“I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the water to create many ripples.” As we celebrate National Volunteer Month in April, these words credited to Mother Teresa describe Licking County’s volunteers, who in the last year have gone above and beyond – they didn’t just create ripples, they made waves.

Like many aspects of life in 2020, volunteerism took a hit with the onset of the pandemic. As nonprofit organizations suspended in-person programs and activities and had to offer services in other ways, the role of volunteers also had to shift. In Licking County, we saw wonderful examples of volunteers of all ages stepping up to help fulfill new needs –delivering food to more hungry households, coordinating services to our unsheltered or homeless citizens, creating special activity kits for kids learning at home, making and donating masks, and so much more.

Licking County Foundation believes in the contributions of volunteers – they help organizations like those we support to carry out vital work to improve lives in our community. This is true for organizations of all shapes and sizes. Licking County Foundation’s own volunteers help us explore solutions to tough community problems, review thousands of scholarship applications, collaborate on projects that address emergent needs, ensure that our operation is sound, and our donors’ investments are managed effectively to benefit our community.

We celebrate all of Licking County’s volunteers – and are sending a special thank you to the one-hundred and fifty-six volunteers of the Licking County Foundation. We thank you for taking the initiative to be creative, to spread joy, to meet real human needs, and to change lives in a myriad of ways. Taken together, these acts of compassion are like pebbles spread across our community creating ripples of hope across the pond we call home.