Dare2tri triathlon participants (organization co-founder Melissa Stockwell is second from right).
© Andre Warren
Rhiannon Menn baking with her kids.
Chris Rov Costa at Plated Imagery
A Room to Read student in Cambodia.
© room to read
World changers
Costco members find ways to improve others’ lives
Lasagna with love
Rhiannon Menn was living in San Diego when extensive pandemic workplace closures took place.
“Like so many people, at the beginning of the pandemic I was feeling helpless,” she recalls. She says that families around her were losing jobs and child care during a time of intense uncertainty. “I love to cook, and so I decided to start making and delivering lasagna with my then 3-year-old daughter for any family nearby that needed a home-cooked meal,” Menn says.
What began as a personal project has evolved into a global nonprofit called Lasagna Love (lasagnalove.org), which was launched in 2020. More than 35,000 volunteers help their neighbors by preparing and delivering free home-cooked lasagna and other hearty meals. At just two years since its inception, the organization, which is based in Massachusetts, now operates in all 50 states, nine Canadian provinces and five Australian regions and has fed more than 1 million people. “At the core of our mission is spreading kindness,” Menn says.—Dan Jones
The gift of literacy
In 2000, Craig Herb left an almost 20-year career at Microsoft with the intention of helping to change the world. When he discovered Room to Read (roomtoread.org), an organization that promotes worldwide literacy, especially among under-served female populations, he knew he had found a way to accomplish this.
“Education has been an important part of our lives,” says Herb from his home near Raleigh, North Carolina, explaining that his wife, Brenda, has been a teacher for almost 40 years.
When Room to Read added a will option to its website, the Herbs talked to their two children about their inheritance. “As they were going to college, we told them that we would support their pursuit of higher education,” recalls Herb. “From there, hopefully, they’d have the tools to make their own way in the world. Seeing that they’ve done that freed us to start thinking about how … we could support [Room to Read].”
Herb’s will stipulates that Room to Read gets the first $1 million off the top and then 35% of what is left afterward. “I can virtually guarantee [that] Room to Read will get quite a bit more than the million,” Herb says.—Steve Fisher
Rising above
With a little support and love, it’s amazing what hardships the human spirit can transcend. Dare2tri (dare2tri.org), a Chicago-based nonprofit, helps individuals with physical disabilities and visual impairments rise above the internal and external labels that so often accompany their conditions by helping them get active in sports.
Since it was founded in 2011, Dare2tri, which is funded by donations, has improved the health and quality of life of thousands of participants by providing opportunities to swim, cycle and run.
Before they launched Dare2tri, co-founders Keri Serota, Melissa Stockwell (an above-knee amputee) and Dan Tun participated in endurance events together. “Oftentimes, Melissa was the only one with an amputation in the event,” Serota says. “We wanted to make sure that all those who wanted to be active had the opportunity, support, resources and community to do so.”
“Seeing an athlete with a disability cross the finish line is transformational,” says Serota, Dare2tri’s executive director. “We often say the finish line is just the beginning. We know the power of sport and how it affects all aspects of one’s life.”—Will Fifield
