Giving Back to our One Maryland

Thank you to all of the Marylanders who served throughout Maryland during this year’s Day to Serve. Once again, our state joined together in this regional effort with Virginia, West Virginia, and Washington D.C and achieved a record level of service.

In 2014, 27,000 Marylanders participated in 479 service projects across the State. This year, Maryland volunteers:

• recorded 100,000 hours of community service — a 66% increase in volunteer hours from 2013;
• collected over 395,000 pounds of food to help feed the hungry;
• removed nearly 3,500 pounds of trash from our environment — almost twice as much as last year; and
• planted 3,110 trees — doubling last year’s efforts.

During Day to Serve, I joined culinary students to make a healthy lunch for residents of The Light House in Annapolis, which offers transitional housing for people who are homeless.  The generous actions of the culinary students show that each of us can make a difference — sometimes one meal at a time — and all of us must try.

One of the highlights of this year’s Day to Serve included expanding the partnership between theMaryland Food Bank’s Hunger Action Month, the Maryland State Police, and the Maryland Department of Transportation. Marylanders donated over 33,000 pounds of food this year at barracks, offices, and service shop drop-off locations. Other organizations made a big impact too — for example, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints donated 40,000 pounds of food to the Maryland Food Bank.

In Baltimore, the Baltimore Area Council of Boy Scouts brought together over 1,100 volunteers to clean up trails and streams as well as participate in flag retirement ceremonies.  And the Volunteer Center for Anne Arundel County partnered with the United States Naval Academy to bring together over 200 volunteers and midshipmen in a park clean up for Project Green: A Day of Service and Remembrance.

As part of our commitment to service, the Governor’s Office on Service and Volunteerism awarded a total of over $25,000 in matching funds to fourteen different projects throughout Maryland.  One recipient of the grants, Zion Development Corporation used the funds to get their project off the ground and clean a gazebo in the Upton community.

I’m grateful for the many ways in which volunteers across our One Maryland came together this fall to feed the hungry, clean up our neighborhoods, and improve our communities – giving back to the places that we call home. Thank you to all who volunteered to change our communities for the better and I look forward to seeing the impact that Marylanders make next year for the 2015 Day to Serve.