Carolyn Williams started with a question. “What can I do?”

That was more than ten years ago at South Knoxville Elementary, a United Way Community School, where she and her husband, Wayne have shown up ever since.

Carolyn, a retired teacher, sits on the school’s Site Steering Committee, helps in classrooms, and works alongside other volunteers on workdays, usually with Wayne right beside her.

“I come down here to give back with the kids,” he said. “You never get tired of that.”

Asked what they’d tell someone considering volunteering, the Williamses kept it simple. “Show up. Get your feet wet. Find out what it’s like, and you’ll love it.”

April is National Volunteer Month, when organizations across the country recognize the people who show up to help. The Williamses are a great reminder of who our volunteers are and what inspired them to start. Carolyn and Wayne started volunteering because South Knoxville Elementary needed help, and they had time to give, and that’s still the reason they keep coming back.

It’s Good For You

Volunteering does something for the volunteer, too. AmeriCorps has spent two decades reviewing the research on the topic, and the pattern is consistent across studies: people who volunteer tend to live longer, stay more mobile as they age, and report lower rates of depression than people who don’t, with older adults in AmeriCorps Senior Corps programs reporting they feel less alone and less depressed after they start serving.

Employers are catching on, too. In a 2024 Deloitte survey of 1,000 office professionals, 87 percent said workplace volunteer opportunities factor into whether they stay with their company or move to a new one, which is part of why every UWGK staff member receives 40 hours of paid Volunteer Time Off each year. We use it individually and as part of team building throughout the year. Our team has read in Community Schools, organized supplies with Helping Mamas, and packed groceries with FISH Hospitality Pantries at Thanksgiving.

It was at FISH that a neighbor picking up groceries mentioned, almost in passing, that the food would become the first meal in a new home after years without a roof. In that moment, what he gave us was bigger than the time we’d given.

Volunteering Can Be a Team Sport

United Way sits at the intersection of hundreds of corporate partners and hundreds of nonprofits across the region, and from that vantage point, the trend is clear: more companies are bringing their teams to the work, season over season. Members of Dow Chemical’s C.A.P. Committee recently spent a morning at Second Creek with Ijams Nature Center, working on a stretch of urban creek, and Britton Leitch was there alongside his daughter, the kind of shared morning kids tend to hold onto. At Spring Hill Elementary, Mary Loveless and Cathleen Wilson with the Knox County District Attorney’s Office have been reading with students through the Open Book Program weekly all year.

“Taking the time to volunteer is a great opportunity to get into the community and to experience a bright moment in the day,” Mary said.

Workplace volunteering has expanded beyond half-day events to include micro-volunteering like the Open Book Program and company-sponsored volunteering, where employees can bring their kids. Every kind of volunteering matters, and the flexibility makes it easier to come back, which is how one hour of reading in a classroom turns into ten years at South Knoxville Elementary.

Start Where You Are

National Volunteer Month comes to a close today, but the nonprofits and the neighbors they serve rely on volunteers all year long.

You don’t need special skills to start. An hour works, and so does a Saturday, whether you come alone, bring family, or bring your whole team. Volunteer East Tennessee, our regional volunteer center, is where local nonprofits post their needs and volunteers find opportunities that fit their interests and schedule. Start there: https://uwgk.org/vol/.

For companies building or expanding a VTO policy, or for teams that want to volunteer together, our spring and fall Days of Caring are the largest community-wide volunteer mobilizations and provide turnkey opportunities. To learn more email: volunteer@unitedwayknox.org.

A decade in, Carolyn and Wayne Williams are still at South Knoxville Elementary, still asking “What can I do?” and encouraging others to ask it for the first time.