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Marie Wrinn: No Child Dies Alone
Marie Wrinn was awarded Excelsior College's 2010 Robert E. Kinsinger Award, presented to a student with outstanding academic achievement who is involved with the non-profit sector. Marie recounts the surprising path that led her to found No Child Dies Alone, a non-profit service for caregivers of hospice patients.
I've been running my non-profit, No Child Dies Alone, pretty much by myself. I pay all my own expenses. I don't get paid for managing NCDA. Whatever funding we have goes for paying program costs. So to be recognized for that is like,"Wow, I guess I really am making a difference." The last time I got an award, when I was in elementary school, I passed out on the stage in front of everyone. I fell over. I won an award for perfect attendance at school, and I literally fell over. Afterwards, I said,"I'm never getting up in front of people again, even to talk."
But now I look back on the last few years and there's no way I could have planned the way it happened. The opportunities appeared, and there was just enough money to get by for each event. It wasn't like we had a million dollar endowment or some corporation said,"Here you go. You can plan whatever you want." I had to make it happen, alone. As with my education, I had to decide that I was going to do it. I couldn't simply think about it and wish for it. I had to make it happen. But somehow, I've traveled to many countries and I have actually helped people.
I learned about moving around from my father. My dad was in the military, which meant we moved every one or two years. That was tough on a kid, trying to make friends and then leaving midway through every school year. And I learned about compassion from my mother. She started as a housekeeper, but that turned more into caregiving. She had elderly clients, and as they got sick and moved into nursing homes, she continued to see them. I played the violin, and when I was 12, I used to go with my mom and play"Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" for the old people in their wheelchairs.
I got decent grades: As and Bs throughout high school. I qualified for the gifted-and-talented education program, but my parents were never around to take me to the extra classes off campus, so by the time I reached my senior year in high school, I didn't feel challenged and I was pretty bored with school. I was hoping for something better in college.
In 1992 I applied to the University of Arizona and was accepted, but I took only a semester and didn't continue. I wanted to be a veterinarian originally, but once I looked at the cost—at the time, about $15,000 a year—I knew I wasn't going to make it. I was living on my own, working restaurant jobs, flipping burgers and wa
