Meet the Volunteers Making a Difference in West Palm Beach and Beyond

National Volunteer Week, which takes place April 19 through April 25, is an opportunity to recognize the impact of volunteer service in our communities. Throughout the week, The Square encouraged members of the community to share a story of a volunteer who they believe positively impacts the community and deserves to be entered for a chance to win a $25 gift card to a The Square restaurant. Read more about these incredible and inspiring volunteers and how they’ve worked to better West Palm Beach and beyond.

Cristyle Wood Egitto, Eat Palm Beach

Cristyle is the creator of Save Palm Beach Food and spearheads the locally based fundraising initiative to support West Palm’s restaurant staff and provides catering services to first responders/medical workers. Her fundraising efforts have exceeded her initial $10,000 goal.

Juan Orellana, Bike West Palm Beach

What began as a simple social media post turned community-supported initiative, “Project Ride it Out” was created by Juan to supply donated bicycles to locals in need of transportation and/or to allow families to spend time together outside of the home.

Rodney Mayo, Subculture Group

Rodney led efforts to turn local dining destination Howley’s Restaurant into a frontline for free meals to hospitality workers, senior citizens and those affected by COVID-19. Him and his team prepared and donated an amazing 5,000 meals within the first three days.

Deborah Morgan, Palm Beach Harvest

Deborah is the leader Palm Beach Harvest, a community-based non-profit of volunteers whose mission is to collect and transport surplus food to non-profit distribution centers throughout Palm Beach County. Since April 15, Deborah has hosted weekly drive-through hot meal pickups at Rosemary Square, distributing approximately 2,280 meals to those in need.

Chef Guillermo Eleicegui, Hilton West Palm Beach

Chef Guillermo spearheaded making and distributing care packages for Hilton WPB team members using additional supplies from the hotel. In partnership with our on-property team, they welcomed our team members to drive up and pick up these boxes. Chef prepared Easter dinner for 35 families and delivered it with the on-property team to Quantum House, a local home that lessens the burden for families whose children are receiving treatment in Palm Beach County for serious medical conditions. In partnership with Feeding South Florida, Chef was included in the on-property team volunteering the past two Monday’s handing out groceries to those in need in our community. On April 20th, the group provided 40,000 meals to families in need.

Sam Roman, The Puerto Rican Hispanic Chamber of Commerce for Palm Beach County

As President of the Chamber, Sam assisted in organizing and executing a meal distribution that provided 1,300 families with at least 3 weeks of food supplies, serving approximately 5,400 individuals in total, with monetary donations topping $42,000.

Reverend Pam Cahoon, Volunteer Chair of the United Way of PBC’s Hunger Relief Advisory Council

Under Reverend Pam Cahoon’s leadership, United Way has helped decrease the total number of Palm Beach County residents that are food insecure by 8%, as well as the number of children in Palm Beach County who are food insecure by 17.2%.