United Way - Volunteer Appreciation

For our closing session, we were briefly addressed by Governor Tim Kaine. His speech was very enlightening. He spoke about how our Virginia colleges have the highest number of student volunteers than any other state. Not only do we have the highest number of student volunteers, we also have one of the highest volunteer percentages in the country - 1 in 5 Virginians actively volunteer! But what would happen if we didn't have volunteers? Governor Kaine commented that "we would all be very miserable." In fact, it's true - we are happier because we volunteer - we actually have stronger communities because we volunteer.

I started thinking about all of this, and realized that our ratio is more than 1 in 5. I believe, in a way, everyone is a volunteer. Yes, we have the devoted volunteers, like at United Way, we have office volunteers, Board and committee volunteers, and all their hours are logged by us. But what about you? I'll bet that when we have a bad storm, you go outside the next day to help your neighbor pick up branches and clean up leaves; you probably help reach for something on a shelf in the grocery store for someone shorter than yourself; and when you get to a friends house for a dinner party and see she needs help getting the food into the dining room, no doubt you lend a hand; and when you see a friend who's car has broken down by the side of the road, you'll pull over to see if you can help or at least sit with them until the tow truck arrives . . . . . Have you done any of these things? I'm sure you have. To me, these are all uncounted volunteer hours. A 1 in 5 volunteer ratio? I would say it's more like every one of us.

National Volunteer Week was last week, in recognition of that, I, along with all the staff at United Way, would like to personally thank all the hundreds of volunteers that give their time, knowledge and devotion to help us at United Way. On our national Day of Caring event in September, countless volunteers donate their time and energy at our partner agencies or other non-profit programs. On a daily basis, we are grateful for all the volunteers who serve week after week. While I cannot name all our wonderful volunteers here - you know who you are and know that you are appreciated in many ways by all of us at United Way and by the non-profit agencies who depend on the caring hearts of our community citizens.

I'd like to take a moment to acknowledge our office volunteer who accrued more than 200 hours in 2007 - Eleanor Wade, she actually logged over 270 hours. Sheila Subkoff logged over 100 hours and Lillian Lee logged close to 130 hours, both Sheila and Lillian give of their time to help the office staff in our Information and Referral office, helping with client intake and data entry.