Linda and Robin Vargas: 4 decades of giving and receiving services

Volunteers are a key part of the team at Abilities United, and long-time volunteer Linda Vargas helps set the standard. We are not the only ones who appreciate and recognize her service; the White House does too!

Linda Vargas and her daughter Rhonda, celebrate
Linda's 30+ years of volunteer work at Abilities United.

Linda’s relationship with Abilities United began forty years ago when her son Robin started attending Abilities United. Robin is challenged with cerebral palsy, and at that time, there were no comparable programs in the San Jose area and no public transit options, so she and Robin drove the twice per day, 72 mile round trip to Palo Alto. Since then, both Linda and Robin have become a vital part of our Abilities United community.

Linda helps support fundraising activities at Abilities United, and has logged thousands of hours helping our cause. For decades she’s been willing and able to do whatever it takes to help support the fund development team, and has helped enable raising over $1million each year in donations for services for people with disabilities.

In January of 2011, Linda, Robin and the rest of their family, along with  Abilities United, were thrilled to learn that she had been selected to receive President Obama’s Volunteer Service “Call to Service” Lifetime Award. The blue pin featuring the presidential seal is the highest of many honors that Linda has received for her volunteer service.  She proudly wears that pin along with her historic collection of Abilities United pins.

Though Robin is now able to get to Abilities United on his own using a public bus, Linda continues to make the trip to the office each week to volunteer. She finds her work to be personally very rewarding, and though she had planned to retire from volunteering at 75, at 84 she’s still a regular here.

We are fortunate to have wonderful volunteers such as Linda, and we’re proud to join the White House in recognizing her decades of volunteer service.

Based on an interview with Linda Vargas. Written by Bob Thomas, edited by Linda Vargas and Wendy Kuehnl.