“I seek a universal way of connecting,” says Wanda Conaway-Knight, a 34-year resident of the San Lorenzo Valley, who started volunteering in 1998 with the Mountain Community Resource Center.  She worked with Healthy Start–a program to help disadvantaged students during their first years in school–which has recently lost state funding.  Wanda, meanwhile, also volunteered with the school’s National Coalition Building Institute, a diversity-training workshop designed to create “a better understanding among students who seem so different, yet really have so much in common.  We teach them to respect and understand each other’s differences.”

Given the plethora of clubs available at the school, even one for being shy, one boy asked Wanda why there wasn’t a club for short people. Wanda thought it was a great idea, and nine students came to the first meeting, boys and girls. They all laughed when Wanda, who stands five feet tall in high heels, said to them, “I’ll bet you never thought you’d have something in common with a middle-aged Black woman.”

Later situations with the Family Partnership Project and STAR, an innovational program to  “revamp” the juvenile justice system, proved to be another stride on her path.  Through STAR, Wanda “helped juveniles reclaim their lives–get their futures back. We discussed our shared pain, and realized that others have the same problems as us; we find solutions together and feel empowered.”

Wanda also volunteers with United Way sponsoring kids for summer camps and works with alcohol and drug rehabilitation organizations. She is a long-time member of Rebbekah, volunteers for Valley Churches United, and is a spokesperson for NAACP. With all of these connections she has, she has become the “go to” person for resources for low-income families. “We just want to help the kids feel good about themselves. I’m just making baby steps in my part of the world.”