Happy National Volunteer Month!

I volunteer for Harvard Square Homeless Shelter, Camp Calumet, and also provide pro-bono services to Ascentria Care Alliance, and Lutheran World Relief. I also volunteer in a peer‑led recovery organization, which is deeply connected to my values of service and community care. All of these organizations are rooted in my faith tradition and give me meaningful ways to live out my values through service.

I volunteer for a little local camp called Hearty Roots. My daughter is their program director and no one there has a lot of database experience. So I have been helping them streamline and document some policies and procedures for gift and constituent entry so that those who are new to nonprofits can be sure they're entering things right.

Also in my free time I serve on the board of Wicked Arts Maine, and help organize Wicked Burning, Maine's regional Burning Man event. And I am also on the board of the International Appalachian Trail.

From the looks of it all I have a lot of free time, but I just don't sleep much. :)

I've volunteered for Michigan Humane as needed in capacities outside of my normal Administration duties; for almost 20 years, the jobs have been everything from washing laundry, dishes and litter pans, working at events and media interviews, processing vaccines and handling animals, fostering babies, even evacuating animals during a disaster. Somewhat self-serving, but unusually fun as I don't usually get to be around animals!

I volunteer for the Indiana Arthritis Foundation. I used to think arthritis was just a basic disease that everyone gets as they age, but my son was diagnosed with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis when he was just 5 years old and I learned a lot about the disease and how horrible it is. There are quite a varieties of the disease and the Arthritis Foundation helped educate me, provide resources to give to teachers, and connected us with other families so my son knew he wasn't alone as a kid with arthritis. I have volunteered for several years to help organize our annual gala event that raises money for the Arthritis Foundation and all the good things they do.

I have volunteered for years, with several local organizations in different verticals (animal rescue, child welfare, employment re-entry) whose names I won't list right now and you'll understand why in a minute. I provide their website support - if they need a site built, or pages updated and/or added I can do it from home at odd hours or when I"m available. But this past year I found myself in a position where I wasn't able to get out to the sites to volunteer and was missing it tremendously.

When the current prezzident took office and the crew of young bucks run by the owner of .X. started targeting nonprofit organizations that received federal funds-who also promoted the 3 alphabet letters that were deemed against the administration's belief system, it took me a bit to understand how they were identifying these orgs so quickly. Then I realized they were just using keyword bots (which was later confirmed). Sooooo I contacted the organizations that I volunteered for and explained why they might be identified as one who should lose its funding. None of them wanted to remove these words because they were fundamental to their mission and vision and beliefs and we all felt it would be disingenuous to do so just to keep getting the funding. I picked my millenial daughter's brain for some clues on how to hide items in plain sight and came up with a cryptogram list of ways to keep these terms on the websites that bots couldn't identify but real people could "read". As a result Diversity=d!v3r$!ty, equality=30ua1!+y and so on. Plus the fact that I could do it from home made me feel useful again.

After helping the orgs I volunteered with the word spread and my daughter and I ended up replacing targeted keywords on about 20 other organzation websites and then delivered the keyword cryptogram sheet to about 30 more. From what we have heard not a single one of those organizations lost any federal funding and continue to stay open despite what the world has and is experiencing.

It was also quite satisfying if I do say so 😎 It also proves that if you're not in a space where you're able to get out and volunteer in person, you can still make a world of difference from the solace of your own space.

I volunteer as a member of my town's Recreation Committee, and we plan community events and raise money to improve our parks and playgrounds. We've been working to add new accessible playground equipment to all our playgrounds over the past few years. I also volunteer with my local library to sort books for a massive used booksale they have every April, but that also has a huge perk of being able to set aside books I want to buy in advance to add to my collection!

@Sara Niemiec as someone that has needed a transfusion in the past thank you! I'll be thinking of you Tuesday!

I learned so much reading this thread and am in awe! Can't wait to read the other responses as they come into my inbox.

My mom was a volunteer so I always volunteer for something it is hereditary and can be learned! Currently I volunteer where I work when I can to teach students and employees to spin yarn and do other fibery goodness. I love doing this as people are stressed out and the worse thing that happens when it doesn't work is that it isn't yarn. Sometimes just hearing you have nothing to lose by trying is theraputic in itself. Once you actually make yarn (stays together) You can not do it wrong. You might not get what you are trying for in the beginning but novelty yarn is real. Repetative work is healing. When it goes right you can make something that makes someone happy and that person could be you! I either make things for gifts or I donate the sale of items 100% back to the school's fiber arts program.

My other volunteer gig is I help run the Northern New Englad RE Users Group along with some amazing folks! I think you can all understand why I do that 🤣. Most of what I do in the Community here is on my own time as well. I think that counts.

I volunteer at my church, my workplace, my son's ScoutingAmerica Troop, his Band Booster Club, and for friends and family that need a helping hand. I have a difficult time saying "No!" to any request for help! I'm sure there's no one else in this community that can relate to that, right?!? Yeeeaahhhhh…..thought so! LOL! Kudos to all the Volunteers out there! ❤️

Over the past few years, I’ve had the privilege of taking a group of Alvernia University students to Bethlehem Farm for a week of service. What began as my role as a peer minister advisor quickly became something much more. It feels like a second home.

At Bethlehem Farm, we experience what true community looks like. Much like the Blackbaud Community, we work side by side, sharing our talents and learning from one another. That work extends beyond the farm itself and into the surrounding Appalachian community, where the impact is both humbling and meaningful. I look for any opportunity to return.

Service is a core value at Alvernia, and it’s woven into the student experience. Volunteer service is a graduation requirement, supported by the Holleran Center for Community and Global Engagement, which coordinates days of service, Alternative Break trips, and recognizes students who go above and beyond in their commitment to serving others.

It’s incredibly rewarding to be part of a community that not only encourages service but truly lives it.