If you hear laughter echoing down the hallway at Hope Horizon, there's a good chance Scott Cunningham just said something completely unexpected and totally spot-on. This year, he's our Charlie Larson volunteer.
The award goes to a volunteer who embodies Charlie Larson's selfless service. Charlie volunteered for over 21 years and touched countless lives here and at the elementary school down the street. Scott, an elementary academic tutor in our afterschool program, carries that legacy forward.
Scott isn't your typical volunteer. He spent most of his life building and breaking things in tech: top-secret military systems at GTE (he still can't say what he worked on), software testing at Intuit, a startup, and setting up a QA program in Mexico for Google. His résumé reads like a Silicon Valley anthology. But none of that explains why the kids and the staff adore him.
"I keep coming back because this place is a good impedance match. In electronics, that means the load and the power supply are perfectly matched, energy flows easily. That's what it's like here. No friction. Just the right fit."Scott Cunningham
What makes a great volunteer
Ask anyone here what makes Scott stand out and they'll tell you: consistency. Rain or shine, Scott shows up. Even on the stormiest days, when others might cancel, Scott is there. Sometimes the kids don't think they need help. "I'm good," they'll say. But Scott stays. He's not there to hover. He's there to be there. And in that quiet persistence, the kids hear something louder than words: you matter to me.
He has watched Hope Horizon become a place where kids can just be kids. "There's a joy here. Kids are laughing, learning, figuring things out. You think that's small, but it's actually huge."
"Just show up. Don't worry if you don't have the right training. Bring yourself, all of yourself. That's what the kids need."Scott's advice to anyone thinking about volunteering
And that's exactly what Scott does. Every time he walks through the doors, he brings all of it: his humor, his questions, his years of experience, and his big, curious heart. We wouldn't have him any other way.