The Jewish Light is requesting nominations for its 16th annual Unsung Heroes awards. The deadline for submissions is 5 p.m. Friday, June 27 and can be made online at stljewishlight.org/heroes.  The Light solicits nominations of volunteers making...

Ken Weintraub is a familiar name within St. Louis’ Jewish community, having spent decades in leadership roles at the Jewish Community Center and Jewish Federation of St. Louis. But he said his most meaningful work has come in the past nine years as...

Sharon Weissman still carries the poignant memory of helping a woman pass away a decade later.  She recalls it vividly. The woman’s daughters were by their mother’s bedside, continuously fluffing her pillow and trying to make her comfortable.  Everyone...

Linda Sandmel began volunteering at age 13 as a candy striper. For nearly 70 years since then, her passion for helping others has not wavered. Through raising three children, surviving non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and all of the other various trials and...

Barb Kramer’s oven has seen a lot of lasagna. She’s baked about 250 trays over the past few years in her volunteer role as a lasagna chef for Lasagna Love, a homemade-meal delivery organization. That’s where Barb’s husband, Rich, enters the picture....

In 1976 at age 22, Ellen Schapiro set off on a cross-country trip on her Motobecane bicycle from Astoria, Ore., to Pensacola, Fla. Schapiro took the trip with her sister in search of adventure. Nearly 50 years later, Schapiro is still biking and seeking...

If there’s a cause that Wendy Flusser believes in, she’ll pitch in to do whatever volunteer work is needed. A good example is women’s reproductive rights.  Flusser, chairperson of Jews for Abortion Access, worked diligently on the petition drive...

In a way, Cathy Lander-Goldberg is like an Unsung Heroes whisperer. She has an uncanny ability to discover people, primarily women, who truly are courageous, resilient and inspiring, but who probably would have gone unnoticed had she not identified them,...

When Beth Saltzman was 12 years old, she got her first volunteer experience, helping out at Congregation B’nai Amoona. She remembers going to the synagogue on Trinity Avenue in University City. “We’d put out the kiddush cups and pour the grape...

When many people think of retirement, they think of slowing down. Not Nancy Wasserman Giannasi. After 34 years as an occupational therapist in the Special School District, she wasn’t ready to stop making a difference. In the past two years, Giannasi,...

Every spring, Alan Kirby’s classroom at Seckman High School in Jefferson County, Mo. shifts gears from its regular curriculum for one day. Kirby teaches German at the school, which is located about 30 miles south of St. Louis. During this special session,...

Working jigsaw puzzles is a rare means of relaxation for Sue Picus. The volunteer work regimen she has so happily embraced has also been a piecemeal activity. But Picus has taken the latter to a far more grandiose scale. The long-time registered clinical...