The following is a transcription of The Art of Volunteering Episode S2E2: Daniel Kasambira, United Way of Madison County.
Stormy Bell (00:00): Welcome to The Art of Volunteering. Today, my guest is my friend Daniel Kasambira. We actually grew up in the same rural community in Pennsylvania, and he was quite the basketball player when we were in school. He was in the Thousand Point Club, which was a huge accomplishment. Let me introduce him. He joined United Way of Madison County in Huntsville, Alabama as President and CEO in April of 2022, he received his undergraduate degree from Roberts Wesleyan College in Rochester, New York, where he was a three year starter on the basketball team. Daniel is married to Julian of 24 years, and they have four children Jamal, Daniel, Isaiah, and Imani. Welcome Daniel. Thank you for being my guest.
Daniel Kasambira (00:51): Well, thank you very much for having me. It’s a privilege and honor, and it’s always good to reconnect with folks from back home. It’s been a long time since I’ve been back there. What you didn’t share was when the basketball back then we had peach baskets and it was an old school ball. It was a long time ago, but it was a great experience and I just am honored to be on the show today. Thank you for sharing this great, important work of volunteering.
Stormy Bell (01:18): Thank you so much. You worked for the United Way. So my first question is, what attracted you to the United Way?
Daniel Kasambira (01:26): Yeah United Way is a fantastic organization. My current United Way will be celebrating 80 years in August of this year. One of the things that I’ve always been raised [on is] the importance of service. My parents emphasized the importance of service and no matter what organization I wanted to be involved with I wanted to make sure that volunteers were involved and [there was an] opportunity to make a difference in people’s lives. Long story short, I was able to work through the YMCA throughout most of my nonprofit career. Left the Y, ended up working at United Way in central Alabama. Did that as a relationship manager for four years and it got experience, it got my feet wet. For those who don’t know, relationship manager United Way, it’s kind of frontline work.
I had $7 million, which I raised within my divisions and got back into the YMCA when I came here to Huntsville. Prior to getting back in the Y, I worked for Alabama A&M University, which I was able to serve. When I worked for Alabama A&M University, because it was a nonprofit, I wanted to really get involved. I still remember a lady named Lauren Trailer when I moved here to Huntsville said, if you wanna be involved, watch what you say. There’s opportunities to get involved and everyone’s gonna get you involved. I was able to be a part of the Big Brothers Big Sisters of North Alabama, and I served on their board and actually became board chair at a very crucial time. I understand the importance of volunteerism and through that because we had one-on-one bigs and littles to serve young people in our community.
Daniel Kasambira (03:11): Through that experience, someone got wind that I had been involved with United Way in [the] past and they said, hey would you be interested in being a part of our loan executive program here in Huntsville? I said, sure. What loan executives do is you get a bunch of companies in which you go out and basically share the United Way story, and you share stories about other nonprofits importance of that. Through that experience and having some success in that, they asked me to be Pacesetter Chair, which led about 30 to 40 companies in which we set the tone and set the pace for the United Way campaign. I was doing it all volunteering. It was a $2 million campaign at the time and during my time, we raised over $600,000. In 2015, [they] asked me to come back and do it again, which I did.
Then [I] got back at the YMCA for seven years, and had the opportunity to work and got a promotion within the YMCA. Well, lo and behold, the President, CEO job came open with the United Way. I look back and say, God brought me through this time to prepare me for this time and this opportunity. The value of relationships are very, very important. I learned that through a volunteer in Birmingham, Alabama, Judge Andra Sparks, who said, Daniel, you have relationships down south before and then what happens is business will happen. Well, I was able to use that for my experience here at the United Way. When I interviewed, 13 people were on a virtual, kinda like we’re doing now interview process, and I knew 11 of them personally. The who’s who in town.
Daniel Kasambira (04:47): Then I interviewed and ended up being blessed with this opportunity to be the President, CEO here at the United Way. I just know people along the journey that have been by my side, as you shared with my wife, Julian, 24 years, and my four children who were there through the good times, bad times. To see us all hit this point, we’re able to lead an organization and be connected with 1800 United Ways across the world, 1100 across the country. To be leading one of these organizations, it’s a privilege and honor.
Stormy Bell (05:20): That’s amazing. Alright. Some of my listeners might not know what the United Way is and what you do or who you serve. Can you share a little bit about that?
