NAME: Becky Riley
WHAT ORGANIZATIONS DO YOU VOLUNTEER FOR? Appalachia Service Project and One in Christ is an ecumenical group in town that does the backpack mission and lunches for kids, where the school provides lunches through mid-July and then churches take over and provide lunches from mid-July until school starts again. That makes sure kids have an opportunity every day to get lunch. Then Creston Area Food Pantry and things through church.
WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE PART ABOUT VOLUNTEERING? I like to volunteer to give others hope. Hope that somebody cares, and hope that things will get better.
WHY DO YOU VOLUNTEER? A couple of reasons. One is to help other people. Initially when I first started volunteering, it was to set an example for my own kids. I like helping other people, but I also wanted my kids to see they could make a difference without it really costing them anything.
HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN VOLUNTEERING? ASP I went as a youth, so that was 40-some years ago. I didn't go every year. I think I've been 24 or 25 times, something like that, on ASP. Creston Area Food Pantry, I just started a few years ago. One in Christ, we started, that actually kind of started through our church work. I think we've been going four or five years on that one. Church, ever since I moved to town. That would have been 1981 when I moved to town.
WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE EVENT TO VOLUNTEER AT? Probably ASP is my favorite thing. I like the fact that we get to help people in another region of our own country have warmer, safer, dryer homes. More than that, I like the fact we take youth from Creston and give them the opportunity to make a difference in someone's life. That tends to change lives when they figure out they can do that.
WHY IS VOLUNTEERING IMPORTANT FOR THE COMMUNITY? There are always things in the community that need to be done that there's not funding for, not manpower for. Without volunteers, that work wouldn't get done. There's a lot of good people who do a lot of good stuff.