Passionate Givers: Causes May Vary, But Motivation Behind Them The Same

It seems that those who have the most to do end up doing the most.

Three Arkansans are exemplifying this while they balance their busy lives against donating their time, efforts and money to help others with various causes. One person is working toward stopping human trafficking in the state. Another hopes to raise $1 million this fall for the American Cancer Society, and a third wants to ensure that habitats for ducks are sustained in Arkansas for generations to come.

The three are varied in their careers and endeavors, but they all exhibit the drive necessary to help with important causes.

A new path

Carolyn Boshears was an interior designer in Little Rock who made jewelry and dabbled in antiques when she heard Louise Allison speak at Fellowship Bible Church in west Little Rock 11 years ago.

Allison talked about a new organization called Partners Against Trafficking Humans. PATH, which began operations in 2011, was the first anti-trafficking agency in the state. After hearing some of the horrendous stories about children and women forced and sold into the sex trade, Boshears was hooked and wanted to help.

She made bracelets, earrings, necklaces and other jewelry and sold them at boutiques to raise funds for the organization.

“It was a nightmare,” she said of the amount of work put into that first fundraising event, “but it was fun.”

She has volunteered with PATH ever since, helping it grow into an organization that opened a transitional home for trafficking victims, developed a day center for sexual abuse survivors — the first of its kind in the nation — and worked with the Arkansas General Assembly to change and establish new laws about trafficking.

Boshears said she does not remember how much that boutique sale raised. but even if she did, she would probably not reveal the amount. She is very humble about her involvement with PATH and diverts attention to Allison and others.

“It wasn’t a tremendous amount,” she said, “but it was fun, and it was a start. I was on the fundraising committee after that. I’m the only one left [after 11 years on the committee] still working with PATH.”

Like others when they first hear about trafficking in Arkansas, Boshears said she could not comprehend that it was actually happening in the state.

“You just don’t believe people can do that,” she said. “Not in Arkansas.”

She learned that Interstates 30 and 40, which cut through the state, provide a trafficking pipeline between the west coast and east coast of the U.S. and is a link to Mexico, where much of the trafficking also occurs.

“I think of retiring from this sometime,” said Boshears, 82, “but sometimes I see some of the girls who come through and I talk with them. I’m grandmotherly toward them. I hear their stories and I think, ‘I can’t quit yet.’ It just breaks my heart.

“If we can save just one, it’s all been worth it,” she said.

Boshears and other members of PATH have helped rescue young girls and provide them with simple skills. Some are as young as 8, 10 and 12 years old.

“Some don’t even know how to brush their hair,” she said. “We do take care of the girls.”

PATH also provides a safe house at a secret location and gives rescued survivors access to health care and psychologists.

“I’ve often asked God why he put me here,” Boshears said. “This would not be a choice thing to do. But I have a heart for these girls. I think, without a doubt, that God put me here to help.”

Driving the Muss Bus

Being the wife of the University of Arkansas basketball coach Eric Musselman is a task in itself for Danyelle Sargent Musselman.

There is the traveling with the team for games and being a driving force behind the coach. She has a daughter in school and, as a former sports reporter for ESPN, Fox Sports Net, Yahoo Sports and the NFL Network, she travels to colleges and universities to talk to aspiring broadcasters.

One of her main focuses lies with the American Cancer Society. For three years now, she has hosted the state’s Suits and Sneakers Gala as part of a nationwide fundraising event involving basketball coaches.

Danyelle Musselman

For this year’s event, scheduled for the Fayetteville Town Center on Oct. 13, Musselman’s goal is to raise $1 million.

“This has always been my main cause,” she said. “I don’t think anyone doesn’t know someone who’s dealt with cancer. It’s easily relatable.”

Musselman’s mother had breast cancer. A neighbor of hers was recently diagnosed with cancer.

Suits and Sneakers is a creative event that is so fun it draws people back yearly, Musselman said, adding “It’s such a fun event. As soon as we hold it, people say they want to come back the next year.”

