SM: How has this passion impacted your life?
Campbell : Every day, I learn something new from our seniors. They have so much knowledge and, believe it or not, so much to share. When the paperwork was overwhelming and in a language that really wasn't common to me, seeing my volunteers and seeing the impact that we make was what kept me going. The reactions - the thank yous, the tears and the smiles - have all been my motivation to continue.

SM: Continuing seems to have paid off. You've been commended by [United Nations Secretary General] Kofi Annan, invited to the White House and spoken at events across the country. What's been your most rewarding experience?
Campbell : I was a junior in high school, and I was walking home with my best friend at the time when I saw a senior [citizen] struggling to walk. Her help had left her twenty blocks from home. She was bow-legged - where the bone structure starts to change and starts to draw outward - and she didn't even know which direction was home. We brought her back to the bus stop, got her a crate to sit on and had her call to let me know that she got home okay. [From that day], we kept in contact. She called me "grandbaby," and I called her "grandma." I knew all of her family, she knew all of my family. When she passed on, it felt like my grandmother died. It's just amazing that I could have walked past her and never met her.

Receiving the Osborn Elliot Community Leadership Award was probably the second best [experience]. It was a black tie event at the Waldorf Astoria in New York. It felt like the Oscars of the nonprofit world.  

SM: Well, "Oscar Award-winner," what do you want to say to the crowd? What's your message?
Campbell : Take the time to show appreciation and respect for the contributions by the elderly and by those who have passed on, [and for what contributions they] have made to our community, to our world and to the place we live. The bridges that we go over, the roads that we drive on - they're from people that were here before us. They helped pave the way. Once people get old, it's not fair to push them aside. We need to give them the respect that they deserve, the interaction that they deserve.