Bob the Builder Award: The Volunteer (and Ben and Jerry's)

God bless "the volunteer."

Coming out of two major events that are run by volunteers,
I have those kinds of folks on the brain.

Let me give you a great example of a great example.

Mr. Fun. 

Now this isn't a story about Mr. Fun and his greatness.

It is a story that when you tap into your passion,

volunteer service is a treat.

Mr. Fun has been playing hockey since he was 3 years old.

That is almost 38 years.

To say the Andersons have played a little hockey

is a mere understatement.  They have even contributed

to build a hockey rink in Logan, Utah to put their money

where their mouth is. 

Who knew that when Mr. Fun's knees started to go,

he could use his hockey and computer skills together? 

Strange!  But true.

He is the volunteer stats guy for the local

semi pro hockey team...in his spare time.

If you know Mr. Fun's schedule, you

know that spare time is not really in

abundance.  So he has to make it a priority.

And he has.

His company knows he doesn't have a lot of free time,

so they gave him an award.  I like awards...

they are my form of paychecks.  Which I figured

out I haven't really gotten consistantly for 19 years.

Did you know that volunteer work is worth

$20.25 an hour?  Like it.

However, his company isn't the only one who

gave him an award.

Say what you want...

if you got a citation from THE PRESIDENT of the USA,

you would think you were cooooool.

 He was so humble about the whole thing as he

laid it on the kitchen table.  

How cool is that?

So, I signed up my RYLA program.

We are now an official representative for the President's

Point of Light Foundation Service Organization

and I can give these awards out to anyone

(rotarians and non-rotarians)

 who does more than 

100 hours of volunteer work a year. 

Interested?  Send me your hours...

I just gave out 5 at my closing RYLA ceremonies.

One of my volunteers was so surprised, honored

and humbled that she was speechless and shaking.

It was A-W-E-S-O-M-E to see!

Strangely, on the last night of RYLA we

give Ben and Jerry's ice cream to all the

counselors.  This year, we shared 17

containers together.  Yum.

We have done it for years.

Apparently I am not the only one who likes to

give treats to volunteers.  Ben and Jerry's must

have heard about our RYLA tradition

because look what I found:

Volunteer and Get Free Ice Cream — Scoop it Forward!

Volunteering pays off in many ways. This is the first time I’ve heard of it paying off in ice cream. If you sign up for Ben & Jerry’s Scoop it Forward program, you’ll receive a coupon for free Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, plus coupons for five friends.

The free coupons are good for Berry Voluntary or Brownie Chew Gooder flavors at participating Target locations. There’s a limit of one coupon per person while coupons last. Technically, you have until December 31, 2010, to register for the coupon, but I doubt they’ll last that long.

The true goal is to find your passion, and irregardless if you get a presidential award or Ben and Jerry's, know what you do makes a difference.