Last week, more than 75 volunteers filled a room in Pittsboro for CORA’s annual Volunteer Appreciation Event, and something about the afternoon made it hard to leave. Good food, laughter, games, and the kind of easy conversation that only happens between people who have shown up for something together, over and over, for a long time. It was exactly what it was meant to be: a chance to stop and say thank you.
Our Executive Director, Melissa Driver Beard, told the room something we feel deeply but do not always say out loud. “You are our brain trust. You see things from angles that those of us at the center can’t always see. And when you speak up, we take that seriously.” Pantry staff from Pittsboro and Siler City added their own words of thanks. By the time they were done, there were happy tears in the room, and nobody seemed to mind.
We were proud to name Patty Mahder as CORA’s Volunteer of the Year and to honor a group of volunteers who each gave more than 200 hours of their time over the past year. Two hundred hours is not a small thing. It is early mornings and rearranged schedules and a choice made over and over again to show up for neighbors whose lives are genuinely better because you did.
Our work is built on strategy, data, and partnerships. But underneath all of it are people and relationships. People who show up week after week for neighbors they may never fully know, who ask nothing in return, and who make everything else possible. Last week, we got to look them in the eye and say so.
If that sounds like something you want to be part of, we would love to have you. Learn more at corafoodpantry.org/volunteering/volunteer-opportunities.
