Who are you impacting?

"Who are you?"

In my role as a Church Coordinator for ShareFest Community Development, I get asked that a lot.

Yesterday, I was asking the same thing of Jill Parsh. Jill is a volunteer working with Will Rogers Middle School in Lawndale. She is a gardner—not your pickup a leaf blower kinda of gardner (she would rather mulch the leaves)—but a "hey, let’s grow some healthy stuff that kids can eat" kind of gardner.

Through a series of referrals, Jill and I met yesterday. On her team were the Director of Maintenance and Operations for the Lawndale Elementary School District, David Young, and Will Rogers Middle School Principal, Theresa Nielsen. I brought along my friend Mark Nathan who is a landscaper and the guy that will lead this project for ShareFest.

For thirty minutes we discussed how we could turn a flat piece of dirt they had cleared, into a garden where kids can learn about nutrition and agriculture.

It is too bad all the volunteers for the Workday don’t get to meet the wonderful people I do. I get to hear their stories and tell them who ShareFest is and how we want to help. And then I get to get hear how much it means to them, how truly appreciative they are of the work.

We don’t always know the impact we have when we leave a project. We don’t know if one of the current or future students at Will Rogers Middle School will decide to attend Texas A&M or UC Davis and later develop some revolutionary method or technology for sustainable agriculture that could impact the lives of people internationally.(Hey it could happen!) All because someone had the help they needed to get a garden started.

So for all the volunteers out there let me tell you, it does leave an imprint on your community when you give up your time to help others. I know because I heard it from Jill, David and Theresa.

See you May 1st!

Go Panthers!

Joe McMahon

Join Joe on May 1: www.sharefestinc.org/workday2010 if you haven't signed up already.

Students react to the affect of last year's Workday on their school.