Elizabeth Hernandez

Elizabeth Hernandez has devoted her personal time to volunteerism in Greater Lansing in the past 15 years with Lansing Kiwanis Club, Greater Lansing Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, NorthWest Initiative, Do1Thing, the Lansing Old Newsboys and others. Hernandez, 50, was born in Lansing as one of 11 children and grew up in Detroit before returning. She is a process improvement adviser in strategic planning and development at the Lansing Board of Water & Light. She has three adult children.

It’s really amazing, how many organizations you’ve served in the past 15 years. Were there experiences when you were young that inspired this passion?

When I first started volunteering, it was in a church when I was about 12. They had a food bank, and when I would work over there, it was interesting to me to see other workers, picking out food for families and handing them their bag. I thought that was kind of strange.

I remember a moment of a family coming up, and thinking that instead, I’m going to ask them what they actually want. I said, you can pick something out from this, and they said yes, my son loves this, and so on. That just brought me more joy, knowing that even if you don’t have everything that you need, that doesn’t mean you can’t still have good things in life.

They say beggars can’t be choosy, and I understand that to a certain degree, but that doesn’t mean people who don’t have the means can’t have those. I just love to give them a great gift, get them something nice and let them know they are part of what makes the world turns. I get really emotional when I talk about this stuff!

Was your family a strong influence in whom you’ve become as a volunteer?

I have such a great heart and love for my family and my friends. My mom has been pretty much a rock and has gone through so much in her life. I absolutely love her to death. I have five sisters and four brothers. (Another brother died.)

Growing up we didn’t have everything we wanted, but we had everything we needed. The struggle was real, but we continued to get through it. The biggest part of learning something from that was the resiliency piece of it. There has been a lot of struggle with diabetes in my family, and my mom just had a kidney transplant this year. My mom and dad are not together, but I have probably the best stepmom in the world, I absolutely love her and thank my dad for bringing her into our lives.

They all help inspire me to continue to do the things that I do.  When I’m in a position where I can help others, that makes me happiest. That’s the reason I’m here: service. It’s my life.

Were there some specific experiences you had with organizations that inspired you to join them?

When my kids were young, we had a house fire. We lost everything. I remember the Red Cross being one of the first ones to be there. I remember going into their mobile unit, sitting down and they gave me a little bag of stuff: a washcloth, soap, toothpaste and toothbrush. The lady said, “Here, you take this,” and I said, “It’s OK, I don’t need it.”

But I looked down a moment, and then I said, “Oh my God, I do need this, I don’t have anything! It all just burned up.” I just thought, man, even when you don’t think you need them, there may be a time that you do. That really kind of sunk into me. I thought, man, what a great organization. Now I’m a blood drive coordinator for BWL. Right now, I’m putting together an annual schedule, so we’re very intentional about getting the work done to help save lives.

Then as far as the Kiwanis Club, I happened to be at a fundraiser and met a few local members. I asked if they could tell me about it and they shared how they were a global service organization, changing one child, one community at a time. I said I’d love to join.

You know, there’s not a whole lot of people who look like me there, but my focus is doing what I can do to move that organization forward and keep it moving into the future’s hands. There was a time when Kiwanis didn’t even have females in their club. It feels really good for me being Hispanic and coming into a community like that. Eventually, I became the first Hispanic woman president. But to me, a leader is not a title, it’s an action that proves that you’re a leader.

— STEVE UNDERWOOD