Community Leader Grooms His Successors
By MEGAN HUSSEY Tampa Tribune correspondent
Published: Nov 19, 2006

DADE CITY - Each year, Zephyrhills High freshman Heather Haynie takes pride in serving her community as a volunteer with Toys for Tots East Pasco.
"Sometimes, you meet a family who has never had a need for your services before, and they're so grateful," she said. "You know you've helped them."
Heather was one of 17 students chosen for a course aimed at teaching the importance of civic involvement. Bob Loring, the executive director of Toys for Tots East Pasco, taught the course at Pasco-Hernando Community College's east campus in Dade City. The class has been meeting once a week since September and will conclude Tuesday.
Loring wanted to establish an education program to teach young people about the workings of a typical community and the basics of social service, volunteer work and philanthropy.
He enlisted individuals, businesses and philanthropic organizations to sponsor students from Pasco high schools and community colleges in east and central Pasco. Home-schooled students and adults were eligible for the program, too.
"This is powerful stuff," he said at a class Tuesday night. "This is stuff that's not being taught anywhere else."
Loring called on local schools to identify students whose academic and community service accomplishments qualified them as future leaders.
"Community leaders need help in Pasco, and when we're gone, we need charismatic leaders to step up and take our place," Loring said.
Students in Loring's class volunteer regularly for organizations such as East Pasco Habitat For Humanity, Farmworkers Self Help, the Pasco County Sheriff's Office Explorers program and the Center for the Arts at Wesley Chapel.
Loring's class teaches them about the people they help and, in a way, about the community they serve.
Students learned about core social values, the development of communities in the United States and the importance of understanding and valuing different cultures, races, genders and ethnic groups. They studied ways of dealing with various community problems and how to develop programs to address such issues and promote social change.
"There are areas in this very county where people need our help - families who need to get back on their feet," Loring said.
During the class, several students joined or started civic programs.
Marisol Arellano, a member of Farmworkers Self Help, helped develop a get-out-the-vote effort.
"We developed a plan to reach 1,500 registered voters by asking their permission to call them twice before and once after the election," she said.
Pasco High student Paul Peterson is part of a schoolwide effort to raise money for volunteer service trips to places such as Honduras and the Dominican Republic and places in the United States affected by Hurricane Katrina.
The class inspired Heather to get involved in STEPS, or School Tools that Empower and Promote Success, a Toys For Tots effort that provides school supplies for disadvantaged children.
"I want to get my school active in helping kids in this community," she said.
Loring said he is hoping for support to keep the class going.
"We're starting to shake this community up already," he said, "and we're just getting started."