#101 Volunteers

Wikipedia says that Volunteerism is the willingness of people to work on behalf of others without the expectation of pay or other tangible gain. Volunteers may have special training as rescuers, guides, assistants, teachers, missionaries, writers, and in other positions. According to the US Dept. of Labor there were 61,199,000 Americans volunteering in 2006. They clean up our shore lines; visit children in cancer wards, plant trees, help somebody learn to read, or help raise money for non profit organizations in their community.

I laud these efforts. These people believe that they can make a difference. Their efforts make up the gap between what can be done by our civic institutions and private enterprise. If not for these efforts non-profit organizations like Goodwill, Farm Sanctuary, America's Second Harvest could not opperate. I feel that the most heroic efforts of grassroots organization came in the wake of Hurricane Katrina where the work volunteers have contributed is worth $263 million to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. The Corporation for National and Community Service said about 550,000 people volunteered in the first year after the 2005 hurricane and 600,000 in the past year.