OUR VOLUNTEERING: WHAT WE’VE BEEN UP TO
No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted. - Aesop

Last month we put a call out to the neighborhood asking people to share their volunteer efforts for our grant ‘match’ to light our neighborhood. We will not only light the neighborhood with our efforts, but we will serve as a light in our own community. In these last few months, we have served our community with over 917 volunteer hours in countless examples of community service. If we group the volunteering by general category, our time (about 34% of it this year so far) has been shared with the community in the following way:

Several neighbors volunteer in schools, community fundraisers and with projects focused on our entire St. Petersburg community.

Many have taken the time to clean up the neighborhood or serve as our ‘crime watch’. We have met as a neighborhood several times – our monthly meetings as well as our porch parties and block parties: all opportunities to gather together in fellowship to strengthen our community bonds. Many represent ESPNA in the wider community at hearings or city wide events. Three projects have had the attention of our neighbors: the tree planting project, the drain marking project, and the lighting project. Finally, the largest category of volunteerism is that time spent to strengthen our ESPNA neighborhood association. These are the ‘behind the scenes’ neighbors who make sure the newsletter is underwritten/published/distributed; they develop ideas and programs such as the haunted hike; they raise funds to make and place the neighborhood entrance markers, they work with the city on traffic and parking issues, they take time to welcome newcomers or to write grants for the neighborhood; or they keep our public image current and accessible via our website. We all keep this last category vibrant through our association dues.

Here’s to our community service and the contribution to our little neighborhood and to our St. Petersburg community. Please continue to share your volunteer hours through our website: www.espna.org or via email to Eric Fisher efisher1@tampabay.rr.com. We will periodically continue to report on our community service so that we all can see just how our neighborhood is working together for the greater good.