Daniel Kasambira (05:31): Yeah. United Way is a worldwide organization. As I said earlier, 1800 United Way is across the world in 40 different countries. We raised 4.6 billion across the whole organization annually, which is phenomenal. We have over 1.5 million volunteers throughout. Locally, we serve board members of the volunteers. Each United Way has its own kind of franchise. We’re United Way of Madison County so we serve our entire area. We have 27 partner agencies which we allocate dollars to help them and support their budgets, help them support everything they do. Through that time, through that work they do, we’re able to be a convener, a supporter, and add value to their work. We have names that you’ve probably heard of the YMCA, Big Brothers and Sisters, Boys and Girls Clubs, Girls, Inc., and so on and so forth with these organizations we support.
Daniel Kasambira (06:36): It’s just exciting to see that happen. Also within our organization, we’ve kind of transitioned into three focus areas. Education, financial stability, and health. With education our focus here is we have ACAP surgeon. What ACAP Surge is basically they take testing for fourth and eighth graders here. There’s some schools that are in some students that are kind of struggling right now with 28% in math, 27% in fourth and eighth graders. We’re seeing some of the challenge with that so we’ve got a big surge happening and which we’re gonna really solve a problem. We’re having volunteer readers that are gonna come and spend some time with these students and help them to raise these scores with education. With financial stability, workforce development and affordable housing are two key issues that are impacting our community right now.
Daniel Kasambira (07:30): Huntsville was voted the number one city in the country to live but as I always say, unless everybody’s raising that level, then we need to see the benefit and results of that. So with finance stability and health, you have workforce development. We have great industry. A lot of smart people here, a lot of rocket scientists and things like this but what happens, everyone needs to get an opportunity to be able to be part of workforce development. We’ve got a program called Ride United. It’s a partnership set up with the United Way Worldwide, and then we locally do it, and we work with Lyft to give people transportation back and forth to work. To help them through this challenging time. It also gives them rides to medical appointments. Gives them rides to the grocery store if they cannot.
We’ve serviced over 13,000 rides in the last year and a half. Then also with that with affordable housing, we have 800 people on section eight housing right now looking for housing. With the market that’s increased significantly and it’s the cost of apartments and housing, it’s gone up. We wanna make sure everyone gets the benefit of that. Finally the health piece with physical health, but also mental health is our focus. With mental health, we saw that really rise, I’m sure you saw the same thing, when the pandemic hit. Mental health impacted everybody. CEOs, rocket scientists, middle managers, homeless people and day to day folks. You saw the impact. We’re really focused on trying to curb the stigma of what mental health is, but also getting people assistance that they need and support they need. Those are three key focus areas and we understand that we’re here in our part of the world to try to make a difference in people’s lives.
Stormy Bell (09:15): That’s amazing. With that, you’ve mentioned about 27 partner agencies. Do you seek them out or do they seek you out?
Daniel Kasambira (09:28): Well, they go through a process and it’s a community impact allocations process. The cool part about this is we could actually as United Way staff, go out and pick agencies we wanna support, but we do it a little differently. What we do is we have an allocations committee. We have about 53 community volunteers that spend some time. It used to be annual basis, now we do it on a three year rotation. This is the second time we’ve done a three year rotation. What they do is, anybody who wants to be a United Way agency, they submit their information, their budget information, their application to be our United Way agency. These volunteers are broken down into education, financial stability, and health and we categorize those agencies that have submitted applications to be a part of United Way.
It’s a pretty challenging process because what happens is these volunteers, a lot of community leaders, community volunteers, they look through the applications, they look through the budgets, but then on top of that, they go ahead and visit each one of these agencies that have submitted applications. They gotta kind of do a deep dive into why this is important for our community so that they come together and they actually make a determination of who should be United Way agency. They make the decision and then we present it to our steering committee. The steering committee determines yes or no and then we bring it to our board for final approval of these agencies. Also going through that process, they determine how much we should distribute to each agency. It’s a volunteer driven process. It’s great because you can see people who are invested in our community say, hey, these organizations that need to be part of this, these organizations are making a difference. We wanna make sure that we are a part of the solution that’s on the challenges, not necessarily just looking from the outside.
