Girl Talk founder earns Points of Light Tribute Award

ALBANY — As Albany native Haley Kilpatrick Dozier stood on a Washington, D.C. stage last week, accepting a prestigious Points of Light Tribute Award for the work she has accomplished in the last 15 years with Girl Talk, the nonprofit organization she started while still a sophomore at Deerfield Windsor School, her thoughts flashed immediately to all the “points of light” that helped guide her way.

Kilpatrick said thoughts of people like her school counselor, Sara Orgel; one of her early mentors, Debbie Lentz; her seventh-grade teacher, Sharon Presley, who also served as the first Girl Talk advisor; Molly Swan, who served as a cheerleader and a “prayer warrior” for the burgeoning organization, crowded in her mind.

“Girl Talk celebrates 15 years this school year,” said Kilpatrick during a recent phone interview from the Girl Talk offices in Atlanta. “It’s really humbling to think back to the 50 girls we were serving in Albany. This award is really for the people in Albany who said yes to this crazy dream.”

Kilpatrick rattled off an impressive list of Albanians who helped her along the way, people like Pam McDonald, Mary Catherine Kinney, Christie Riles Riner, Judi Sikora, Bobbi Joiner, Frances Collings, Melissa Hodges, Valerie Benton and several more.

There was former DWS headmaster W.T. Henry, who Kilpatrick said thought “it was a good idea that girls get together and talk about their struggles at the school” and encouraged the high schooler to create what was then a peer club, focused on self-esteem.

There were people like Henry’s wife, Ruth, who stepped in when Presley accepted another job, and there was her own mother, Tanya Kilpatrick, who asked her struggling teenage daughter, “What are you going to do about it? How are you going to solve this problem? You can’t just talk about it.”

“I just felt myself going back to 2002 and thinking about the beautiful mixture of people and love and light that comes out of Albany and how, without each and every one of those key individuals, I wouldn’t have been up on that podium in front of this incredible group of people sharing where Girl Talk is today and that we’re serving 60,000 girls,” Kilpatrick said, fighting back tears. “Those are the real points of light.”

Given annually by Points of Light, a worldwide organization created 25 years ago to empower volunteer service by former President George H.W. Bush, the Tribute Awards are presented to individuals and organizations who make what the Points of Light website calls “extraordinary contributions to volunteering and service.”

“The way they said they choose who is a recipient of the Tribute Award is they’re seeking someone who not only exists as a point of light in the world, but someone who helps to empower and/or create other, or additional, points of light throughout the world,” explained Kilpatrick. “I’m not the sole vessel of the incredible work that happens. It’s thousands of high school girls and school counselors and teachers who are all points of light.

“They roll up their sleeves and they serve within their schools and their communities. In fact, there’s 60,000 of them each school year, right now, who are doing it in North America and beyond.”

Although humbled by the recognition she’s received from the Points of Light award, and reflective of those who helped make the Girl Talk dream a reality, Kilpatrick said the honor also helped strengthen her resolve as she looks toward the nonprofit’s future.

“I’m so proud of 60,000, yet I’m reminded every single day, now as a mom to a daughter, how much work is still left to be done,” she said. “We have more than 13 million girls right here in our own country who need help, and they need guidance, so I’m motivated and more committed than ever before.

“But I would say, to also take it back, I’m more committed to being a point of light, being that one person, now, as an adult, who is going to be a Mr. Henry or a Ms. Orgel or a Ms. Presley or a Ms. Lentz, in another girl’s life when she comes in here with a dream or idea. I’m committed to always being that person who tries to speak life into their dreams.”

The renewed focus on Girl Talk also comes at a time when the organization is at somewhat of a transition point. Kilpatrick said Girl Talk leadership has been engaged in what she calls a “discovery phase,” where the girls it serves, and the program mentors, have been interviewed and have provided input on how to improve the Girl Talk program as it moves into the next phase of its development.

A lot of that future is connected to the evolution of technology, which Kilpatrick said is vital to the Girl Talk program.

“We’re able to measure not just the problem and solution that exists in the girl world and how Girl Talk is a part of that solution, but we’re looking at how we continue to stay relevant and continue to be a part of the solution,” said Kilpatrick. “When I started Girl Talk in 2002, I was stressed about feeding my Tamagotchi, which is this key chain pet in my locker, and I had dial-up AOL internet at home.

“Just 15 years later, technology has evolved more than it ever has in our history combined, and the platform in which Girl Talk serves girls is an online platform. It’s not how they meet and where the magic happens, that happens in person in their communities, but it’s why we’re able to provide our program at no cost.”

Therefore Girl Talk is in the midst of launching a capital campaign to help the organization improve its technology and expand its reach.

“Privately, we’ve secured a portion of the funds, but (we need) a public capital campaign to help us remain relevant and offer a complete digital experience,” she said. “It’s not just a platform. It includes a website, a comprehensive database, a corresponding app, and there are opportunities for girls to connect with our other women leaders across the country who want to serve and help these girls evolve into confident, kind leaders.”

Kilpatrick said the nonprofit’s leadership team is currently putting the finishing touches on a new marketing campaign that aligns with a slight alteration of the organization’s mission, what she calls a “brand repositioning.”

“Right now, the site would say that our mission is more focused on mentoring leadership and community service,” Kilpatrick said. “Our (new) mission is to inspire all girls to develop the confidence to lead, and our vision is that girls will lead a confident life and grow into women who support and encourage one another. So, we’re just kind of reframing (that) a little bit, because it really is about leadership and confidence and properly defining what leadership is, so girls of all backgrounds can grab ahold of that.

“I dream of a world where girls aren’t feeling that one or two girls in their class are leaders, where they know that each girl has their own strength.”

Although she shies away from the spotlight, Kilpatrick said she feels that her dream moved a little closer to reality when she took the stage at the residence of the German Ambassador to the United States earlier this month to accept the Points of Light award.

She also said that the experience further solidified her feeling that the lessons she learned and the support she was given over the last 15 years will help Girl Talk grow toward an even better future. For Kilpatrick ,the key to the future is firmly rooted in the past.

“The award might have been a Tribute Award, but it’s really a tribute to the Good Life City of Albany, which I’m proud to be from,” she said. “We’re growing up. It’s exciting. I feel like Girl Talk is probably entering its middle school years in terms of its life cycle, and I’m probably more optimistic and encouraged than ever before.

“But I’m also able to boldly say that I can’t do this alone. This is a huge undertaking as we look to what the possibility of Girl Talk is. I’m excited.”

To learn more about Points of Light visit www.pointsoflight.org. To learn more about Girl Talk visit mygirltalk.org.