For many years, we have recognized National Volunteer Week (this week) by promoting the work of Business Volunteer Unlimited Maryland. BVU creates opportunities for business professionals to engage in meaningful volunteer service throughout Baltimore. The nonprofit’s annual Volunteer Week celebration is always a great event for connecting earnest professionals with the deserving organizations that need their help. But this year, BVU’s celebration will be in June to coincide with its 10th anniversary festivities, so we were left this week to think about… ourselves.
Since Himmelrich PR was founded in 1997, we have been committed to volunteerism and community service. As president Steve Himmelrich said in March in a magazine interview about the firm’s volunteer activities, “We want to share our good fortune with those who might be able to benefit from our interests, talents and eagerness to help.”
This week, we have reflected on our volunteer contributions. Our firm has provided pro bono public relations and strategic planning services to dozens of local nonprofits, including many working in education, the arts, homelessness, and mental illness. Our people have sat on and taken leadership roles with boards, committees and commissions. We have shoveled, painted, glued and hauled in an effort to create cleaner and brighter neighborhoods.
In the past year, and as a team, we planted trees and harvested crops at a nonprofit farm. We collected hundreds of gifts and wrapped presents for the Salvation Army’s Angel Tree program. Individuals in our office picked up trash from streams leading into the Chesapeake Bay, beautified neighborhood parks, assisted military veterans and families during deployment, coordinated programs for trade associations, served meals to homeless men and women at four different facilities, and rebuilt homes destroyed by natural disasters.
We’re proud of what we do—not only for our clients, but also for our neighbors and our community.