In celebration of National Volunteer Month, observed in April, our team reflected on meaningful service experiences — akin to a threshold experience that transformed our understanding and interpretation of our surroundings — that shaped the trajectory of our lives. We each walked through the portal that service provided and, as a result, allowed ourselves to be changed.
Jenn’s Experience
Home for the summer from college, I participated in an AmeriCorps Vista program at Quinnipiac University, supporting a public elder care residential community. I taught residents how to use computers on secondhand, outdated machines that were donated to the community. My favorite tech support task was helping residents set up their first email addresses to connect with family and loved ones.
I was particularly fond of a group of elderly men in their late 80s and early 90s who recounted great stories from their lives about the neighborhoods where they grew up, the adventures they took in their youth, and the places where they finally settled to raise a family. They were excited to see me each morning, and I was eager to dive into our conversations every opportunity I got.
While I taught them how to use email, they taught me so much more: how to be present, how to tell a great tale, the importance of laughter, intergenerational connections, and the blessing of wise elders.
Jenn’s suggested volunteering opportunity: Repair the World offers service opportunities all year long in communities across the country. You can find upcoming service opportunities where you live, or you can lead as a Repair’s Service Ambassador.
Shawn’s Experience
I’m a first-generation college graduate, made possible in part by the Posse Foundation — a national leadership and merit scholarship program that selected nine peers and me to attend Franklin & Marshall College. That opportunity changed the trajectory of my life.
After graduating, I pursued a career in the college access field at Cooperman College Scholars, a New Jersey–based nonprofit that helps talented, low-income students apply to and succeed in college.
Over the years, I’ve stayed connected as a volunteer, helping select new cohorts of scholars. In my personal life, I’ve also become the go-to person for younger relatives and often the siblings of close friends as they navigate the college application process.
Having people in your corner who believe in you and push you to aim higher feels like rocket fuel. That support helped me see that I could go away to college and thrive in ways I hadn’t fully recognized at the time.
My former students have graduated, started their careers, and begun building their own lives, and I get to watch from afar with so much joy. Getting to play a role in their journey has made me even more grateful to the adults who supported me in my early years.
Shawn’s suggested volunteering Opportunity: Become a coach to work directly with Posse Scholars through the Posse Foundation.
Jon’s Experience
As a teenager, I volunteered at New Eyes for the Needy, a nonprofit founded almost 100 years ago that is based in my hometown in New Jersey. New Eyes’ mission is simple: to provide the transformative tool of eyeglasses to children and adults facing financial difficulties. One aspect of their work was collecting old eyeglasses to be recycled and sent to those in need overseas (now they mostly purchase new glasses for children and adults in the U.S.).
I spent hours sorting and testing donated glasses. While I chatted with other volunteers, it was mostly solitary work. Yet it was my first experience with what I’d later learn is called “task significance” — understanding the impact my effort would have on others and finding purpose in it.
That was because I understood the “why” behind the mission in personal terms. I got my first pair of glasses when I was eight and remain severely near-sighted. I still remember the feeling of seeing through corrective lenses for the first time, with everything looking sharper and more vivid. The recognition that many people couldn’t afford glasses and that their lives could be transformed upon receiving a pair was deeply motivating.
Jon’s suggested volunteering opportunity: Contact New Eyes for the Needy to volunteer to sort, clean, test, and pack donated glasses.
Ira’s Experience
When my kids were in elementary school, I wanted to find a way to connect with other families in the school and do something that I would find meaningful. I joined with a group of parents who came up with the idea of reading books in the classrooms that had stories and characters of diverse backgrounds.
Our idea was rooted in a metaphor first offered by Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop in 1990 that explains the various benefits of diverse books for children: they reflect children’s own lives (mirrors), offer views into others’ lives (windows), and act as doors to new worlds (sliding glass doors).
Parents signed up to read a book of their choosing that was a mirror, window, or sliding glass door. The experience was impactful to me in multiple ways. I enjoyed interacting with the classmates and teachers with whom my kids spent so much time. The experience also inspired me to be more involved in creating communities of belonging in the schools my kids attend through their middle school, and now high school, years.
Ira’s suggested volunteering opportunity: Contact your child’s school principal or PTA leader and explore ideas from EmbraceRace and We Need Diverse Books, as well as the book lists shared by Reach Out and Read.
Christine’s Experience
I volunteered with The Cap Cares program through The Capitol Theatre, spending a morning at D.I.G. Farm in North Salem, NY. There, we worked together to clean and prepare garden beds for planting, supporting D.I.G. Farm’s mission to teach regenerative farming and grow fresh food for community members in need.
The Cap Cares program is a meaningful initiative that brings people together through music and service, strengthening our local community as a united force for good. Experiences like this not only create tangible impact but also deepen our understanding of food access, reinforcing values of care and collective responsibility, and reminding us that small, shared efforts can lead to meaningful change.
It’s a rewarding way to give back to a community that has given me so much music and a chance to work along other music lovers. As a bonus, volunteers receive complimentary tickets to select concerts at The Capitol Theatre — a small thank-you that celebrates the spirit of community and shared experience.
Christine’s suggested volunteering opportunity: Come together with other music fans to serve your community through #TheCapCares Volunteer Program.
Chi’s Experience
I learned from my mom that enduring societal changes start with small actions. A former teacher, my mom understood the importance of education and how access, affordability, and holistic support can open the door to lifelong learning and opportunities.
Using proceeds from her first novel, alongside donations from fundraising drives that she organized on Facebook, my mom purchased blankets and winter jackets for hundreds of impoverished children from the ethnic minority groups living in the mountainous regions of Vietnam. She believed that helping children and their families meet their basic needs was a first step on the road to advancing a person’s health and well-being.
In my high school and college years, I watched my mom poured herself into the project. She organized food and clothing drives, coordinated with other volunteers in different parts of the world, partnered with a textile factory to produce blankets at a lower cost, and travelled to the region to deliver the donations. A few years into the project, the group decided to pursue a more audacious goal: building local schools so that families did not have to choose between traveling for hours to get an education or keeping their children at home.
In 2011, I accompanied my mom on a volunteering trip to Lào Cai province in the Northwest region of Vietnam. My stomach still flutters when I think about the sounds of children laughing and running around the schoolyard in their brand-new jackets at the school my mom and her friends helped build, brick by brick, day by day.
Chi’s suggested volunteering opportunity: Join City Year’s Care Force to design a service project that meets the needs of your community.
Barbara’s Experience
When I lived in Jersey City, my son and I often went to Liberty State Park, a 1.2-acre park created in 1976 on the waterfront opposite the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. We started to be more involved in the nature programs, and our favorite activities were at Caven Point, where we learned about the migratory birds nesting and volunteered to clean up the beach often. I felt more connected to our community while making that beach just a little bit safer for the wildlife in our urban area.
Barbara’s suggested volunteering opportunity: Help protect our coastlines through Beach Cleanups | Beach and National CleanUp Day – September is Cleanup Month.
