also definitely want to go abroad for a while.  I kind of want to go to Africa and work with kids with aids, but I’m not really sure if I’ll be able to do that until after college, so, we’ll see.

Is volunteering something that you plan to continue to do in your life after high school?

Definitely, for me, I want to do something when I’m older with human rights and just working on getting every human equality in the world and what they need to survive.

What advice would you give to other people your age who might be interested in volunteering, might think about it, but haven’t really started doing anything with it and how to get involved or how to get motivated for it?

Just that you don’t have to go out and do something crazy.  It can be the littlest things just to help someone, like anything as simple as holding a door open for someone.  Just being a nice person and then that kind of leads to bigger things, you’ll get more interested.  Or if you hear about an organization like we heard about Charity Water, don’t just sit there, you’ve got to do something no one’s going to come to you and hand you the opportunity.  I just think that it’s important to be involved and educated about what’s going on in your world.

What is your best or most meaningful memory about volunteering?

Just this one memory that I think is kind of important for people to know.  I remember in Nicaragua when we were leaving on the bus all the kids from the village, because we stayed in a really small village and slept in there church and stuff, they were all waving bye to us and I think that’s where it’s really important for people to help, because they do appreciate it and they do care and it does make a difference.

Definitely, one of my other most memorable experiences is, it’s kind of volunteering,  but not so much.  At my summer camp, you can do a program where you train for counseling, so you pay to do it instead of getting paid, so you have a group of kids that you get to watch for a few days and one of my girls, she was an only child and she was pretty spoiled, so she had a hard time getting along with kids, so I’d have to sit down with her a lot and have talks with her about it.  One night, I was asking all of them what’s something they were proud of, and she was just saying she was proud that even though she was an only child, she could kind of understand what it was like to have siblings and she was only eight, so that was kind of a big deal and it was nice to know that I had a part in that.

Know a volunteer who deserves some recognition and would be willing to be interviewed about their work?

Please contact Sam Schaeffer using the “email the author” button at the top of the article.