Sitting cross-legged on a sofa, wearing a short plaid skirt, 16-year-old Meghan Dempsey exhibits a certain nervousness at being interviewed. But this junior at Woodlands Academy in Lake Forest has a maturity and social responsibility far beyond her years.
Named Youth Volunteer of the Year in the United Way of Lake County’s first Lake County Volunteer Awards ceremony this year, Dempsey earned the award for volunteer efforts that began when she was 13. But before she tells you about herself, she gives credit to everyone else.
“Wonderful” is a word she uses often to describe the other award nominees as well as Erica Estabrook, director of community service at Woodlands; Mary Gramins, her religion teacher; her parents, Ronald and Susan Dempsey, whom she calls “role models”; and her school, which she says has been an inspiring environment. She is the third generation in her family to attend Woodlands, a Catholic school for girls.
Dempsey’s award was based on her work with the elderly at Brentwood North Rehabilitation and Specialized Health Care Center in Riverwoods. She first visited the facility when she was a student at Holy Cross School in Deerfield as part of a service project in preparation for her confirmation.
A little more than a year ago, when Dempsey heard that the woman who had volunteered to coordinate those visits for Holy Cross could no longer continue the project, she took on the responsibility.
“That is such an impressive nursing home,” Dempsey said. “They do not let people be forgotten or waste away. They care so much. I thought it would be too bad for the confirmation kids to no longer go there, so I asked to do it.”
She arranged for signup sheets to be passed out at Holy Cross, then coordinated groups of as many as 10 for alternate Saturdays during the school year, planned homemade treats (which she admits her mother usually makes) and arranged transportation (again her parents). At the home, the young people run a bingo game for residents and talk with them.
“I’m not into being the big boss,” Dempsey said. “I just kind of lead it.” But David Shamrock, Brentwood co-director of therapeutic recreation, tells the whole story. “Meghan runs the whole thing. She’s incredible. It’s a sure-fire program because our elderly residents love bingo, and they look forward to having the young people around.”
Jack Donohue, a Brentwood resident, has told Shamrock, “Meghan and her group are very observant and attentive to our needs. They make everyone’s day at Brentwood North that much more special.”
“The elderly have so much to share, yet so often they’re forgotten,” Dempsey said. She recounted a story of wheeling a woman to her room one day. The woman asked Dempsey to remove her shoes, turn off the light and help her into bed. “For that she said she would never forget what I did,” Dempsey said. “That impressed me a lot. Little things can affect people so much.”
Community service is a requirement at Woodlands for sophomores through seniors. Many of the approximately 150 girls give more than the required 30 hours a year. Their service in such far-ranging projects as soup kitchens and animal shelters is impressive. But Estabrook nominated Dempsey for the award because of her initiative. “Very few students create projects on their own like she did. And it is her enthusiasm that keeps it going,” Estabrook said. “Also, she makes the connection between doing service work and social justice in action. It’s a part of who she is.”
Growing up in Lincolnshire, Dempsey, with her parents and sisters–Courtney, 21; Angela, 19, and Emily, 12–spent a lot of time at the Chicago Botanic Garden and fell in love with the place. For two summers when she was 13 and 14, she volunteered in the children’s vegetable garden, helping inner-city children plant, care for and harvest the produce.
“I love to see those little kids so excited by pulling weeds and then to see their surprise when a tiny little seedling grows and becomes a big plant,” Dempsey said.
Although her Saturdays are now taken up with Brentwood, Dempsey still volunteers at the garden for special events. Although there are many volunteers, Dempsey stands out because of her age, according to Linda Doede, director of volunteer services for the garden. “But her biggest contribution is her attitude, a willingness to help, that dynamite smile and her zest for living,” Doede said. “She has a real sensitivity to people.”
Susan Dempsey remembers how as a young child her daughter used to cry in church when she heard a missionary speak of people’s travails. “We worried about that effect on her, but it turned out we didn’t have to because she has grown up with a tremendous joy and a willingness to give,” her mother said. “She feels awkward and nervous about the attention (of the award) because she doesn’t want it to take away from the sincerity of her efforts.”
Dempsey said her awareness of social responsibility began in 1st grade, when a teacher put her hand under a running faucet and told her she could keep it there waiting for the water to get cold, a luxury people in the Third World did not have. “That stuck in my mind,” Dempsey said. “I never realized everyone did not have the same opportunities I did. I have been lucky to grow up in the environment I did.”
She cites St. Joan of Arc as her model, someone who helped others and stood up for what she believed in.
Her parents are her other role models. Her mother, who was diagnosed with cancer a dozen years ago, started a cancer support group with two other people five years ago at Holy Cross Catholic Church, and her father, also active in the parish, gives unstintingly of his time to his daughters’ activities. “They are the most generous people I know,” she said.
Susan Dempsey thinks the generosity of friends and neighbors at times when she was ill also affected all of her daughters. “They saw Christianity in action in their own home,” she said.
Meghan also conducts sessions occasionally for the girls club of Sherlake Cultural Center in Glencoe, which provides spiritual direction and enrichment for women and girls, a program in which her grandmother Angela Ambrose of Winnetka is involved; and Dempsey contributes to school-sponsored drives for the poor.
All of this is in addition to an intense schedule of activities involving drama, choir and school work. By the way, she is an A student.
Over the summer, she was one of 30 students from schools run by the Society of the Sacred Heart order of nuns to work in soup kitchens and homeless shelters in New York.
“I think it is important to help those who are less fortunate because I think that is what we are called to do,” said Dempsey, who said she might pursue a career as a teacher or a social worker.
