The Ripple Effect: Amanda Brown – Author, Photographer, and Volunteer Extraordinaire, Part One

Amanda Brown at Ceking Rice Terraces where Eat Pray Love was Filmed

Image source: Amanda Brown

Welcome back to our new interview series, The Ripple Effect. The Ripple Effect explores the emotional impact of volunteer travel and its lasting effect on people’s lives. Today we’re speaking with Amanda Brown, a photographer, writer, lauded volunteer and founder of the AWE International Good Works Foundation. AWE, funded by the proceeds from Amanda’s children’s books, provides books, teaching supplies and volunteer teachers to under represented, marginalized communities around the world. Amanda’s mission: to touch lives with happiness; to push herself beyond her means; to explore, experience and share; and always to give back. This is part one of our interview with Amanda Brown, author, photographer, and volunteer extraordinaire! Check back in tomorrow for part two.

Pajama Program: Keeping Kids Cozy!

Students from The Todd School in Westchester

Image source: Wressentials.com

At 38, Genevieve Piturro was married and successful, but she felt like something was missing. She never wanted to have children of her own, but she loved children and wanted to be around them. So she started volunteering at local shelters, reading to the kids before bedtime. She was surprised by their lack of a bedtime routine. For those of us lucky enough to grow up in a home with parents, bedtime was our chance to get cozy, to slow down from the day, and to feel loved. But these kids didn’t have that comfort. They didn’t even have pajamas!