Natalye Paquin, president and chief executive officer of Points of Light says the Global Volunteer Month is the entire month of April where we are encouraging businesses, non-profits and individuals to lift up and celebrate volunteers doing good work in communities. She says we know that volunteers are the backbone of our communities, we believe that every action matters, and no act is too small. This is a month to really say thank you.
What does volunteerism look like in 2022? Natalye says it looks like volunteerism always looked like but sometimes we have these everyday regular actions that we don’t consider volunteerism, like when you are driving a friend or a neighbor to pick up groceries or to pick up medicines. She says you can be doing something virtually by helping organize an event; you can be supporting a young person, encouraging them to do well in school as a mentor but you don’t consider yourself a mentor and then of course when you are making those phone calls and checking in on folks, those are wellness checks and so all of those actions are volunteerism and there is no reason to be intimidated about how to get started.
Natalye says the number one reason why people volunteer is because they have been invited, they were asked and we ask you to ask a friend, invite them to join you, share the impact of the experience, talk about how it felt and then if you give them a good time you are likely to have them for a lifetime.
You can also visit their website where they have tools and resources to help you get started and they also have stories that are inspirational and messages about what people are doing in communities all around the world.
For more information go to pointsoflight.org
