Acts of kindness
Marlene Rotstein gives her time to many charitable causes, but none is as close to her heart as helping children.
Rotstein was recently named "volunteer of the year" by the Starlight Starbright Children's Foundation, which organizes spa days, boat cruises and other special events for seriously ill children and their families.
The Los Angeles-based organization wanted to thank Rotstein for helping to raise more than $350,000 in donations since becoming involved with Starlight in 2004.
So they offered to donate a gift to an organization or hospital of her choosing. She picked Children's Memorial Hospital, where she's been volunteering for 22 years.
Last week, the hospital got a new mobile entertainment center from Starlight in Rotstein's honor.
"It was priceless to be able to get the recognition in the first place and to share it with an organization that's been important to me for so long," she said.
Rotstein, who lives in Lincoln Park and works for an insurance firm, can't pinpoint one thing that made her start volunteering at Children's. But she knows why she stayed.
"The kids are amazin'," she said. "They never feel sorry for themselves. They give me so much more than I give them."
