Volunteering in Santa Cruz

“With good fortune comes the responsibility to give back." - Pelstring family

Feeling fortunate enough to be able to enjoy the great community that Santa Cruz has to offer, we decided to usher in the holiday season by challenging ourselves to go out and volunteer in November. Most team members chose to use this opportunity to put a little more time into the organizations they are already involved in but we also came together as a group to donate food and warm clothes to a local shelter which showed us what a big difference a small group of people can make by coming together.

This opportunity opened up some great conversations about volunteering and reminded us all how easy and rewarding it can be to give back either as an individual or a family. The Pelstring family is a great example of a busy family that works hard throughout the year to have a positive impact on the community in various ways. "We do different things including donating warm clothing to the homeless shelter in the winter time, delivering food to itinerant farmers during the holidays, beach and school clean-up days, participating on school committees and non-profit boards, and providing transportation for the ill to doctors' appointments. We truly believe that every little bit helps to make a better society that we all benefit from."

This challenge really opened our eyes to how easy it really can be to get involved on any level and what a great impact that involvement can have. As with many challenges, we hope this will stick as it seems to have with others. It turns out that, based on information compiled by www.volunteeringinamerica.gov, in 2011 Americans volunteered for 8.1 billion hours! To learn more about volunteering in America, check out this cool Infographic - Volunteering in America.