As good as it gets

Editorial

Give a little, get a lot.

We reflect on the truth of this time-honored adage as we mark National Volunteer Week, April 19-25.

In the Valley, some 400 volunteers kicked off the period fittingly on April 18 with Mitzvah Day, a day-long community event sponsored by the Jewish Federation's Jewish Community Relations Council. Men, women and children spent the warm spring Sunday working for good at more than two dozen Valley sites. They raked and painted, repaired and refurbished, read stories and listened to them. By day's end, they had prepared more than 7,000 peanut-butter and jelly/marshmallow-creme sandwiches for St. Vincent de Paul Society shelters; others sported sunburned noses, tired muscles and broad smiles.

But volunteering should not be only a once-a-year endeavor. Nearly 1 million not-for-profit organizations and institutions nationally rely on 90 million volunteers. Many of these social service, health, arts and advocacy organizations would not exist without volunteers, and few could serve as many or do as much. Volunteers provide essential hands-on assistance and lend managerial and professional expertise that is critical to the success of a non-profit. Members of local and national boards help to advance the key goals of the organization, and the well-being of those the organization services, by raising money, setting policy and lending pro bono services.

Volunteer work provides unique opportunities for students and young adults to hone valuable skills. Teamwork, responsibility and time management come with the territory. Specific expertise learned in a voluntary capacity can be parlayed into qualifications for a job with a paycheck. Too, volunteer work provides people of all ages the opportunity to feel good about themselves and those they are helping, to come away at the end of each day with heightened self-confidence and self-esteem.

Give a little, get a lot? You bet. During National Volunteer Week, and throughout the year, let's resolve that giving is as good as it gets.

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