How Are You Going to Contribute to National Volunteer Week?

It’s Time to Make a Difference

National Volunteer Week, April 12–18, is about inspiring, recognizing and encouraging people to seek out imaginative ways to engage in their communities. It’s about meeting challenges and accomplishing goals by working together. Essentially, it’s about coming together as a nation.

National Volunteer Week was established in 1974 and has grown exponentially each year, with thousands of volunteer projects and special events scheduled throughout the week.

National Volunteer Week is about taking action and encouraging individuals and their respective communities to be at the center of social change — discovering and actively demonstrating their collective power to make a difference.

Volunteerism is a growing national trend for vacationers looking to turn their time off the clock into time spent expressly to help others. But you don’t have to travel across the globe to make a difference. Right here on the Emerald Coast, there is no shortage of charities, causes and organizations in need of hands-on help.

Where do you start? Your company may have chosen charities it supports on an annual basis. Your church may be able to suggest some community services in need. And your friends, family and neighbors may be on boards and committees of organizations looking for support. Or simply follow your personal passion. Do you love the arts? Animals? Children? Projects? Many charities have annual events that can only be produced with the help of volunteers. Or perhaps you can champion a cause related to a personal experience.

If you aren’t sure what organization to help, perhaps you’ll find solace knowing anything you can do to help is surely better than doing nothing. Don’t place unnecessary stress on yourself. No one expects a whole lot from a volunteer, so it’s easy to under-promise and over-deliver. Join the ranks of 62.6 million Americans who volunteer at least once a year, and give the one gift only you can — your time.