While she was growing up in Colorado’s foothills, April Glaser
was a child of great advantages. Glaser lived in Littleton’s Ken
Caryl valley, where she attended Chatfield High School, began a
successful career in modeling by the age of 13 and, by 18, launched
a three-year career as a Denver Broncos cheerleader.
Well beyond high school graduation, Glaser embraced her middle
class upbringing and enjoyed all of its benefits. She was
financially secure, well-educated and enjoyed the social status and
spotlight that comes with beauty and privilege. But by the time she
left the Broncos cheerleading team and earned her bachelor’s degree
from CU Boulder, she knew that something was missing.
Glaser spent part of her childhood volunteering at her school,
tutoring classmates who needed extra help. Each year, she
participated in the Susan G. Komen Walk For the Cure and,
throughout high school, volunteered at retirement homes, visiting
elderly residents. When she finished her work with the Broncos and
it came time to decide what to do with the rest of her life, she
felt a pull toward her volunteer roots.
“I had always been extremely … blessed,” Glaser said. “I felt so
compelled to give back. It started building up in me over time that
I wanted to give back to those less fortunate than myself. I really
felt I had to see poverty first hand, live it and deal with it day
in and day out, before I could go on with the rest of my life.”
Shortly after her 2008 graduation from college, Glaser packed
her life’s belongings into storage and set out for an independent
mission to southeast Asia. There, she spent the next six months
expanding her boundaries to a world unlike anything she’d seen
before. Her conservative family was shocked but eventually
supportive of her decision to set out on her own.
Glaser began her journey in Thailand, where she taught yoga and
studied Thai massage. She continued to Cambodia and dedicated
herself to working at a local orphanage, where she met people whose
spirit transcended the most abject kind of poverty.
“The people I met were so gracious and giving and generous even
though they had very, very little,” Glaser said. “They were living
well under poverty level and yet they were friendly and happy and
willing to give whatever they had to you.”
Her time in the orphanage proved to be a humbling, eye-opening
and transformative experience. In her outreach with Cambodian
orphans, Glaser learned that happiness is not in material
possessions, but in relationships, bonding and intangible
connections with others that “can’t be held” in your hand, she
said.
Now 24, Glaser returned form the trip with a mission to reach
out to others, sharing a culture that most people in America will
never see. She hopes to spread the message about the beauty of
giving back. She wrote a book, “Learning to Fly … A Journey through
Cambodia and Life” and hopes to share her message with area youth
who are just beginning to learn about the value of
volunteering.
“I think it’s a great message to bring to the younger generation
about how you can help other people and give back,” Glaser said.
“You get so much more in return. The feeling of giving your time
and your heart and energy to someone else is so rewarding. It
turned me into a child from the ‘I-want-it-now’ generation, so used
to having everything she could ever want, into being completely
humbled and grateful for everything in my life.”