William Dennis Stewart

In 1982, William Dennis Stewart began volunteering at The Cabbage Patch Settlement House as a coach for his son's T-ball team. Since then he has coordinated camps, coached basketball, chaperoned field trips, and driven vans for Cabbage Patch.

The Cabbage Patch Settlement House located in Louisville, KY is a Christian Service Ministry that focuses on the needs of inner-city children and families. Most of the families served by The Cabbage Patch are low-income and are headed by single mothers. Almost 60% of the children involved in the program live in poverty and are at high risk for teen pregnancy, drug and alcohol abuse and continued poverty.

Dennis became a volunteer in 1982. For the first 14 of those years, he shared approximately 200 hours of volunteer time a year. In 1997, he volunteered more than 1600 hours: an average of over 30 hours a week. Dennis designed and coordinated the Cabbage Patch golf program. He recruited Skip Welch, an instructor at Bellarmine College, to teach a weekly clinic and arranged for the donation of green fees and golf equipment for the children. He recycled hundreds of balls, which he acquired in his spare time. He then provided transportation and chaperoned the golfers.

Dennis also assumed the responsibility for an off-site basketball league held twice a week at a neighborhood elementary school from October through February. He also recruited eight adult coaches, many of whom he had coached many years earlier.

Since 1996, Dennis has been splitting his time between being a student of heating and air conditioning at Kentucky Tech and his position as a full time volunteer at the Cabbage Patch Settlement House. Because he is a student he receives most of his financial support from his wife in addition to his student loan and the financial aid he receives for school.