Rocky Beach volunteering during Week of Caring
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. Rocky Beach has worked at United Way for 7 ½ years. He is a member of our Development Team, which raises money for the community.
“I am proud of the work that we do at United Way because we bring people together to learn about challenges facing our community and encourage thousands of individuals to make a difference by giving, volunteering, and advocating for important programs.
I have been giving, advocating, and volunteering for many years. Since I was young, my parents have always encouraged me to be community-minded and help those around us. I think that volunteering is a larger idea than just getting involved with a nonprofit to paint a fence, read to children, or pack food at the Food Bank. While all of these activities are critically important to our community, I feel that they are just subsets of volunteering. In my opinion, the larger ‘idea’ of volunteerism encompasses being mentally and physically connected to the world around us.
Whether it is taking a moment to think about the impacts of our actions or something as simple as picking up trash on the sidewalk, I think that it is important to be ‘connected’ to our community by volunteering our mental and physical energy to make our world a better place. The next time you see someone asking for directions, broken down in their car, or carrying a big box down the street, volunteer to help. We all need help sometimes.”