Stormy Bell (11:30): That’s amazing. So the people [are] the community impact volunteers? Is that what you said?
Daniel Kasambira (11:36): Yes.
Stormy Bell (11:38): They’re all volunteers who do this. Like every level is a volunteer. Let me flip the question. How many paid employees do you have?
Daniel Kasambira (11:47): We have 10 paid employees, seven full-time [and] three part-time. We’re a lean mean staff and we have a community impact director, her name’s Cathy Miller, and she is the one who basically works all these volunteers through this whole process. Really makes [it] important not to insert her own point of view, but kind of guides the process. So we have a United Way representative there. It’s amazing what you can see happen and she can answer any questions that people may have, but our community impact director leads that effort.
Stormy Bell (12:22): That’s awesome. I’ve actually had the opportunity to work with volunteers as the volunteer manager or relationship manager and I enjoy working with volunteers because they’re doing it for their passion.
Daniel Kasambira (12:33): Yes.
Stormy Bell (12:34): Their heart is so into it, and they’re making that choice to be dedicated. It’s different than earning a paycheck where it can just be a job. Just a means to putting food on a table. But when you’re volunteering, you’re going above and beyond your work life. You’re taking time away from your family. You’re making a choice to make a difference.I just see the value in that. Let me ask you this question. Why do you volunteer?
Daniel Kasambira (13:04): Well, I understand the importance of service. I’ve always been kinda raised that way to give back. One of the things that I do, I wanna make sure that I stay connected. I can easily continue to do the work that I do, but I do serve on numerous boards and as a volunteer, numerous committees to really make a difference in our community because I feel if I’m gonna ask someone else to do this type of work, I need to be involved as well. One of the things we talked about, you know, volunteers taking the time out to just do it for a reason and purpose. I always have kind of a five Rs when I look at volunteerism and when I talk with people interested in volunteering, whether they’re on a board, whether they’re [in] our community, and I say we look at, you know, because you gotta get something out of it as well.
The first R is a reason. What is the reason you wanna be involved, volunteered? What is the reason? It could be a student wanting community service hours. It could be someone has time in their hands that’s been impacted by a situation in their life that they wanna say, hey, they wanna give back and make some time. It could be the reason that they’ve done well financially and said, hey, listen, I want to volunteer not necessarily just money, but time to give back. So having a reason behind what you do on a purpose. The second R, is providing them the necessary resources. A lot of times you can put a certain situation where it can be not a successful volunteer experience if you don’t give them the resources and tools that they need. Informing them, giving a proper orientation of this is what you’re gonna need to be successful in this role. This is what to expect when you’re taking the time out to volunteer, whether it’s at an organization or part of our board.
Daniel Kasambira (14:45): The third thing is relationship and showing them the value of how they’ll build relationships with other people who may be in their area, maybe their field, maybe the circle of influence, but also get an opportunity to be able to have relationships with people that they may not come across. Especially when you’re talking about crossing paths with different socioeconomic levels, crossing paths with different racial levels, ages. This is an opportunity for all of us to get together, and value relationships. Then the fourth R is the result. One of the things that we wanna make sure that we show the result. When you have a young person that’s got an A on a test because you took time to read out. A young person that may have, you know, trying to matriculate to college and trying to fill their college applications out to go, but this volunteer spent time doing that. You may have had a person that says, hey, I needed food that day but you were there and I thank you for that, to providing that. So showing them the result.
Then the last R is recognition and it’s important that we recognize and give proper recognition. Doesn’t anything big could be a t-shirt. It could be just recognition among their peers. Showing the value of like with our volunteers, with our community impact, we were just able to show the names that these people were important, that they believe in our community to make a difference. It could be, you know, recognition as far as on our website. There’s a different way you can recognize people and just say, hey, thank you for what you’ve done. I always say those five Rs, if we can get people invest in those areas and use those five Rs, you’ll have successful volunteer experience.
Stormy Bell (16:19): That’s amazing. I love that. I hadn’t heard it articulated that way before. I might use that.
Daniel Kasambira (16:27): Oh, please. I came up with that personally and just give me credit twice the next time it’s yours.
Stormy Bell (16:34): I’ll give you credit, don’t worry. Okay. You’ve done a lot of volunteering across your lifespan and with the United Way. Can you share one or two stories of impact? Something that you have personally seen or experienced and the impact it had on the other individual in this situation or group of people that were receiving the service or the services being provided?
