Each week, the #SpanningtheNeed podcast will present an “Inspirational Person of the Week’ and have a “Q & A” with one of its many gifted individuals and/or groups who are willing to go out of their own way to help others. This week’s featured is Kim Caputo from CheerTime Athletics and Zeta Tau Alpha Sorority.
Nominate/Read More: https://spanningtheneed.com/
Name: Kim James
Organization: Zeta Tau Alpha/CheerTime Athletics
Bio: Alumna of Youngstown State University with a Bachelor of Arts, I started CheerTime Athletics 19 years ago which was something I had dreamed of doing since I was a young girl. I was a member of the Zeta Tau Alpha Fraternity at YSU and have continued to be an involved alumna ever since. I am married and enjoy spending time with my kids, especially reading to them
What first inspired you to become involved in the community? I have always enjoyed helping others and remember even in high school being involved so much in the community and wanting to do community service.
What do you enjoy most about volunteering in our community? There is a lot of things I enjoy doing volunteering for but I think just generally meeting new people and showing my own children the importance of helping others.
What type of volunteer work are you or have you been involved in within your community? There are lot of ways, big and small. I was running a 20 year fundraiser for breast cancer which was the largest thing I have ever done but also love working with children of special needs and I am currently working on a literacy program that will be a nice new opportunity for me to spread my love for reading and the importance of reading to the young athletes that come to our gym.
What advice would you give anyone to give back to our communities? Anything that you can do, whether it is collecting canned goods for a food bank, participating in a local walk for a good cause, or something of a larger capacity, it truly makes a difference to someone.
What song best describes you or is the soundtrack to your life? That is a tough one. I do love a song called Try Everything- a Shakira song that is from the movie Zootopia. It is catchy but encourages you to give things a try even if you fail. I think it is a song I have listened to a million times with my children but I love the message:
Birds don’t just fly
They fall down and get up
Nobody learns without getting it wrong
What is your vision for the future of our community?
I truly hope to see more camaraderie.
What is your best accomplishment/experience in life?
My best accomplishment was starting the ZTA PInk Ribbon Cheer Classic from scratch and raising over 1.6 million dollars for breast cancer with my sorority for the past 20 years. Nothing is greater than getting to have had that experience with so many members of ZTA. Additionally meeting the survivors and working with so many cheer teams and seeing the creative ways they were able to bring breast cancer awareness to the community is remarkable.
This is different from my best experience- which is being a wife and a mom. I do love the day to day things that happen, the experiences we share as a family and being able to share the experience of parenting with my husband.
Who is your role model and Why? My dad has always been my role model because he has always shown me how hard work and commitment towards my goals will pay off in the end.
If there was one person that you would like to meet, past or present and why?
If I could meet one person it would be my Dad’s father who past when he was 10 years old. I would want the opportunity for him to know about the legacy he left to our family and ask him many things I have always wanted to know about him.
A favorite quote that you live by?
Anything you commit to in life, do with everything you own, because anything worth doing is worth doing right (This is the advice my older brother Sam shared with me when I was graduating high school).
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