Making a difference

"In recognition and appreciation of your commitment to strengthening our nation and for making a difference through volunteer service,” Deenaz Coachbuilder was conferred The President’s Volunteer Service Award that was presented by the President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation, as notes the accompanying certificate. Along with the certificate Coachbuilder received a personal letter signed by President Barack Obama and a lapel pin for donating more than 500 hours of service.

"We need a new era of responsibility — a recognition on the part of every American that we have duties to ourselves, our nation and the world. These are duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit than giving our all to a difficult task. Your volunteer service demonstrates the kind of commitment to your community that moves America a step closer to its great promise…Thank you for your devotion to service and for doing all you can to shape a better tomorrow for our great nation,” noted Obama’s letter.

The Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice (CCAEJ) where Coachbuilder has been a member of the board of directors and its president honored her with a Volunteer Recognition dinner on February 3, 2011 at the Jurupa Area Recreation and Parks District office in Glen Avon, California. Besides working for a cleaner and safer environment in the Riverside and San Bernardino counties, the self motivated worker has also served as advisory member of the Riverside County Transportation Commission and been president of the India Association of Inland Empire. Principal of the San Bernardino City Unified School District for the last two decades, she had earlier served as coordinator of its communicatively handicapped programs and itinerant services.

"A few years ago I decided that if I wanted to live in a community that was as smog free as possible, environmentally healthy and green, instead of complaining, I should do something about it,” wrote Coachbuilder in response to Parsiana’s e-mail queries. Her association with the CCAEJ extended to their building a 14-acre community park, researching the breathing capacity of young children afflicted with asthma and upper respiratory problems, training young mothers and housewives to live environmentally safe lives, informing minority groups of their rights as citizens and encouraging them to vote, etc.

A long standing member and supporter of the Zoroastrian Association of California (ZAC) and a major donor for the new ZAC center, Coachbuilder refers to her own involvement as also of her husband Pheroze who happily pruned and clipped plants and cleared weeds for the new center.

Deenaz Coachbuilder (alongside and inset) receives The President’s Volunteer Service Award

A speech and language pathologist by training, Coachbuilder is a member of the national American Speech Language Association and has taught courses at the California State University as an adjunct professor in the area of communication strategies for individuals with mild to moderate and severe disabilities. After her graduation from Bombay’s St Xavier’s College, she did her masters from the Bombay University, PhD in theater arts from Brigham Young University, MS in communicative disorders from Utah State University and post doctorate in special education from the University of California. Her commitment to social welfare she imbibed from her mother Freiny Paymaster. While her husband Barjor was busy with his duties as an ICS (Indian Civil Service) officer, Freiny would devote time and energies to rescue young women from prostitution and supervise a remand home in Bombay’s Naigaum area. "Continuing in her footsteps,” Coachbuilder as a board member of the Guild of Service that runs the home attends meetings when she is in Bombay, analyzes psycho-educational reports when needed and extends monetary help regularly.

Inspired by the values of charity and "protecting the poor” as enshrined in the Gathas, Coachbuilder writes, "I believe I must make things better… and give of myself while still keeping myself whole.” Zoroastrianism encourages one to develop one’s potential, states the multifaceted lady who enjoys reading, gardening, oil painting, writing poems and long walks in equal measure. "A reflective, contented mind is the best possession,” she quotes the Ushtavaiti Gatha. With her progressive views, she declares she would happily "support a child with one Zoroastrian parent who wishes to be initiated into our religion” and wishes that India too could ordain lady mobedyars as they recently did in Iran.