I began volunteering with BackPack Beginnings off a simple request from the Junior League of Greensboro to deliver food for the last few weeks of the school year as they were a few volunteers short. Flash forward almost two years later, and what started as a simple volunteer opportunity for a short period of time has turned into serving on a year-long volunteer committee, collecting supplies at work for backpacks, donating extra time to stuff Comfort BackPacks, helping with fund development and gathering a team of 8 co-workers to serve as delivery volunteers for two High Point schools.
What I discovered early on in my BackPack Beginnings experience is that in simply sacrificing my one hour lunch break once a month, I am the reason that over 40 children at the school I serve will have something to eat over the weekend when they otherwise would not have. And as a larger group, the volunteers of BackPack Beginnings are able to feed over 700 children in 18 Guilford County schools this year.
Over 41,000 (56.29%) of children in Guilford County schools are at risk of going hungry every week. To me, that number was mind-blowing. Singlehandedly, I know that I cannot feed all the children of Greensboro, but I hope that sharing my knowledge about the cause to my church, girlfriends, co-workers, etc that I can have an impact to get to our ultimate goal of serving every child in need. Whether it’s making a donation of $150 that can feed a child for the entire school year, giving my time to drop off the food at a local school, or having a drive to collect food or supplies – every little bit makes a difference.
As former President Jimmy Carter said, ““I have one life and one chance to make it count for something… My faith demands that I do whatever I can, wherever I am, whenever I can, for as long as I can with whatever I have to try to make a difference.” I hope that you will take whatever little bit of time you have to do whatever you can for however long you can to make a difference in the lives of underprivileged youth of Guilford County.
Written on 6/10/2013 by Blogger Allison Leigh Doughty
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