Philip Jaffa has been volunteering at the Alternative House Teen Shelter for 9 years.  He initially volunteered to cook Friday dinners but then decided to forego the evening traffic (what traffic?) to cook breakfast on Sundays.
 

Philip is amazing because he volunteers at Alternative House every Sunday!!  Philip was touched recently by the visit from "Tina": a former teen shelter resident who stopped by the Teen Shelter briefly to say "thank you" for the help she had received.  "One of the challenges with a 'transitional' program like Alternative House is that you don't know how things ultimately work out," says Philip. "What walked out the door at Alternative House eight years ago was a 13 year old girl with a world full of trouble--and none of it of her own making.  What walked in the door was a confident grown woman about to graduate from college."

"At Alternative House," he says, "we really do make a difference."

Philip is originally from Columbus, Ohio and has been living in Arlington,VA with his wife for 30 years.  They have 2 sons, one who is an electrical engineer who runs a test and evaluation lab for phased array radars, and the other who is finishing up a PhD in Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at Notre Dame.   "One electrical, one mechanical," says Philip, "so between the two of them they can fix just about anything."  His hobbies, he says,
include running and biking--and waiting for his sons to fix things around the house. 

Thank you Philip!!...for the 9 years of making a difference in lives of the young people who come to the Teen Shelter.