April is National Volunteer Month, giving many Jacksonville organizations the chance to celebrate those who make contributions to the community yet ask nothing in return.
In honor of the month, HandsOn Jacksonville will host a festival called Celebrate! GOOD.
HandsOn Jacksonville is one of 250 volunteer-service groups around the country in partnership with the national Points of Light Foundation. Foundation chairman Neil Bush says it’s up to volunteers to do what government can’t: help people in need.
“We have problems that persist in our country. We have poverty in my city of Houston and, I imagine, in Jacksonville (that) is seemingly intractable," Bush said on Monday's "First Coast Connect." "Government isn’t solving the problem so people need to roll up their sleeves and to work as volunteers, as points of light in their community to help lift their fellow man.”
Neil Bush is the son of President George H.W. Bush, who spoke of volunteerism as "a thousand points of light" during his 1989 inaugural address.
Volunteers are invited to the festival on April 26 at Jacksonville’s Unity Plaza. Then, the city’s most effective and dedicated volunteers will be recognized at a VIP reception on April 27.
