A unique birthday experience

My first volunteer experience for this blog was done as a part of a very unique celebration surrounding my 38th birthday. In year's past a large group of people had met at the Rathskeller or a local watering hole for drinks to celebrate my birthday. I always loved seeing tons of peoplel that i dont get to see very often. I started to think that if I could get alot of these people out on my birthday to have a few drinks, why couldnt i get them out to experience something in our community.

A few weeks ago I thought it would be a great experience to get a large group of people together to volunteer for my birthday. A great gift to give to me for my birthday is a couple hours of your time to help the less fortunate. I called up Claudia at Gleaners Food Bank (www.gleaners.org). For those of you who dont know, Gleaners is the largest food bank in Indiana. They are responsible for distributing food to shelters and non profits all over Indianapolis. They are an amazing organization. If you ever want to get a larger group of friends or co-workers to volunteer on a Saturday, they can definitely use your help. Just contact Claudia and she will take care of you.

When we arrived on Saturday it was great to see so many great people there to give their time. There was about 25 of us and if you think it was just Marty and all his non profit friends you were wrong. Eli Lilly, NCAA, Baker and Daniels, Duke Realty, Hat World corporate and many more were represented well!

Gleaners is a HUGE warehouse, and all of us were put together to package up individual bags of food that we were told was being delivered to people who were sick, or could not leave there house. There also are volunteer opportunities to drive that food around to the actual homes / care centers. Now that I think of it, Meals on Wheels is a fantastic local organization that does that as well.

After two hours we had bagged up over 1250 bags of food for people. That was quite an effort for just a couple hours on a Saturday morning. It just goes to show what kind of impact can be made with a group of people getting together to have fun on my birthday.

So I guess what I am trying to say is that I have started my 38th year off in an incredibly fulfilling way. I am excited that a new tradition was born, and I am continually humbled by the generosity of my friends. Doing something like this may not be something up your alley for your birthday, but at some point during the year just grab a few people and go do something in the community. Something that isnt through work, something that isnt because of someone else. You take the reigns and do something cool. It only takes a phone call to the volunteer director of an organization.

I am actually excited to turn 39 to see what we can accomplish on that birthday.

Martin Luther King Jr Day

Good morning. My name is Marty Posch. I am in community relations at IUPUI and the co founder of an organization called Giving Sum (http://www.givingsum.org/). I have always been skeptical of blogs because I think it is somewhat arrogant to think that people actually care what you have to say, but I didn't see many blogs talking about positive change and positive ways that people are impacting not only Indianapolis, but the world. I thought the world needed a little shot in the arm as far as not focusing on the negative. There are alot of great people doing amazing things out there. This will tell their story, as well as give you ways that you yourself can become engaged. I am very passionate about the community and about getting people involved. This will be a vehicle to accomplish that. I also will be volunteering with different non profit organizations around Indianapolis and reporting back on my experiences.

Since it is Martin Luther King day and Dr. King was incredibly passionate about community service, I will focus on that for my first blog. Community service is an aspect of life in Indianapolis that truly makes it different than other large cities. The sense of responsibility to help in this community continually astounds me. That being said, we can always do more. Volunteering and philanthropy need to be a part of your life. It is fun, it is engaging, and it is incredibly rewarding and from a selfish level it does make you feel great! Whether it is planting trees with Keep Indianapolis Beautiful (http://www.kibi.org/) , putting together meals at Second Helpings (http://www.secondhelpings.org/) or serving lunch or dinner to the homeless at Wheeler Mission (http://www.wmm.org/). These are small ways that you can make a difference.

For my 38th birthday, which is coming up on the 24th, I have a group of about 30 people that are going to spend the morning volunteering with me at Gleaners Food Bank. Some of these people are my friends that i KNEW would be in and be a part of volunteering, others are friends that I know this will be their first experience. I am excited that they are going to be a part of the day, but also that they will get to experience something fun and rewarding.

Martin Luther King Jr said "everybody can be great, because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love." So take what MLK says and what he believed in, and give some of your time to those organizations that can use it. And besides the giving of your time, grab someone that you know that hasn't experienced the joy of volunteering for something meaningful and GIVE them that experience. It is one thing to have the passion yourself, but to engage others is the real blessing.

I look forward to checking in and spotlighting great organizations in Indianapolis , the country , and the world. If through this blog i expose one person to a new organization, or get one new person to volunteer, my job is complete.

To find local volunteer opportunities go to

http://www.volunteermatch.org/
http://volunteer.united-e-way.org/uwci/volunteer/