Helping Others: Stories of Volunteering in Washington State

Here at Lotsa Helping Hands, we often find ourselves talking about the word community. Our vision is a world where everyone can give and receive help through the power of community. For us, community means so much. It’s about sharing one another’s life experiences. We too have our own community of dedicated people who spend much of their time designing and developing the best service possible, and ensuring that our free service gets into the hands of those who need it. On our Blog, we will be sharing helping others stories from our Team. This one comes from Courtney Allen, our Marketing Specialist.

When we first started talking about creating Open Communities here at Lotsa Helping Hands, we talked a lot about towns, neighborhoods and communities. We talked about creating a place where willing volunteers could offer their hands, when help is needed.

Immediately, I thought of my hometown in Sammamish, Washington. We’re a small Eastside suburb of Seattle, nestled between lakes, tall evergreen trees and breathtaking views of the surrounding Cascade Mountains.

From my years involved with the local Youth Board in high school, as well as my two summers spent working at City Hall in the Parks and Recreation Department, I got to know my community really well.

In middle school and high school when I was involved in the youth board, we traveled to downtown Seattle to prepare, cook and serve homeless teens. Because our town was small and lacked activities for teens like a teen center or movie theater, we put on events for the local teens, including skate festivals, concerts and outdoor movies. We adopted a road to clean up trash in our town and volunteered at our town’s annual Haunted House in October and Holiday Celebration in December.

Working at the parks department at City Hall, we opened and restored parks, buried time capsules, hosted Fourth of July fireworks and summer concerts in the park and welcomed people to the Farmer’s Market every week.

Being a part of all of these activities in my years in Sammamish entirely shaped my view of community. To me, Sammamish is a neighborhood, a town and a caring community filled with people who are always willing to lend a hand.

What do you think of when you think of a caring Community? Let us know your helping others stories in the comments below!