I had the great pleasure of attending the National Conference on Volunteering & Service in San Francisco on June 21-24. The highlight was the opening session that featured First Lady Michelle Obama, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Maria Shriver and entertainers Jon Bon Jovi and Matthew McConaughey. Quite a cast! It is wonderful that the President and First Lady have such an interest in supporting service... and people are taking note! California is doing some progressive things related to volunteering, including a cabinet post dedicated to service.
I so appreciate the support these officials and celebrities give to service, but I don't want to lose sight of all the hundreds of people who have served on a regular basis for years! Sometimes these new campaigns make it sound like volunteering is a new thing when really it's been part of our community for years.
I also discovered how special Columbia is to have an office dedicated to volunteering within our local government. Of the 5,000 who attended the conference, fewer than 30 worked to manage volunteers within local government. Thanks to our city leaders for making this investment.
On the local front:
- Many thanks to the 18 TreeKeepers and 12 disc golf club members who worked at Oakland Park on Saturday, June 27 remulching the course and pruning.
- Last November, a large group of volunteers worked on a sidewalk assessment project in cooperation with GetAbout Columbia. This week I had a note from the project manager, Kristin Re. While she sent the note to me, the thanks goes to the volunteers who shared their time:
I wanted to send a thank you for helping to garner volunteers to quantify sidewalk accessibility. Without your help and the community's, I would not have been able to collect the data. With the data I was able to present the current conditions to city council and they agreed to repair the measured 18 square blocks. This is a wonderful example of how the community can unite to make the environment usable for every citizen regardless of abilities.
Have a great day --
Leigh Britt
