Volunteers honored for helping foster kids, teaching aviation, cleaning up the community
Brevard County has a plethora of volunteer opportunities, ranging from helping at animal shelters to serving meals to those who are less fortunate to comforting the ill.
Hundreds of residents devote endless hours volunteering their time at organizations like these to help make Brevard better. Every year, FLORIDA TODAY recognizes that spirit of giving back during our annual Volunteer Recognition Awards. The awards, presented by Community Credit Union of Florida, honor volunteers in four categories: citizen, business, organization and volunteer.
Last year Dorothy “Ms. Dot” Linson was named Volunteer of the Year in recognition of the more than 20 years she has hosted at her yearly community-wide Thanksgiving meal.
More: Ms. Dot's Thanksgiving Luncheon
This year, three new individuals are being recognized for their volunteer efforts that include helping expose young minorities to aviation, assisting youth in foster care and literally cleaning up Brevard County.
One will be named Volunteer of the Year at an invitation-only award ceremony Dec. 7. Here are the nominees.
Ramone Hemphill
Ramone Hemphill often hears minorities aren’t in aviation because they aren’t interested. Not true, according to the 40-year-old Northrop Grumman engineer who spends his free time among the clouds.
“People say (minorities) are only into rap music and sports, but that’s not the case,” Hemphill said. “I know better because I saw it when I went to school. It’s about proper exposure.”
Thanks to Hemphill, a married father of four, plenty of youths are getting exposed to aviation who otherwise probably wouldn’t have the opportunity.
In the fall of 2020 Hemphill took $1,200 from his savings and started the 99th Squadron, a non-profit organization named as a nod to the Tuskegee Airmen. A main part of the program is a five-week course held each fall that scratches the surface of a pilot’s curriculum to gain certification. The free course is open to children in grades 6 through 12.
Students sign up on a first-come-first-serve basis. Hemphill intentionally keeps the classes limited to 10 students to make the learning process more intimate and specialized. Next fall he already has a waiting list of 11 students.
Hemphill relies on donations and grants to fund the program. Valkaria Aiprort donated space for classes to be held on its grounds.
At the end of the five-week course students are given the opportunity to take a flight. If they are comfortable, they are given a chance to take control of the plane.
“It never gets old, seeing their excitement when they fly the plane,” Hemphill said.
The learning doesn’t end there. Students continue to get exposure to aviation opportunities.
“It’s one thing to expose the daughter of a lawyer, but it’s quite another to expose a child who would not have been exposed,” Hemphill said. “You can just imagine, you may have changed their whole path.”
Kathy Matson
Kathy Matson spent 30 years as an executive in the gaming industry before retiring with her husband to Merritt Island in 2016.
The self-described type A personality said she was looking for a volunteer opportunity in Brevard that focused on women and children. She had never heard of the Florida Statewide Guardian ad Litem Office, which represents abused, abandoned and neglected children in court and the community through the collaboration of a multi-disciplinary team including volunteers like Matson.
“I took to it like a duck to water,” Matson, 71, said. “My husband calls it my volunteer job.”
More: Torres: An attorney with a heart? Maybe there is hope after all.
In Matson’s volunteer role, she often attends court hearings to help children and foster parents navigate this challenging time. While these volunteers are asked to spend a small amount of time checking in on the children, Matson takes it to another level.
She’s taken them to doctors’ appointments, helped them shop for much-needed essentials and even taught one teen how to properly use utensils.
“There’s always a different situation and I learn something new everyday in this job, my volunteer job,” Matson said.
If that wasn’t enough, Matson also is a board member for Friends of Children of Brevard County, a nonprofit charity that helps support the children in the Guardian ad Litem program. She said this role actually takes up even more of her time.
For the past several years she has taken it upon herself to lead the organization’s “Wishing Tree,” which attempts to provide holiday gifts to foster children. Various locations throughout Brevard County have cards that list different items a foster child has requested. Matson said every year she’s blown away by the community’s generosity.
“We all share the same passion — we want to help the children, we want to help them have a better life,” Matson said, “It’s a lot of work, but it’s very rewarding when you imagine these kids’ faces on Christmas morning getting a present.”
Robbie Robinson
Robbie Robinson spent an illustrious nearly 50-year career in the U.S. Air Force, with the majority of his time overseas.
These days, the 83-year-old retired captain said, he’s known as the (cigarette) butt man, the can man and the trash man, and he’s proud of it. Robinson and his bride of 62 years moved to Merritt Island when his military career ended in 2006. They followed friends who lived here.
At first he longed for the big cities where he used to live, wanting to go back to Paris or London.
“Then I said, ‘How long does it take me to get to the beach? Eight minutes? Oh, not so bad,’” Robinson recalled.
But when he would go to the beach he would be disgusted by the quantity of trash he saw on the sand and the amount of people he witnessed littering. In 2011 he connected with Keep Brevard Beautiful.
“I liked their basic mission to keep the environment clean, educate children and the different activities they have, plus the people who work there are great people I like very much,” Robinson said.
Since then a beautiful partnership has formed. At least three times a week you can find Robinson walking the beaches picking up cigarette butts, aluminum cans and trash. Hence the nickname.
His efforts and his influence seem to be working.
“I am seeing a very good increase in the population’s desire to keep the area clean,” he said. “I just hope younger people learn when they see the beaches cleaner how much more fun it is.”
Spitzer can be reached at mspitzer@floridatoday.com.
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Volunteers honored for helping foster kids, teaching aviation, cleaning up the community
