Protecting basic rights at core of volunteer's service work

Carmen

Wendland is familiar with struggle and strife. As a child, her parents were addicted to drugs, and Carmen and her three siblings were raised by their grandparents. Carmen became a mother at age 15 and struggled to get an education, let alone put food on the table.

Today, Carmen is a self-assured, successful woman. She is a wife, mother, grandmother, and soon-to-be great-grandmother.

She gives back by volunteering for many charitable organizations and owns an emerging business. Her volunteerism is so prolific, in fact, that she was recently awarded the Woman Today’s Most Engaged Volunteer Award.

How did this remarkable woman alter the course of her future? Hers is the inspiring story of a woman whose life has come full circle.

Growing up fast

Carmen was born in Milwaukee. When her grandparents stepped up to raise her, they provided the structure and stability young Carmen needed. “Thank God for my grandparents,” Carmen said. “I think back on how much they sacrificed for me, and I am so grateful.”

At age 15, Carmen welcomed the first of her four children, daughter Toni. “Having my daughter so young made me very responsible, very early,” Carmen said. Carmen worked hard to

Carmen Wendland

Most Engaged Award

graduate from high school, doing so just a year after her classmates.

By age 19, she was married and had added two more daughters to the family, Tanya and Geri. Carmen worked hard at a variety of jobs, including waitressing, factory work, retail and a stint as a key punch operator.

With three young children depending on her, Carmen earned an associate’s degree in marketing. When her first marriage ended, and she and the girls were on their own.

A chance meeting

Service work was important to Carmen’s grandparents. Her grandfather was a founding member of a social and civic club, whose participants did charitable work together. This made an early impression on Carmen. It also led to a chance meeting that would change her life.

A local physician was an attendee of one of the club’s events, and he eventually recruited Carmen to come and work for him. It was through this relationship with her boss and his wife that she met her future husband, Douglas Wendland.

Doug, also a physician, specializes in occupational medicine. He had also been married before, and had three children of his own. Carmen and Doug got married in 1984, and merged their families together. They later had a daughter, Meghan. Today, the family also includes eight grandchildren, and a great-grandchild on the way.

Carmen got her first taste of service work volunteering for Milwaukee’s Red Cross. She also joined her daughter Meghan on many of her school’s service projects. This would be the beginning of many adventures in paying it forward.

The lighting business

While still living in the Milwaukee area, Carmen took a job at Lappin Lighting and was entranced by their beautiful lighting showroom. Through this job, Carmen was taught to be a lighting designer. A former boss opened a lighting business, which she named Luminosity, and Carmen was brought on board as a partner. The rest of her career would focus on residential and commercial lighting.

In 2004, the Wendlands moved to Duluth when Doug accepted a job at St. Luke’s. While Carmen was supportive of her husband’s career move, she didn’t know anyone in Duluth and thought volunteer work might be a good chance to make some connections. It was through volunteering for CHUM and becoming involved with the Lake Superior Medical Society Alliance (where she was eventually elected president) that Carmen found her purpose in Duluth.

Carmen also worked hard to start her own business, Event Lighting by Design, where she works as an event and lighting designer. She and her assistant, bringing others on board when needed, handle the decorations and lighting for milestone events such as weddings and fundraisers.

Service work

Over the years, Carmen has volunteered and served on the boards for many local organizations, including the Duluth Playhouse, Domestic Abuse Intervention Project, and the St. Luke’s Foundation. She has volunteered her time for The Lighthouse Center for Vision Loss, CHUM, and the Clayton-Jackson-McGhie Memorial. She is also very dedicated to her church, Hillside Methodist.

“Service work means a lot to me,” Carmen said. “I volunteer at CHUM because everybody should be able to eat. It’s a basic right. No one in America should go without food.”

Her work with the Lighthouse Center, where she is a volunteer reader, is also particularly close to her heart. Her beloved grandfather, along with others in her family, have struggled with blindness resulting from glaucoma.

Kind words from a colleague and friend

Carmen was nominated for the Most Engaged Volunteer Award by Catherine Carter Huber, executive director of the St. Luke’s Foundation. Carter Huber wrote: “Kind, generous, humble, fearless, creative, and innovative. These are only a few of the words that describe Carmen Wendland. She is a volunteer, an entrepreneur, a woman of faith, a woman of grace, a woman of conviction, and a true friend.” D

House has been run by women. Maude is proud to carry that torch. “Life House has been woman-led for its entire history,” she said. “That has really helped to shape the culture of the organization.”

In addition to its promotion of women, Life House supports diversity among its staff. Many of the clients who use Life House services are people of color, and/or members of the LGBTQ community. Above all, Maude wants the staff to be relatable to the clients. “We prioritize diversity and skillset over academic credentials,” she said.

At Life House, Maude and her team like to promote from within whenever possible. Life House staff know that they can start out as an entry-level youth advocate or case manager and work their way up to a program manager or director.

Staff testimonial

Life House has come a long way since Maude was hired to lead the organization. A staff member shared the following thoughts about Maude’s leadership:

“Maude’s dedication, vision and incredible leadership have transformed Life House. She’s grown our services, programming, and staff, increasing our ability to serve. As a result of her tireless efforts, we now operate two licensed programs serving homeless and sexually exploited youth, added transitional housing for victims of domestic violence, designed and implemented a one-of-a-kind youth transitional employment social enterprise, increased the amount of meals served in our Youth Center, and more than doubled our staff.

“Most of all, Maude is responsive to the needs of the most vulnerable youth in our community. With more than 50% of the youth we serve being of color, she understands the value of diversity within the organization and has dramatically increased the diversity of staff. She views us as the professionals we are, never forgetting how challenging this work can be. When I say I work for Life House, I say it with immense pride.” D

For more information, please visit lifehouseduluth.org.

Andrea Busche is a Duluth freelance writer.

By Andrea Busche