The last six weeks of the year is a time when people who feel blessed in life typically give back to their communities. In the spirit of the holidays, people volunteer at food banks or work with those who are less fortunate.
At United Way, we decided to ask our employees and community members to share, in their own words, a memorable volunteer experience they’ve had. Over the next few weeks, we will be sharing some of them here in the blog. Today’s post comes from Nic Hunter.
When I first moved to San Francisco 4 years ago, I didn’t know anyone. A co-worker of mine said that the best way to make friends was to start volunteering. I’d never volunteered before, so this was a completely strange concept to me. But I figured it was worth a shot and that I would try it out. While walking around town, I came across this neat store in the Castro called Under One Roof which I found out was a non-profit organization run by volunteers. The purpose of the store was to generate funds for agencies that provide HIV/AIDS education and support services. This was such a neat concept that I knew I had to be a part of it. And I hoped that by volunteering for something that I thought was a worthwhile cause, I would also meet people with the same mind frame that I could become friends with.
Four years and hundreds of volunteer hours later, I’m still with Under One Roof. With my professional experience in the non-profit field, I’ve been able to assist them with various things from one spectrum to the other. And on top of that, I’ve got my set days (every Monday and Wednesday night after work for three hours) that I’m in the store helping out with the retail aspect.
People have commented on my volunteer schedule, stating that I devote a significant amount of time to volunteering and wonder how it’s possible that I can work, volunteer, and still have time for myself to do the things that I enjoy. To me, it’s a pretty simple answer – I volunteer because it’s something that I do enjoy, and therefore it’s not a burden. From the friends that I’ve met (either fellow volunteers or faithful customers), each shift that I am there is always fun. So to me, I’m giving back to my community and having a good time.
I’ve branched out since then and, while I still volunteer my time with Under One Roof, I’ve begun the process of starting to volunteer with other agencies (National AIDS Memorial Grove and PAWS SF) to assist with as well. I know that no one person can do everything for a community, but one person can do something. Even if that something is small or seems insignificant, it will ultimately spark a fire in someone else to invigorate them to volunteer. To this day my friends still say that I am a “serial do-gooder” but to me I’m just having doing my part to give back to my community and having fun at the same time.
