Ignorant Historian

Today’s a big day for me.  While many people may not have school or work today, I have what is usually one of the busiest work days of my year.

We open our main tax site on Martin Luther King, Jr. day.  I suppose it doesn’t have to be on this day, but we usually start on the first Monday after January 15th, which is MLK Day.  It’s just how it lands.

But even more than that (though the first day of tax season would be busy, regardless), today is busy because it’s also the MLK Day of Service through our United Way.  I love that they do this–in high school, I participated in and even helped plan a Youth Day of Caring, which is the same concept, just over Spring Break (and just youth).  I think it’s a great way to honor the memory of Martin Luther King, Jr.  MLK Day is perfect timing for us, too, as we use the wealth of volunteers to stuff bags that we hand out to all of our tax clients.  Without the volunteers, I’d have to spend at least a couple of weeks doing it myself.

And without our tax volunteers, we couldn’t help even half as many people as we do.  I’m very thankful that people readily give up their time to do boring things like stuffing bags and doing taxes.

So with that said, it’s time to…

Go!

Today’s a big day for our organization, as I’ll have over 20 volunteers under my oversight.  They’ll be stuffing packets for our tax clients county-wide, and a few long-term volunteers will start the new season of tax preparation.  We’re a non-profit, and much of what we do would not be possible without volunteers.  Their time is invaluable to us, because if they didn’t volunteer, it would cost us thousands of dollars more to run our programs, thousands we do not have.  Simply put: without volunteers, we wouldn’t offer the free services we do.

If you don’t regular volunteer, I encourage you to do so.  Though there are seasons of life where volunteering isn’t as practical, I think there is almost always something that you can do.  If you have kids, there are many ways you can get them involved as well.

As the volunteer organizer as our organization, I see both sides of the picture.  I know the value of the volunteer.  As a volunteer for other programs/events, I feel the joy that comes from helping others.  While I don’t think that joy should be the primary reason why we volunteer, I think that it is a wonderful bonus.

So thanks to those who give their time in the service of others.  Though you may not always feel appreciated, you are doing a good thing.

Photo by Eduardo Deboni

Today my care group from church went to a local food bank to help out.  Our task?

Putting over a 1,000 dozen eggs in cartons.

It was a lot of fun, and actually didn’t take as long to do since there were so many of us.  I personally probably packed up several dozen cartons of eggs.  We had to make sure they were clean and uncracked…I don’t think I’ll look at an egg the same way again.

Afterwards we headed to Sonic to enjoy one another’s company, and there I shared my story about Polite Video Store Dude.  They definitely keyed in on the fact that it was a amicable guy that I was rude to.  Yeah, they know me (and my issues) too well…