SEE GOOD

Get Inspired! Read and share stories about people doing good and making an impact around the globe. Doing good is not a single act; rather, it is a continuous way of life that benefits everyone, including yourself. Submit a "doing good" story to our website. After vetting your story, we will post it on our site and share your story with the world! Stories will only be posted upon approval.

• » View DOING GOOD videos
• » Read DOING GOOD news
• » Read the DOING GOOD blog

Never stop giving back

Caitlyn taking photographs for Change For Kids

Caitlyn McCabe, 22, got her first taste of volunteering when she was in high school.  Inspired by a television show that featured volunteer teen medics, Caitlyn decided she would do the same thing.  But she was too young.  At sixteen, Caitlyn was two years shy of the 18-year-old minimum age required to ride along in an ambulance, so she did the next best thing.  She became a volunteer fire fighter.  Pretty soon, while most teenagers were hanging out at the mall, Caitlyn was responding to "calls," and opening hydrants for the Hawthorne Fire Department in White Plains, N.Y.

In her down time she was cleaning the fire house, washing the trucks and building friendships with both the fire fighters and the other volunteers her age.  She continued to do it until she was 19, and then promptly took the test to become what she set out to do three years prior—become a licensed EMT.   As a new member of their Junior Corps, Caitlyn got to ride along on emergency calls and assist the regular medics.  But as her college courses in Manhattan made it harder for Caitlyn to commute back and forth, she realized she would have to give up the Corps and concentrate her efforts on something more local. 

That's when she discovered Change for Kids, a non-profit organization that partners with New York City schools to provide underprivileged kids with arts and music programs.  Caitlyn started as a tutor, but soon turned her new-found love of photography into a fundraising project for the organization.  She took photographs and wrote short stories about each child, which were soon featured on the Change for Kids website to show who had benefited from the organization.  Caitlyn was proud of her project and it encouraged her to continue helping others.

In the fall, Caitlyn will move to Baton Rouge, Louisiana as a member of AmeriCorps, where she will work with public school kids to fix playgrounds and assist in building a stronger academic community.  Because this assignment will only last one year, Caitlyn already has big plans for what will follow.  "My experiences have taught me so much about the importance of building community, and my new goal is to spread that around the world," she says.  "I want to do like Jules Verne and travel around the world in 80 days volunteering and helping people who need it most.  I can't wait to get started."