When I dropped my son off at preschool this morning, it was 29 degrees outside.  Not a warm morning to say the least, but at least it wasn’t raining, and I was off to help a group of volunteers build a playground at West Fenwick Park in Kent.

What I found when I arrived was about 30 volunteers from United Way, The Seattle Seahawks, GMC and a playground building company Sitelines, all digging in the frozen earth and laughing.

The build was part of…

The smallest boy in the Pike Market Child Care & Preschool class grabbed Harry’s hand to head back to school after a field trip to the library, and Harry instantly changed his plan to return to work. Holding the child’s hand, he walked with the class back to preschool. Harry is just that kind of guy.

Harry Bonnette is a Customer Service Specialist at United Way of King County and he has been a Volunteer Reader for four years. He started with a class of…

Veterans Day is a bit of an anomaly of a holiday. Unlike its fellow Federal Holidays, Presidents Day and Columbus Day, that recognize people who have made important contributions to our country, Veterans Day is unique in that many of those being honored are still alive, and virtually all of us have some connection to them. That’s pretty neat if you think about it. Maybe it’s your uncle who served in Vietnam, or your little sister stationed overseas, or a parent of a…

We all recognize the contribution of volunteers – in youth sports, health promotion, emergency services, faith communities, social services and the environment.  We know that volunteers are involved in just about every aspect of service delivery in all walks of life.  But, we sometimes forget to acknowledge that volunteers don’t “just happen”.  Behind this army of volunteers there exists an equally dedicated group of individuals and agencies who are responsible for the coordination, support, training, administration and recruitment of the world’s volunteers.  They are skilled professionals…

“What are we reading today?” Bonnie Rosalind asks the small pupils at Grace Children’s Center. Her favorite response is for a child to select a book that Bonnie herself loved to read while growing up; she believes that is “a true testament to the timelessness of books.”

Bonnie signed up for the Volunteer Reader Program on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 2009. President Obama had declared that date a National Day of Service, and Bonnie took it as a call to action. Since then,…

The kitchen at Seattle’s Union Gospel Mission (UGM) serves roughly 27,000 meals every month to those in need. Each night for dinner, they see approximately 350 guests in their small cafeteria, located in downtown Seattle. That’s a whole lot of chopping and dicing for the three cooks on staff, tasked with preparing enough servings to go around.

After spending Day of Caring volunteering in the Kitchen at UGM, a group of Seattle area lawyers, led by volunteer Mari Horita, got to experience first-hand all the…

Oh winter time…don’t you just love it? I love putting on warm socks, a hat and a fuzzy pair of warm gloves. It
really makes me smile. What if that wasn’t an option for you though? What if there were not any means to obtain clean warm socks, a hat and gloves by the time we stop seeing the sun in Seattle? It might get pretty cold and it would be worse if you got sick.

This is the reality that many homeless…

Hundreds of thousands of people are talking about it.  Countless books and articles have been written on the subject.  It intrigues millions, from writers, filmmakers, and activists to parents, educators, and students.  We all think about it at least three times a day…

What could it be? It’s FOOD of course!  Not only food, but food justice and sustainability.  In recent years Americans have seen a rising food movement that is concerned with the damaging effects of our industrial food system and promotes innovative change grounded…

United Way of King County’s Day of Caring was a day devoted to harnessing the power of volunteers!  Over 11,000 volunteers from business and community groups fanned out throughout King County to work with hundreds of nonprofits on 400 + projects.  The accomplishments of this army of volunteers were remarkable.  Seeing so many volunteers at work on behalf of the community was truly inspirational.  To access some of these amazing volunteer stories check out the September 28^th blog post Great work – great stories.…

One of my favorite things about working here at United Way of King County is hearing the stories from people that are out there doing good work.  11,000 volunteers worked at projects for United Way of King County’s Day of Caring on September 16, and I’ve had the pleasure of hearing about a number of their experiences.  I thought I’d share some of them with you from volunteers who have blogged about their day of volunteering  Here are some of the ones that I’ve found so far.  If you’ve got…