Daniel Kasambira (17:09): Yeah there’s a lot of different stories I give. One in particular I can share. It’s a young man named Dominique Mallory. He was actually an employee of mine when I worked at Alabama A&M Wellness Center. He’s a young man who did some great things, but I spent some time outside just kind of mentoring and volunteering, you know, helping him along the path. Well, Dominique, and he has no problem [with] me sharing this now, was a young man that came from Memphis, Tennessee. He graduated from his undergrad from Lane College in Tennessee area, was coming to Alabama A&M for his master’s degree and he got in some trouble. Grew up in Memphis, tough part of Memphis. Parents were there, of course, grandparents something but he had come a long way.
He ended up getting in some trouble on campus at Alabama A&M. Because he worked for me, they knew I was working along with him, I got a phone call from the Assistant Vice President of Student Affairs. That person said to me, hey, listen, I know you work with Dominique. I know you see some things in him. We’re possibly going to kick him outta school because of what happened. I said to him, let me take him under my wing. Let me work with him and to help get him where he needs to be. Dominique, of course I was the second call he got. The first call he got was from the mother, which really kind made him listen, you know, you need to straighten up.
Daniel Kasambira (18:42): Second call he got was from me. I had a conversation. I said, listen, meet me one o’clock, it was on a Monday, and said, we’re gonna sit down and talk. I had a closed door meeting with him and kind of challenged him. Challenged him saying that you’ve got a lot of people that invest in your life, basketball coaches, your parents, your grandparents that invested a lot of time. I said, I’m on hook now cause I’ve put my name on there as credibility on your part. I said, I expect more from you. I expect more and I held him to a higher standard, both professionally as well, personally. Six months in, he comes to my office and said, hey, Mr. Danny, can we talk? No problem. He said, I wanna thank you first of all, cause you saved my life, saving me from direction.
I said, wait, saving your life is a little too much but you know, no problem cause I see some greatness in you. [He said] second of all, I wanna start my own nonprofit called Beating the Odds. I wanna work with young people like myself who’ve gone maybe the wrong direction and start a nonprofit. He did that locally in a place called Decatur here [in] Huntsville and now expanded to I think Birmingham and Atlanta. In this past December celebrate 10 years of Beating the Odds. Five years in, he invites me out to an event and says, and he works all volunteers, it’s all volunteer driven. He works in an event and he calls me up and my wife up and says, hey, listen and he kind of shared his story. He ended up winning Volunteer of the Year locally. He’s written two books.
Daniel Kasambira (20:09): He’s also shared. He said, I’ve worked with 600 young people who I’ve helped get on the right pathway because you saw enough to invest in me. That’s why I’m volunteering to give back. So he is probably over thousands people he’s worked with over this past 10 years. But had we not, you know, and I said we, because it takes a family, it takes a village to invest in [a] young man like this, who knows what could happen to those other people that he’s impacted. That’s probably one of the experiences that I said that you can see the results and you never know what’s gonna happen from this point forth but just knowing that if we in invest and take the time to invest in people and understand that everyone’s got an opportunity to be some great things, as long as we make an impact on their lives and invest in them.
Stormy Bell (20:58): That’s amazing. Well, we’re recording this in January, which is mentoring month. I read a statistic recently that a young adult who’s had a mentor is 130% more likely to take a leadership position.
Daniel Kasambira (21:14): Wow. I didn’t even know that. That’s amazing.
Stormy Bell (21:17): Yeah. I worked for a nonprofit and it was one of our social posts and it was the stat that was given in it and I’m just like, that’s amazing. Just the impact of one-on-one or even a small group of having an adult who can just, they’re not a parent, they’re not a teacher, they’re someone that they can learn from and rely [on] and ask questions about life that you might not feel comfortable talking to someone else. They are invested. They give that time and attention to the student, and it just helps them develop as a young adult and carry on to what your friend did. That’s amazing.
Daniel Kasambira (22:00): Yeah and it’s amazing when you think about it. I think about Gretchen Goodman, was Ms. Stopper before, and she’s my kindergarten teacher. We still keep in contact. It’s amazing after all these years, but [when] you look back when teachers were able to take those the time out, but they’ve got so much things going on. I was a kindergarten student. I was the only African American person in her class and she would just take me under her wing. Ms. Stopper to take me to the baseball games, bring me to her house on the weekends. I had two parents that were actually involved, but the time that she spent with me just showed me different parts of the world, it’s just amazing.
