Glencoe Resident Moves Up on UNICEF Board

It was a young boy in Uganda who changed Wendy Serrino’s heart.

“He moved me,” said the resident. “It made me sick to see him so hungry.”

Serrino, a former  marketing director and recently the board president at , went from board member to vice chair of UNICEF’s Midwest region board of directors in September. UNICEF is an organization that advocates for children's rights around the world.

Now Serrino’s responsibilities include outreach and fundraising, with hopes of educating people like her neighbors in Glencoe, through a speaker series and events in Chicago.

“I think Glencoe is innately generous, and they continue to be that way,” she said. It’s part of the allure of this community.”

Why UNICEF

In the 1990s, Serrino decided to devote most of her donations to UNICEF.

“Every time there’s a disaster, it’s the children who are the most vulnerable,” she said. “There’s no one to advocate for them, and that’s what UNICEF does--child protection in lots of different ways.”

Serrino said that while she read about poverty in the news, it was field trips to Uganda, Rwanda, Madagascar and Panama that cemented her decision to donate more time and energy to UNICEF.

“We donated a sizable check in the mid- to late 1990s, and then I started getting invited to UNICEF events,” said Serrino. “I went on a field trip to Madagascar. I was already committed, but it made me more committed.”

Awareness and Donor Fatigue

Serrino pointed to field trips as a valuable reality check.

“You just realize how lucky you are; how lucky your kids are,” she said. “We are born in a place that is food-secure.”

With a seemingly endless barrage of epidemics, crises and natural disasters in the news, Serrino says she laments how Americans can become desensitized.

“I think you have to want to pay attention to it because it’s overwhelming,” she said. “When there’s a crisis, millions of people starve. I wish there was a way not to be desensitized and not to have donor fatigue; I think people have donor fatigue.”

How to Help

“Money is one resource, but building awareness and creating a base of knowledge is also really important,” said Serrino. “Take the time to understand what it’s like in other parts of the world.”

Here’s a list of upcoming events and information:

• UNICEF's Women of Compassion Luncheon on Oct. 13 honors Marjorie Craig Benton and Nancy Searle with UNICEF's Women of Compassion award.
• Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF will begin in October and has provided generations of American children with a way of making a difference in lives around the world.
• Holiday season at UNICEF means a collection of "gifts that give back." Donors can check out the catalogue here.
• Maggie Betts, director of the documentary The Carrier, about HIV and AIDS in Zambia, will speak March 7. 
• Twesigye Jackson Kaguri, author of The Price of Stones: Building a School for my Village, about building the Nyaka AIDS Orphans School in Uganda, will speak June 15.

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*Sept. 16 Correction: Grammatical errors were fixed.