Natalie Duranceau

The George H.W. Bush Points of Light award celebration includes Natalie Duranceau of East Arlington, and she will be honored for her volunteer work at 8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 26.

You can watch the event here >> 

The Atlanta-based organization aims to help people worldwide through its network of volunteers.

Duranceau told YourArlington that she received this award for helping those in need during Covid-19, "especially those at risk and unable to shop for themselves. I have volunteered my own time and energy to take their grocery lists to the stores, buy them their groceries and then drop them off on their porches.

"I have purchased extra of limited supplies, like toilet paper and disinfecting wipes, and offered them to folks in need for free when possible." That includes shopping for her mother, who also lives in Arlington and is in the at-risk age range. 

"I'm very humbled to receive this award, as I feel naturally called to serve and help others in my community," she wrote. "I am part of a nationwide service-based fraternity called Alpha Phi Omega, where the top three pillars are leadership, friendship and service. I try to live by those values every day.

"Helping folks and putting food on their tables is so gratifying for me and brings a huge sense of fulfillment and allows me to live these values. Being recognized with an award is wonderful, I am so blown away to have been nominated and selected for it.

"For me, this has just been my way of giving back to our community, and the thank yous from folks I've helped has been more than enough. I also hope to go into a career that will eventually put me in a place where I can help with hunger relief, food access and more, so helping the community during these hard times has been a small start."

She works for Instacart, the grocery delivery service, as an in-store shopper at Wegmans in Medford and does does work as a personal-care attendant. She is seeking to pursue a career in food and agriculture, and looking into beginning graduate school.

 This news announcement was published Friday, Sept. 25, 2020.