On May 25^th, 2013 at PLASP’s 31^st Annual Volunteer Event, 21 year old Evan Maltby was recognized for volunteering with the organization for more than five years. When asked to speak, Evan captivated a room of over 1,200 volunteers, staff and community partners as he began with these five words: “I am addicted to PLASP.”

“I like public speaking,” said Evan, when we met up with him a couple of weeks later at the program where he volunteers. “When they asked me to write a speech, I knew I didn’t want to take it lightly; I really wanted someone to listen.”

Evan didn’t need to worry; people listened. There was talk about Evan and his speech for days following the event.

“I didn’t know it would go over so well,” Evan confessed, sitting in the PLASP program room at St. Francis of Assisi while helping to tidy up. “I’ve never received such a good response from a crowd before. It was one of the highlights of my life.”

Evan, a PLASP volunteer for over five years, started off as a PLASP child in the after school program when he was eight years old. He stayed in the program until he was 12 but came back, two years later, when he was 14 to volunteer.

“I’d already completed the required 40 hours to graduate,” Evan said, referring to himself as a ‘keen ninth grader’. “And although I was enjoying high school, something was missing.”

It was then that Evan decided to reconnect with the organization that he loved so much - and with the program staff that had taught him so well.

“My experience with PLASP was life-changing,” he revealed. “Honestly, I think if I hadn’t attended the PLASP program I would have been all right, but I would have been the worst for it. PLASP teaches kids valuable life skills. For me, the program taught me how to be polite, respectful and compassionate. It showed me how to be a leader, a teacher, a mentor and a friend.”

“No one other than members of my own family have had such a strong, positive influence on me.”

Now, as a volunteer in the PLASP program, Evan is able to try and provide the same guidance and leadership that the PLASP staff provided him. “It’s incredible,” he revealed, “being able to watch the changes in the children that come to the program, to watch them become very good individuals. The little kids – they’re so easily fascinated and the older kids – they’re always saying interesting things.”

Evan has always picked Friday for his day to volunteer at PLASP – despite the teasing he sometimes gets from his coworkers for starting his weekend with a group of children, he insisted he wouldn’t have it any other way. “It’s never been a chore for me to come to PLASP,” he said. “It’s so rewarding; I really wouldn’t want my weekend to start without being here.”

The staff and children in the program at St. Francis of Assisi wouldn’t have it any other way either. “He’s nice to us, and very fair,” one of the children said, when asked about Evan. “Plus he has nice hair.”

Are you a PLASP volunteer with your own story to tell? Or are you a parent who knows of a volunteer like Evan who’s having a positive impact on your child in the PLASP program? If so, we’d like to hear from you!