Times are tough so you better look out for number one, right? Wrong. Over the past year or so we’ve increasingly heard more about service than we’d become accustomed to. The first family, in particular, has been an inspiring example of how getting into action can help improve the lives of those around us and the global community at large.
And despite a growing recession, 1 million more Americans volunteered in 2008 than they did the previous year. A recent report issued by The Corporation for National and Community Service found that 61.8 million of us logged 8.1 billion hours of service. Well done, people.
Robert Grimm of the Corporation for National & Community Service, which oversees AmeriCorps, Senior Corps and other service programs, told USA Today, “There’s a compassion boom going on.”
And in a time where people seem to be more in need than ever before, they’re counter-intuitively giving it away — it being time, money or skills. “This report suggests that Americans are responding to the hardship around them by reaching out in service to others,” first lady Michelle Obama said in a statement.
More and more its been noted that this slow, but apparent change in our collective attitude, is the silver lining to this global financial crisis. Let’s hope we can remember the lessons we’ve learned when things pick up again — because they will.