Melissa Helmbrecht
Encyclopedia
Melissa Helmbrecht is an American advocate for young people known for her involvement in the youth service
movement. Her work has been featured in Parade Magazine, the Denver Post, Washington Times, CNN
, Good Morning America
, the Indianapolis Star and the Orlando Sentinel
, and on ABC
's The View.
Leadership Council in 1991. In this position she promoted youth service
around the city. She also participated in a design council for the Disney
model town of Celebration, Florida
. In the 1990s Helmbrecht co-founded Camden's Promise School in Camden, New Jersey
.
While a student at the University of Denver
Law School, Helmbrecht served as the 15th Circuit Governor for the American Bar Association
Law Student Division and on the ABA Committee for the Unmet Legal Needs of Children. In 2000 Helmbrecht was a speaker at the National Association of Independent Schools
conference. She studied at the Rocky Mountain Children's Law Center, serving as a Guardian Ad Litem
for abused and neglected children in court. As the president of the Children's Millennium Movement Helmbrecht was cited by the American Bar Association
in 2001 for her work addressing the needs of foster children
.
Helmbrecht founded an organization called the Youth Investment Project with a grant from Youth Service America
, and was acknowledged by that organization as one of the "six most promising social entrepreneurs in America." The project was an intensive mentoring program for middle school
students in Denver, Colorado
to encourage their participation in peer mediation and conflict resolution activities. The youth involvement
project included a "Day of Hope" on the first anniversary of the Columbine High School massacre
that featured two surviving students.
At the age of 25 Helmbrecht founded Champions of Hope. That organization, along with Youth Service America
, sponsored the United Day of Service, which was designed to promote youth-led service learning projects across the country. Activities were sponsored by the Verizon Foundation. Helmbrecht was responsible for securing the participation of Kelly Clarkson
in the first celebration of the United Day of Service on September 11, 2002 at the National Mall
, along with actor Sean Astin
and former U.S. Senator Harris Wofford
. That year she served on the White House
's "Youth Service Compact," a committee of the top non-profit groups in the country that convened at the White House to design a strategy to increase the impact of youth service organizations.
Helmbrecht ran for U.S. House of Representatives in Virginia's Eighth Congressional District
in 2003. She ran as a Republican
and was one of the youngest women to ever run for Congress. Lisa Marie Cheney secured the nomination at the district Republican convention
.
In 2008 Helmbrecht served on the Global Ambassadors committee of Airline Ambassadors, a project organized by travel commentator Peter Greenberg
, the travel editor of NBC
's Today Show. She also signed the Youth Entitlements Summit Declaration in June, 2008.
Helmbrecht is the founder and CEO of Splashlife.com. Launching in September 2010, Splashlife is devoted to empowering youth
by working with nonprofit and corporate partners to enable its members to take action for social change. On March 19, 2009 Whoopi Goldberg
mentioned Splashlife on The View, a television show on ABC
. Splashlife's first campaign is called "Hunger and Homelessness in America," and is based on Helmbrecht's personal experience volunteering at a homeless shelter as a youth. Partnering with Peter Samuelson
's EDAR (Everyone Deserves a Roof), Splashlife is sharing the organization as a "brilliant example of one way to design simple temporary solutions for complex issues."
Youth service
Youth service refers to non-military, intensive engagement of young people in organized activity that contributes to the local, national, or world community. Youth service is widely recognized and valued by society, with minimal or no compensation to the server. Youth service also provides...
movement. Her work has been featured in Parade Magazine, the Denver Post, Washington Times, CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
, Good Morning America
Good Morning America
Good Morning America is an American morning news and talk show that is broadcast on the ABC television network; it debuted on November 3, 1975. The weekday program airs for two hours; a third hour aired between 2007 and 2008 exclusively on ABC News Now...
, the Indianapolis Star and the Orlando Sentinel
Orlando Sentinel
The Orlando Sentinel is the primary newspaper of the Orlando, Florida region. It was founded in 1876. The Sentinel is owned by Tribune Company and is overseen by the Chicago Tribune. As of 2005, the Sentinel’s president and publisher was Kathleen Waltz; she announced her resignation in February 2008...
