It’s National Volunteer Week and we didn’t want to let this moment pass without giving a huge “Thank You” to the volunteers who Step Up for Our Community to help further our work in northern Arizona.
This volunteerism takes many forms. United Way of Northern Arizona, like many nonprofits, is led by a volunteer Board of Directors. We would like to thank our Chairman Mike Kelly and the entire board for their thought leadership that makes our work possible.
Then there are the 37 members of our Community Investment Teams, who are at the heart of UWNA’s grant process and are currently reviewing reports from 42 programs that we are funding. These teams are an essential part of our procedures that ensure that your donations are investing in proven programs that are changing lives in Coconino, Navajo and Apache counties.
Volunteers are responsible for the literacy kits that we create for KinderCamp™ and they are key to running UWNA events smoothly.
And we can’t forget the hundreds of you who came out last summer to fill sandbags and clear out the muck when historic floodwaters impacted the greater Flagstaff area. In just three months, you clocked in an astounding 3,853 hours of work to help keep our friends and neighbors safe. We are so very grateful to you for that.We value all of our volunteers, but we’d like to put a spotlight on one in particular who is first among equals – Sybil Smith. As the Coconino Chair of Voluntary Organization Active in Disaster, she is the chief coordinator of all our community volunteer efforts. When we are in need of a small army of “neighbors helping neighbors,” she’s the person we turn to.
It is said that volunteerism is “empathy turned into action.” If you would like to join the amazing group of volunteers who impact education, youth development and safety and security in northern Arizona, please consider becoming a UWNA volunteer.
