Serve like a Superhero: Find Motivation in your Origin Story

Season 3, Episode 1

“Every superhero has to go through a moment when they have to examine and choose. Will they choose a path that Will I choose a path that follows my own desires, or will I choose to live a life that serves and helps others around me?”

This moment of choice for a superhero is known as their ORIGIN STORY, that forms the motivation behind their actions.

For volunteers who choose to serve their city, their origin story is also an important part of the motivation that sends them out to serve.

On this episode of Serving Stories, we will find out the origin stories motivating four people to serve—all of whom now work with Serve the City’s International Team.

Listen to the episode HERE:


This is the Serve the City International Leadership Team, on their Spring Retreat. The four people in this episode are: Carlton Deal, CEO (third from right, in back); Hazel Ebenezer, Global Programs Manager (near middle, in yellow); Rene Mally, Board Member (second from left, in back); and Sara Tchaparian, International Development Manager (second from left, in front). The International Leadership Team, composed of the Board, Executive Team and Operations Team, seeks to connect and resource the movement of STC globally.

Carlton Deal is the founder of Serve the City, having started it in Brussels, Belgium almost 20 years ago. His origin story started with leading teenagers on service projects in the Caribbean and Eastern Europe, as a young man leading a youth organisation.

Carlton found motivation to serve not only in the positive results, but also in the friendships he formed while serving and the transformative joy that it brought to volunteers.

Some of Carlton’s motivation comes from the values for serving that you can see on his T-shirt in the photo: humility, compassion, respect, courage, love, and hope.

Carlton started Serve the City with a Big Volunteer Week in Brussels in July 2005. (You can see a video about it at the bottom of the post!) Above, you can see Carlton (and his wife Shannon) at the BVW in 2008; Carlton and friends from the first BVW at the 10th anniversary of STC in 2015; and Carlton with a Roma child in a squat a few years ago.

Hazel Ebenezer, from Goa, India, is the Global Programs Manager for STC International, and also the STC Asia Network Coordinator. Hazel discovered how deep her motivation for serving others was on a high school volunteering trip to Dharasalam in India, protesting to free Tibetan prisoners held in China.

“[The police] pulled up at the side of the road, got out of their cars, came towards us, and asked if they could borrow some of our signs and spend the rest of the time protesting with us and marching with us. And that was really a light bulb moment. And I knew from then on that it’s not about doing social work on the side, this is what I’m called to do. This is what I feel passionate about, and any hesitation or fear I had about what that could look like, just evaporated with that.”

Hazel Ebenezer

Hazel (centre front of group) loves the chance to motivate and connect others in volunteering—especially in Asia! Here she is training our STC Core Team in Manila, Philippines.

Rene Mally, from Germany, is a Board Member and also promoting Environmental projects and infrastructure in STC. He finds great joy and motivation in serving vulnerable children around the world.

Rene’s job has taken him all around the world: Sierra Leone, Argentina, Kazakhstan, Papua New Guinea… even Brussels! And wherever Rene goes, he finds a way to serve children. Twice, Rene has taken a sabbatical to volunteer in various places, such as Peru, Myanmar and Mozambique. On his last sabbatical in the Philippines, he met his wife! She shares his motivation to serve vulnerable kids, and they work together to run a trauma healing centre for children who have experienced sexual abuse.

“Volunteering as part of a relational giving, so to speak, is something that makes people flourish. It’s actually therapeutic in a way, and that’s what keeps me going.”

Rene Mally

This is Sara Tchaparian, with her father, Movses. Sara’s father is Armenian, and the son of survivors of the Armenian genocide in 1915. He grew up in refugee camps in Syria and Lebanon, and today lives in the UK.

Sara sees her father as her inspiration for serving, as he turned his trauma into generosity and care for those around him.

“Probably there was something in me that wanted to seek kind of justice for what had happened to my family because they were in need.”

Sara Tchaparian

Sara has lead many projects at STC Brussels, especially with refugees and migrants. At left, Sara leads volunteers on a project to clean up a shelter for undocumented migrants called Porte d’Ulysse; at right, Sara is with some of the staff of STC Brussels in front of their van.

You can listen to one of our previous episodes, featuring Sara, about the Porte d’Ulysse project in Brussels HERE.

And below is a video from our very first Big Volunteer Week in Brussels in 2005!

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