Art Appreciation

Today, we celebrate the extraordinary leadership that Art Ordoqui-Payton provided to Community Connection and HandsOn Northeast Georgia and bid him a fond farewell as he relocates with his family to San Antonio, TX. With more than 25,000 hours donated lin the last three years, it isn't hard to understand that Art has had an emormous impact on the community. His passion for volunteerism and service has inspired so many to give of their time and energy. And his selfless giving certainly set the example. HandsOn Northeast Georgia currently boasts a database of almost 8,000 volunteers - a veritable reservoir of potential community improvements.

Art joined the social media revolution and employed it as an outreach tool - to educate people about the programs offered; to recruit volunteers; to share ideas; to connect with the community. As a parting gift, please join Community Connection and HandsOn Northeast Georgia in making today, April 30, 2010, Art Appreciation Day. Post on our Facebook page what you appreciate about Art. Tweet your thanks using the hashtag #ArtAppreciation. Or blog what made Art special to you. Let's use the medium Art so loves to show him how much we love him.

Thank you, Art!

Are you Involved or Committed?

This week we participated in the Junior League of Athens, Seeing is Believing Bus Tour of the local schools. The event over all was great and insightful. The tour and speakers were able to highlight many of the great enrichment activities and programs that the schools offer and some share some of the successes that the numbers don't always show.

During the morning, one of the speakers discusses the importance of not just being involved in our schools and with our youth but the need to make a real commitment- to invest of yourself. He highlighted his talk with an analogy about involvement versus commitment by discussing breakfast. The speaker said to think about the eggs, toast, and bacon or ham that people eat for breakfast. You see the chicken, they were involved in providing the eggs your eating, but the pig he really committed himself to the cause.

Many time we as volunteer participate in activities in the community and our schools. We attend days of service like MLK Day, Hands On Athens, and Rivers Alive. We attend fundraisiers and support canned food drives and buy Girl Scout cookies. And while these are all GREAT and important activities that result in a lot of good for our community- there is still a large need for committed volunteers to take on the leadership roles and undertake the organizing of the projects. Schools and nonprofits need volunteers to make that on-going commitment to help plan an event or to lend your skills and expertice to a larger, on-going project.

So as we move forward in banding together through these tough times- we ask all our volunteers to ask yourself are you involved or are you committed? If you want to make that commitment or have an idea, but just don't know where to start- give HandsOn a call. We have leadership opportunities and can provide you with the training and tools you'll need to tackle any cause. And to those of you that have already made the commitment by serving on a PTO or board, by serving as a project leader or a regular volunteer for a project. We thank you for making that commitment.