, and on ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
's The View.
Biography
Helmbrecht was appointed the youngest member of the Orlando, FloridaOrlando, Florida
Orlando is a city in the central region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat of Orange County, and the center of the Greater Orlando metropolitan area. According to the 2010 US Census, the city had a population of 238,300, making Orlando the 79th largest city in the United States...
Leadership Council in 1991. In this position she promoted youth service
Youth service
Youth service refers to non-military, intensive engagement of young people in organized activity that contributes to the local, national, or world community. Youth service is widely recognized and valued by society, with minimal or no compensation to the server. Youth service also provides...
around the city. She also participated in a design council for the Disney
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
model town of Celebration, Florida
Celebration, Florida
Celebration is a census-designated place and a master-planned community in Osceola County, Florida, United States, located near Walt Disney World Resort and originally developed by The Walt Disney Company...
. In the 1990s Helmbrecht co-founded Camden's Promise School in Camden, New Jersey
Camden, New Jersey
The city of Camden is the county seat of Camden County, New Jersey. It is located across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city had a total population of 77,344...
.
While a student at the University of Denver
University of Denver
The University of Denver is currently ranked 82nd among all public and private "National Universities" by U.S. News & World Report in the 2012 rankings....
Law School, Helmbrecht served as the 15th Circuit Governor for the American Bar Association
American Bar Association
The American Bar Association , founded August 21, 1878, is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. The ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of academic standards for law schools, and the formulation...
Law Student Division and on the ABA Committee for the Unmet Legal Needs of Children. In 2000 Helmbrecht was a speaker at the National Association of Independent Schools
National Association of Independent Schools
The National Association of Independent Schools is a U.S.-based membership organization for private, nonprofit, K-12 schools. Founded in 1963, NAIS represents independent schools and associations in the United States, including day, boarding, and day/boarding schools; elementary and secondary...
conference. She studied at the Rocky Mountain Children's Law Center, serving as a Guardian Ad Litem
Legal guardian
A legal guardian is a person who has the legal authority to care for the personal and property interests of another person, called a ward. Usually, a person has the status of guardian because the ward is incapable of caring for his or her own interests due to infancy, incapacity, or disability...
for abused and neglected children in court. As the president of the Children's Millennium Movement Helmbrecht was cited by the American Bar Association
American Bar Association
The American Bar Association , founded August 21, 1878, is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. The ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of academic standards for law schools, and the formulation...
in 2001 for her work addressing the needs of foster children
Foster care
Foster care is the term used for a system in which a minor who has been made a ward is placed in the private home of a state certified caregiver referred to as a "foster parent"....
.
Helmbrecht founded an organization called the Youth Investment Project with a grant from Youth Service America
Youth Service America
Youth Service America, or YSA, is a resource center that partners with thousands of organizations committed to increasing the quality and quantity of volunteer opportunities for young people, ages 5-25, to serve locally, nationally, and globally." YSA has a reputation for supporting and promoting...
, and was acknowledged by that organization as one of the "six most promising social entrepreneurs in America." The project was an intensive mentoring program for middle school
Middle school
Middle School and Junior High School are levels of schooling between elementary and high schools. Most school systems use one term or the other, not both. The terms are not interchangeable...
students in Denver, Colorado
Denver, Colorado
The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...
to encourage their participation in peer mediation and conflict resolution activities. The youth involvement
Youth participation
Youth participation is the active engagement of young people throughout their communities. It is often used as a short-hand for youth participation in any many forms, including decision-making, sports, schools and any activity where young people are not historically engaged.-Coinage:Youth...
project included a "Day of Hope" on the first anniversary of the Columbine High School massacre
Columbine High School massacre
The Columbine High School massacre occurred on Tuesday, April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in Columbine, an unincorporated area of Jefferson County, Colorado, United States, near Denver and Littleton. Two senior students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, embarked on a massacre, killing 12...
that featured two surviving students.
