Find Yourself
By: Robert A. Wilkins, CEO and
President, YMCA of the East Bay
“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself
in the service of others,” said Mohandas K. Gandhi. As he was with so many things, Mahatma Gandhi
was right. Volunteering makes a
difference, not only in someone else’s life, but also in your own.
I should know.
My organization – The YMCA of the East Bay – has helped a lot of people
find themselves over the years. Without
volunteers, we could not exist. Nor
could countless other nonprofits.
Last year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau,
about 64.5 million people volunteered through, or for, an organization at least
once. If you are one of those 64.5
million, you can, if you wish, stop reading now. You already made a difference. But if you are
one of the 73 percent of the population who didn’t volunteer to help a
community group, a church, a nonprofit, a school or other organization at least
once last year, you need to read on and find yourself.
Annette Miller found herself. She’s making a difference. A West Oakland parent of four, Annette is one
of the 64.5 million who volunteered more than once. In addition to being a
parent leader at McClymonds High School, where she and her children went to
high school, she also volunteers to help other parents and kids in West Oakland
and participates in workshops developed by a local non profit, Attitudinal
Healing Connection, for the West Oakland Parents Action Network and gives time
to Great Oakland Public Schools, another local nonprofit committed to improving
student learning and achievement. Annette is one of
300 or so volunteers who collectively gave thousands of hours of service to GO
Public Schools last year. The organization may have a tiny budget, but
it has a huge role to play, thanks to volunteers like Annette.
Jay Gilson, a CPA and co-owner of Bay Area-based
RINA Accountancy, is a volunteer boardmember of the Regional Parks Foundation,
which makes the East Bay Regional Park District’s parks, trails, programs and
services available to the area’s underserved population. An avid outdoorsman and cyclist, Jay’s
motivation for volunteering was simply that he and his family enjoyed weekends
walking and riding the trails. He wanted
to make sure others could enjoy the same feeling.
We need more people like Annette and Jay to make a
difference, to find themselves by losing themselves in the service of
others. That’s why the Y honored Annette
and Jay and more than two dozen
other volunteers at our first ever “YOU
ARE THE DIFFERENCE” awards ceremony. We’re recognizing not only our own Y volunteers,
but people like Annette and Jay, who choose to donate some of their free time
to other nonprofits in the Bay Area.
Why? Because when someone
volunteers, we all benefit. Volunteering
strengthens our entire community. It really does make a difference. Lose yourself and you’ll find yourself making
a difference too.
Robert A. Wilkins has been
CEO and President of the YMCA of the East Bay since 1997. He is an ordained
minister and currently serves as an Associate Minister at Allen Temple Baptist
Church and educator in contemporary religion and biblical literature.
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