When you look back on people like that have impacted your life along the journey. I talk about Ed and Jane Wilson who taught me the game of basketball. Ed Wilson in particular the Wilson family that spent time with me and mentored me and brought us cookies when the first time we moved to Mansfield, Pennsylvania from Cleveland, Ohio. Just people like that who ongoing and mentored me and opened up doors for me. I just remember families like that. Eddie Wilson and I are still best friends and people like that have impacted my life throughout. All it takes is one person to make a difference and great things can happen.
Stormy Bell (23:20): It’s priceless. You can’t put a dollar amount on that impact.
Daniel Kasambira (23:25): Yes.
Stormy Bell (23:26): Yeah. That’s awesome.
Daniel Kasambira (23:27): You think about Mr. Kirby with our basketball coach? Mr. Wentzel. People like that were coaches in my life that also mentored and spent some time. As hard as Coach Kirby was on me, I’m grateful. I’m grateful.
Stormy Bell (23:45): Oh, all those names I remember. That’s awesome. Okay, now here’s supposed to be a fun question. Can you tell me about a blooper? Something that didn’t go right in a volunteer experience and what you learned from it. Or what was learned from the experience?
Daniel Kasambira (24:07): Oh, yeah. I’m trying to think of find a funny one. I remember when I was in, it ended up being worked out well. Can I say it was successful?
Stormy Bell (24:21): Sure, go ahead!
Daniel Kasambira (24:24): Okay. Well, Dennis Irvin was my board chairman in Chicago. He was a great guy, a banker. Dennis was someone who had the potential to do a lot for our YMCA at the time. I was excited because we had a big campaign coming up and giving campaign, but also we’re doing a capital campaign. We have a big event at this lady’s house and we’re gonna try to share our story. Dennis stands in front of the group and says, hey, listen, this is a great opportunity. I’m about to pull my checkbook out and write a big check for this event. So he stands in front of the group of people. People writing checks, excited. I’m getting close guys to writing a check. He kept saying over and over again, never wrote a check!
I said, Dennis, you’re sharing this and we’re telling people gonna do certain things. He said, Daniel this, but what’s happened is he wasn’t invested in what we’re doing. That’s why I came with the five Rs because I realized those things happened. Well, lo and behold, he ended up writing a check for us. I thought about another story with this young Marcus Hargrave. He’s actually employed, but he’s volunteering- voluntold to do something. I was a program director and he still reminds me of this today at the YMCA in Rochester, New York. One of the programs we had was gymnastics. Knowing Marcus, he was a basketball player in college and he was a good guy. Well, I ended up using some of my opportunities as being a supervisor of our program because our gymnastic coach didn’t show up.
Daniel Kasambira (26:13): Hey Marcus, I need you to volunteer some time for me. Alright, no problem. Dan, anything you need. I need you to go ahead and help with the gymnastics program. Here you see this big old guy and he’s sitting down doing stretches with five six year old girls, little girls in tutus. He never let me forget it. I wish I had some pictures from it. I could hold them as blackmail. I had him doing that and he said he never forgets the day. I remember Daniel, you put me in that situation. So those type of volunteer experiences that it went well could have gone awry, but it went well.
Stormy Bell (26:46): Yeah. That’s amazing. Yeah. We all have them. Well, opportunities and some turn out really well and some you leave scratching your head like, what, what went wrong?
Daniel Kasambira (26:57): Yes, exactly.
Stormy Bell (26:59): We’re coming to the point of the interview where I’m gonna ask you to love on the United Way or one of the other organizations that you volunteer with. Just love on them. Why should someone get involved or find out more information about whichever organization you choose?
Daniel Kasambira (27:21): What I have to choose is United Way. I say that not because I’m invested, but United Way changed the way I see things and changed my life. What I didn’t share initially was during that time I was in Birmingham and I worked for United Way. I ran into some challenging times, my family did. Because I worked for an office distribution center as an operations manager [before] I left [for the] nonprofit field and ran into some challenges because they merged with another company. I said, well I’ll get back in the nonprofit field no problem. Three months in, I still couldn’t find any work. I was blessed to have my wife working at UAB at the time and we have four kids who want to eat of course, you know, kids wanna eat. I still couldn’t find anything.
