April – A Time to Appreciate Our Volunteers!

This year’s Volunteer Appreciation Week theme is “Volunteers Weave Us Together.” That is certainly true at Society for the Blind. Our volunteers are truly part of the fabric that makes us a strong, vibrant and hope-filled organization.

With nearly 200 volunteers providing 14,000+ hours of service this past year, Society for the Blind knows the impact our volunteers make. Whether reading for Access News, serving as mentors in our Senior IMPACT Project, working a session at our Bingo program, assisting as a personal reader, serving on our board of directors or helping out on special projects, each volunteer makes a huge difference.

I am so grateful to our volunteers who bring skills, experience and, most importantly, their presence and spirit of hope to Society for the Blind. We are fortunate to have several volunteers who have been with us for more than 10 years, and I am heartened by the number of new volunteers who are looking to get engaged at Society.

One of the key things we encourage in our classes at Society for the Blind is interdependence: knowing when to ask for or offer assistance. Our volunteers exemplify interdependence by offering assistance for those who seek it. Quite often, those who seek assistance become the ones who offer it as volunteer mentors – we’ve especially seen this in our Senior IMPACT Project.

Volunteers truly do weave us together. On behalf of the staff and clients of Society for the Blind, THANK YOU for all you do to empower individuals living with low vision or blindness to discover, develop and achieve their full potential.