Seven Thousand Points of Light Later

Today, we’re recognizing our 7,000^th Daily Point of Light honorees – and that’s something to celebrate. Because we know what we celebrate reflects what we value. And in each one of our Daily Point of Light honorees over the three decades, we’ve celebrated heroes who are giving back in ways that inspire those around them, creating even more action in their communities, in their circles.

That’s the power we all have within us. We have the power – not just to do great things – but to inspire others to act, and to exponentially multiply the impact of our own actions. Today’s honorees are no exception.

Georgia high school students Kruthik Ravikanti and Deesha Pachal started a nonprofit organization to help other young people create, fund, and carry out their own service projects. They knew that many young people had great ideas about building service projects but didn’t have the resources to get them off the ground. They knew they could multiply young people’s impact.

Today Kruthik and Deesha’s organization – Georgia Youth Leaders – is a 501(c)3 organization that provides information and guidance to young social entrepreneurs. It helps them attain nonprofit status, procure funding, and also supports them in other ways. Kruthik and Deesha hold seminars to attract high schoolers with service projects that can operate under the GYL umbrella. They applied for grants to fund the projects, publicized them on social media, mentored their leaders, and helped them develop websites. They now have eight programs they’re supporting – on everything from helping victims of human trafficking, to environmental cleanups, to donating books to children in need.

Incredible.

Below you’ll see pictures of some of our Daily Point of Light honorees throughout the years. You’ll see young people and seniors. You’ll see individuals and corporations. People from all across our country advancing causes as diverse as we are.

We often talk about Points of Light’s Civic Circle, and when we developed it we intentionally chose a circle to represent the ways people move through it at various moments. A circle has no beginning and no end. There’s no limit to how much of an impact we can have; we can start a wave and it can keep going and going and going.

In just two days, on April 1, we’ll kick-off Global Volunteer Month. We encourage you to shine a light on volunteers in your circle by nominating them for a Daily Point of Light Award. The 7,000 honorees we’ve recognized to-date have done some pretty incredible things. And I can’t wait to see what the next 7,000 – and beyond – can do.

Natalye Paquin was the president and chief executive officer of Points of Light from 2017–2022. She is a visionary and results-oriented leader, with more than 20 years of experience providing strategic, operations and fiscal leadership in the nonprofit and public sectors.