It is a tough venture for her to manage. The event comes just as college basketball season is nearing the beginning of the season. There are kids in school and events she attends.

“We work from a calendar week-to-week during the season,” she said.

But it is not an unfamiliar pace for her.

She worked as a national sports broadcaster for a decade between 2004 and 2013 at a time when female sportscasters were viewed as a rarity. She first worked at Metro Sports in Kansas City, where she covered the NFL’s Chiefs before going on to ESPN. She moved to Fox Sports Net, where she anchored the Final Score program. Then was an update anchor for the NFL Network.

Now she supports her husband, spend time with her family and work on her charities.

Last year, Musselman was awarded the St. George National Award by the American Cancer Society for her work. The award was given to 12 people across the United States.

“I was super honored by that,” Musselman said of the recognition. She’s also active in the Make-A-Wish Foundation and works with Waiters for Wishes, an event held in September with Arkansas Razorback basketball players serving as the celebrity wait staff.

She also serves on the board for New Beginnings, a program aimed at helping homeless transition.

“I’m a worker,” she said. “I’m not one who sits at home. I’m constantly working on projects, but I won’t take on anything that will overload me.”

The natural

George Dunklin Jr., the owner of Five Oaks Duck Lodge in Humphrey on the Arkansas-Jefferson county line, joined Ducks Unlimited half a century ago when he was 16 years old. He has been there ever since and served as its president from 2013 to 2015. He was on its board of directors from 2015 to 2017 and is now the organization’s chairman of public policy.

Recently, he took a whirlwind trip to Washington, D.C., to meet with other board members and then returned home on a late night flight.

“I joined for the cause,” he said of joining Ducks Unlimited in 1976. “I stayed for the people. You meet people with the same passion. One of my best friends is from Wisconsin, who I met [through DU].”

George Dunklin Jr.

Since then, Dunklin has become one of the main forces behind preserving wetlands and waterfowl habitat in Arkansas.

He has also established a research program at the University of Arkansas at Monticello that allows students to live on his land near Stuttgart and work during the semester on conservation efforts.

The program costs about $750,000 and gives five students scholarships to participate. Students learn about land management, preservation of wetlands and the business of running the Five Oaks Duck Lodge, which is on land his grandfather, Lester A. Black, acquired in 1907.

Students even learn about hospitality by working at the lodge and meeting the hunters who visit.

Dunklin was born in 1956 and raised near DeWitt. He grew up in areas where ducks were plentiful, and he reaped the rewards of good wetlands and habitats.

He went to college at the University of Memphis in 1980 and there met his wife-to-be, Livia. The two seemed to be from different worlds. He from the duck fields of the eastern Arkansas prairie while she, a business major, grew up in the urban sprawl of New York.

When he graduated college, he returned to his land and began conservation practices to improve the habitat for his beloved ducks.

“It was my passion,” he said.

Dunklin merged his other passion and married Livia in 1987. She moved to his Humphrey home, and they have three daughters.

Livia Dunklin is also giving. On the night George flew home from Washington, D.C., his wife was volunteering in the pediatric unit at Arkansas Children’s in Little Rock.

“She loves holding those babies,” he said.

Dunklin is motivated in part by what happened to quail in his area. Because of changes in land, construction, farming and failure to preserve habitat, the quail that once thrived there have all but disappeared.

“That can happen with ducks, too, if we’re not careful,” he said. “You have to have quality habitat. We’re part of the Mississippi flyway. It needs to be a safe place where ducks can meet their mates. Some places can get worse, and habitat can change.”

Dunklin said he plans to continue to develop his property, work with Ducks Unlimited and, most importantly, fund his scholarship program.

“I’m not retiring anytime soon,” he said. “I want to teach [students] about all the mistakes I’ve made so they can bypass that and continue to build on our successes. There’s a lot of work left to do.”