Enthusiasm for Volunteering, Helping Others Shared by Siblings

You don’t have to look far to see where Bryana and Zachery Zanotelli get their knack for volunteering.

For the Holiday Park brother and sister, it’s a family affair, with an older sister, plus parents and grandparents proving to be an example for helping others and giving back to the community. And more often than not, the two don’t just take a cue from their family, they volunteer right alongside them.

“We’ve always volunteered and we’ve always helped out,” Bryana and Zachery’s mom, Michele Zanotelli said. “My kids know that you have to give back.”

Among past and present volunteers in the Zanotelli family are Michele and her husband, Jim, who serve or have served as Scout leaders; grandparents Joann and James Zanotelli, active at the Plum Community Senior Center; and older sister Michaela. Michaela, a senior at Plum Senior High, has done some of the same activities as her younger siblings, Michelle said. She continues to volunteer as well.

Bryana, 13, is a seventh grade student at Oblock Junior High School. Zachery is 11 years old and attends Adlai Stevenson Elementary School.

The pair’s volunteer work includes an ever-changing range of activities year-round. At Christmas, they take presents to patients in nursing homes with Scout troops  they are both involved in. Bryana also passes out gifts at the American Legion and goes caroling with friends in the family’s Holiday Park neighborhood to raise money for charity.

In the fall, again, with their Scout troops, the two collect nonperishable items for the food bank at the Giant Eagle in Monroeville, Michelle said. At the family’s church, Our Lady of Joy Parish in Plum Borough, Bryana paints faces at the Easter lunch, she added.

 It sounds like enough to keep anybody busy.

“But it’s all spread out throughout the year,” Bryana said.

One of the siblings’ favorite activities is helping out at the Plum Community Senior Center on Center-New Texas Road. Bryana and Zachery go there every Tuesday and help prepare for the weekly event along with Joann.  They also deliver Meals on Wheels from the center, again with their grandmother.

“They work with a lot of older people, which I’m glad for,” she said.

Joann was the senior center’s volunteer of the year in 2009-10, according to center literature. And it seems that Bryana and Zachery share her enthusiasm for helping others.

“They leave school, drop off their stuff and go right to the center,” Michele said.

There the two help out by doing things like taking around the cart with snacks and beverages, which are for sale, and sorting the bingo balls. The proceeds of the sales of food and drinks go to supporting the center, Zachery said.

“What I like about it is I’m helping the senior center and I’m helping people,” he added.

Bryana likes volunteering with her grandmother and said that it’s fun.

Her favorite things about volunteering are “making other people happy and making everything bright and better,” she said.

For Zachery, helping others is the best part of his volunteer work. One of his favorite things to do, he said, is delivering Meals on Wheels with his grandmother. He and his sister help with that in the summer and on their days off from school.

Zachery said he has 124 hours of volunteering at the center. He’s the youngest volunteer there, according to his grandmother. He said that from his work there, he’s learned to do things like cook and count bingo balls. But there’s another thing he’s learned that likely makes his family proud.

“I’ve learned that helping people is fun,” he said.