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Wednesday, January 11, 2012

AT&T Pioneers

I’m still alive and well, just couldn’t get inspired this month to write about anything until today. Today I reconnected with some old friends and I’m on my way to making some new ones. I am once again getting involved with the AT&T Pioneers, the volunteer organization for current and retired AT&T employees. I was a life member, but became inactive when I retired in 2000 and worked for Park Bank for 10 years. Working seems to get in the way of volunteering if you let it. A friend from church, fellow VFW member and also retired AT&T employee asked on Sunday if my wife and I would like to go along with them to their monthly luncheon meeting today. They even picked us up. I took this as an omen to get off my lazy butt and serve in one more capacity which I enjoy doing and which gives me immeasurable satisfaction.

If you have never heard of the “AT&T Pioneers” it’s a nation wide group of 325,000 current and retired employees that volunteer for many different things. They celebrated their 100th anniversary in November 2011. In 2011 they collected 50,000 pounds of food, donated 25,000 cell phones and many, many care packages to U.S. Service Men and Women, continued to repair talking books for the blind, sponsor Honor Flights for WW II Vets, mentor students and too much more to include here. It brought back fond memories of beeper base ball for the blind, doing habitat with them, Santa Flights in the cold at the Reserve base in Madison, Stand Downs for homeless Vietnam Vets in the fall and enjoying the camaraderie and fun that we had volunteering together

This is a thank you to all who have been or continue to be volunteers, especially the ones you never hear about. Thinking about my good friends in Menomonee Falls and my son-in-law. You know who you are and all that you do and I know this country is going to need more and more volunteers to move forward. If you haven’t tried it, please do because everyone has a talent they can share. If you are in Dane County Wisconsin just go to the RSVP site on your computer and they can match your talent to their needs. I’m sure most counties or cities have something similar.

Thanks to all who volunteer