Youth Service America
Youth Service America, or YSA, is a resource center that partners with thousands of organizations committed to increasing the quality and quantity of volunteer opportunities for young people, ages 5-25, to serve locally, nationally, and globally." YSA has a reputation for supporting and promoting...
, sponsored the United Day of Service, which was designed to promote youth-led service learning projects across the country. Activities were sponsored by the Verizon Foundation. Helmbrecht was responsible for securing the participation of Kelly Clarkson
Kelly Clarkson
Kelly Brianne Clarkson is an American pop rock singer-songwriter and actress. Clarkson came into prominence after becoming the winner of the inaugural season of the television series American Idol in 2002 and would later become the runner-up in the television special World Idol in 2003.In 2003,...
in the first celebration of the United Day of Service on September 11, 2002 at the National Mall
National Mall
The National Mall is an open-area national park in downtown Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. The National Mall is a unit of the National Park Service , and is administered by the National Mall and Memorial Parks unit...
, along with actor Sean Astin
Sean Astin
Sean Astin is an American film actor, director, voice artist, and producer better known for his film roles as Mikey Walsh in The Goonies, the title character of Rudy, and Samwise Gamgee in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. In television, he appeared as Lynn McGill in the fifth season of 24...
and former U.S. Senator Harris Wofford
Harris Wofford
Harris Llewellyn Wofford served as a Democratic U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania from 1991 to 1995 and as the fifth president of Bryn Mawr College, and is a noted advocate of national service and volunteering...
. That year she served on the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
's "Youth Service Compact," a committee of the top non-profit groups in the country that convened at the White House to design a strategy to increase the impact of youth service organizations.
Helmbrecht ran for U.S. House of Representatives in Virginia's Eighth Congressional District
Virginia's 8th congressional district
Virginia's Eighth Congressional District is a U.S. congressional district in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The residents of the 8th District are currently represented by Democratic Congressman Jim Moran, first elected to the 8th's seat in the U.S...
in 2003. She ran as a Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
and was one of the youngest women to ever run for Congress. Lisa Marie Cheney secured the nomination at the district Republican convention
Political convention
In politics, a political convention is a meeting of a political party, typically to select party candidates.In the United States, a political convention usually refers to a presidential nominating convention, but it can also refer to state, county, or congressional district nominating conventions...
.
In 2008 Helmbrecht served on the Global Ambassadors committee of Airline Ambassadors, a project organized by travel commentator Peter Greenberg
Peter Greenberg
Peter S. Greenberg is the CBS News Travel Editor reporting regularly on The Early Show and the CBS Evening News. He may be best known as the Travel Editor for NBC's Today, CNBC and MSNBC from 1995 until 2009. Previous to NBC, Peter was Travel correspondent for ABC's Good Morning America from...
, the travel editor of NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
's Today Show. She also signed the Youth Entitlements Summit Declaration in June, 2008.
Helmbrecht is the founder and CEO of Splashlife.com. Launching in September 2010, Splashlife is devoted to empowering youth
Youth empowerment
Youth empowerment is an attitudinal, structural, and cultural process whereby young people gain the ability, authority, and agency to make decisions and implement change in their own lives and the lives of other people, including youth and adults....
by working with nonprofit and corporate partners to enable its members to take action for social change. On March 19, 2009 Whoopi Goldberg
Whoopi Goldberg
Whoopi Goldberg is an American comedian, actress, singer-songwriter, political activist, author and talk show host.Goldberg made her film debut in The Color Purple playing Celie, a mistreated black woman in the Deep South. She received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress and won...
mentioned Splashlife on The View, a television show on ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
. Splashlife's first campaign is called "Hunger and Homelessness in America," and is based on Helmbrecht's personal experience volunteering at a homeless shelter as a youth. Partnering with Peter Samuelson
Peter Samuelson
Peter Samuelson is an American and British TV and film producer and executive producer.- Career :Peter Samuelson is President of Film Associates, Inc. http://www.samuelson.la a media consultancy and production company...
's EDAR (Everyone Deserves a Roof), Splashlife is sharing the organization as a "brilliant example of one way to design simple temporary solutions for complex issues."