A Lifetime of Showing Up
This week’s guest post is by Betsy Stern, who reflects on growing up in a family where volunteering was a way of life and how those early experiences shaped her lifelong commitment to service, community, and human connection.
I've Always Volunteered.
Lying flat on the bed after major back surgery, my mother was making calls on behalf of candidates for our upcoming election. I was about seven years old at the time. Once she was up on her feet again, she took me along with her to Planned Parenthood, where she was in charge of all of the volunteers for our county. I sat at a table and helped make posters. Sometimes I date-stamped pills. After those visits, we would go to the League of Women Voters Office, where my mother and grandmother volunteered, and I alongside them.
In the midst of all of this volunteer activity, I went off with my dad to be part of the productions in the volunteer-based community theatre that he had founded with his friends. Alongside this, my mother and her friends volunteered at our local university as tour guides. I followed along and ended up working as a student tour guide on campus as soon as I enrolled at UC Berkeley. Nearby campus, my grandmother volunteered with a group that helped to settle immigrants, as she was one herself.
It was my godmother’s volunteerism in music that got me started performing solo before I was a teenager, when I would go into nursing homes to play for the residents. This led to a long career as a professional musician. There were even more volunteer outings and opportunities all the time I was growing up, as well as after. One of my more recent adventures was joining a group to glean fruit from local orchards to donate to food banks.
It was expected in the circle in which I grew up that we would give back to our community. It feels good to volunteer, to share with others something that helps them and helps us too. It creates a human connection. Volunteering is key to building a strong community.