2019 Letter from the President
VU PHL community,
As I reflect on 2019, I wanted to send a note to all of you, our amazing volunteers and partners. It has been a truly wonderful year for Volunteering Untapped PHL and I am in awe of what we have accomplished together.
Three years ago, I was sitting in my kitchen, frustrated with how hard it was to find opportunities to easily volunteer in Philadelphia. I had a friend in Baltimore who volunteered with Volunteering Untapped and I always thought it just sounded so Philly. One day, a lightbulb went off. No, it doesn't exist in Philly. Yes, it should. And we could make that happen.
After months of research, planning, website building and financing pitching, our first event was in June 2017. We were at Philadelphia Community Corps with 20 volunteers, testing to see if this was something we could make work. Since then, we've organized 31 volunteer events across Philadelphia, hosted 1,450 volunteers and generated over 4,300 volunteer hours. It feels fitting that our final event of 2019 was back at Philadelphia Community Corps, this time with 75 volunteers, helping them set things up in their new location.
As we plan for 2020, I’m proud to share that our talented board has updated our vision, mission and pillars of focus to reflect how we see the VU-PHL service community continuing to grow and evolve within Philadelphia:
Vision: Creating & fostering an accessible service community that impacts positive change in Philadelphia
Mission: To engage Philadelphians in their community by increasing opportunities for volunteerism
Pillars of focus: Health and Human Services, Sustainability, Education
I can't thank each and every one of you enough for everything that you do for our community. I look forward to many more #voluntbeering events with you in 2020.
Cheers and happy new year!
Allora Buckshon
President, Volunteering Untapped PHL
