Few can describe the impact of volunteering more insightfully than the
volunteers themselves. Here is a selection of some of the "voices" from across the United States
reflecting that experience.
Volunteerism to me is a way to build community. The world often seems too big, the problems
too
weighty for any one person to have any impact. As a volunteer with Twin Cities Habitat for
Humanity, I saw how much one person can do. Best of all, we get to impact not faceless
strangers,
but families -- families we can get to know and work with side by side.
-- Joan Palmquist, Minneapolis,
Minnesota
It's a major priority for the church that volunteer
ministry should be open to everybody who
worships at the Basilica. We try to structure volunteer ministry to give parishioners a real sense
of
ownership. The church is more than theology, liturgy, or bricks and mortar. In the end, the
church
is the people. And as people become involved, we all grow stronger.
-- Lisa Shaughnessy, director of volunteer ministry,
Basilica of St. Mary,
Minneapolis, Minnesota
After working for the federal [U.S.] government
for nearly 40 years, I retired in 1994. The
very next day, I returned to work for the NRCS as a volunteer. Hardly a day passes that someone
-- family member, employee or friend -- does not ask me, `Why are you doing it?' My answer is
that I like the work. I enjoy the people with whom I work. I believe in what I
am
doing, and I feel that I am making a difference. Also, after being a federal employee for many
years, I am now giving something back.
-- June J. Hogg, regional volunteer coordinator,
NRCS, Richmond,
Virginia
I've always worked with very, very small things
that you need a microscope to see. I wanted
to build something you could see from a block away.
-- Burt Keel, former micro-chip engineer, now a volunteer with
Twin Cities
Habitat
for Humanity, Minneapolis, Minnesota
The following individuals volunteer their time and talents through their corporate
employers:
People often ask me, what do you get out of
volunteering? I tell them it's not what I get but
what I become. I'm transformed by it. I've seen this transformation not only in me, but over and
over again in the lives of others who volunteer and give back to their communities. Volunteering
enriches and strengthens families. What better way to unite your family than to volunteer
together
for some community activity? I have also learned so much from being involved. I've become
more
organized and efficient and have learned how to create a team.
-- Susan Kohn, banker, Bank of America, Reading,
California,
and Team
America
Volunteer of the Year 1997
Many employees tell me they are proud to work
for a company that supports a corporate
volunteer program so emphatically. I am constantly exhilarated by the energy and commitment
of
our volunteers, and the responses we get from the people whose lives we touch a smile from an
elderly person who would have been lonely without us, or from the Special Olympics [a
competition
for the physically or mentally challenged] athlete so thrilled that we're there.
-- Carol Reiser, community affairs
director,
Rich's/Lazarus/Goldsmith's,
Federated
Department Stores, Inc., Cincinnati,
Ohio
I like being involved with performances that
involve the community. The more we can teach
children and the community at large to appreciate art, the better off our communities will be. I
don't want to work for some company that doesn't think it has an obligation to make my
community
a better place to live.
-- Alexa Beutler, human resources
manager,
Time Warner Cable, Nebraska
Division
As a "techie," I find volunteering immensely
rewarding. I am working with my local school
district to develop an action plan to integrate technology into the daily curriculum. By my
guiding
teachers, our kids will leave school with an adequate grounding in what is becoming more
complex
and powerful technology.
-- Steve Cropper, managing director, SITE-Infrastructure
Projects,
Charles
Schwab
and Co., Inc.
Last year, we organized "Helping Hands Day."
Five hundred employees and their families
got together to pack boxes with food and toys. It was truly gratifying to see our children get a
hands-on experience of giving back to others less fortunate. Of the people served by this food,
30
percent are seniors who must choose between spending their meager income on food, rent or
medicine. By mounting one of the largest corporate food drives in the United States, we're doing
our part to make such difficult choices unnecessary.
-- Donna Hayden, supervisor, Applied
Materials'
Worldwide Manufacturing
Operations Logistics,
Santa Clara,
California