This is back in 2006. What I did was I started delivering pizzas [for] Papa John’s Pizza. [I] was doing that for seven days a week. I was delivering pizzas from 5:00 PM to 11:00 PM Monday through Friday. On Saturdays 10:30 AM to 10:00 PM and Sundays 12 to 6. I did it because a couple reasons. First, I had to support my family through my family. Second of all, I just couldn’t get back into the work field. Lo and behold, 10 months in I get a job with United Way of Central Alabama’s Relationship Manager. Coming in entry level, they believed in me. They saw the experience that I had and opened up my eyes to new opportunities.
Daniel Kasambira (28:55): During that time I continue to deliver pizza. From eight o’clock to four o’clock every day I would raise $7 million for United Way through their campaign season and then from five o’clock to eleven o’clock at night, I was delivering pizzas. I know God was taking me through as a process. Three and a half years I was doing that. Back in 2008 there was a couple crucial things that happened along the journey. That’s why I talked to the value of volunteers and people who you meet. In 2008 I got a flat tire at United Way and Camille Cowher knew I was working both jobs. You get to a point where you can’t afford $40 for a new tire, but United Way was there. She went to the HR department, said, listen, we need to write a check for Daniel because he’s working hard, trying, doing great for his family, doing great work for us.
They wrote me a $40 check and she meant the world to me. So 2008 as well, a guy named Kevin Grigsby who worked for Alabama Power which is a strong company in Birmingham. We were challenged because we understood that Christmas wasn’t gonna be Christmas. Kevin thought enough of us to say hey, listen Daniel me and my wife every year we support a family. He was a volunteer basically through his company. We wanna have your baby sat. We’ll take care of that. We’ll have you and your wife come out and buy whatever you want for your kids for Christmas and it’s from you. So Kevin Grigsby impacted, he’s a volunteer. We went through that process, ended up getting a job. Alabama A&M in 2010.
Daniel Kasambira (30:49): When I talk about United Way, it’s bigger than just me serving as President CEO. When I went through all the relationships and all that and just different people to impact my life at United Way of Central Alabama. When I got the job here at the United Way as President CEO, first call I made was of course my wife. [I] said, thank you honey. You were there in our tough times and good times. We’ve made it. Now we’re now running United Way of Central Alabama. Cause United Way of Madison County, you know, they love me the same, my four kids love me the same, whether I had a Papa John’s shirt on or shirt and tie on it was all the same. Second call I made with Camille Cowher.
I said, Camille, we made it. You saw me at my lowest time and you thought enough for me to invest your time and energy to say, listen, we need to take care of him cause he’s one of us. Third call I made was Kevin Grigsby. Hey Kevin, we made it. We were in a tough time. It was a challenging time, but you invested [in me]. We made it. So there’s people along the journey that have impacted my life and my family’s life. I’m able to say that’s why I believe in United Way. I have a title. I have a position where I can move and influence situations and people. It was bigger than just me coming in here with the 27 partner agencies.
Daniel Kasambira (32:25): It’s bigger than me working along with our great board of directors. It’s bigger than me just working along with a terrific staff team of people. It’s impacting people’s lives because I was one of them. We were one of them that needed help at the time. We needed support. That’s why I believe strongly in United Way. When you talk about living united, it takes all of us. It takes an entire village to help all of us become successful. That’s why I’m proud to say that I carry the United Way banner. I’m proud to be able to be in a position where one of there’s 1100 United ways across the United States and I’m one of 36 African American CEOs leading the organization across the country. It’s just an honor to be here. I’m privileged and honored. I understand the importance of people. When I can share with volunteers and talk to them about the importance of the work they’re doing, I see myself in that role. I see myself opportunity to be able to talk to a homeless person and make a difference or young person say, hey listen, you can do whatever you wanna do. I carry the banner for United Way.
Stormy Bell (33:39): Amazing. Thank you for sharing your journey.
Daniel Kasambira (33:44): Well, thank you.
Stormy Bell (33:45): It’s so impactful to hear that. I have a new appreciation for the United Way. I’ve always heard of them, you know, I know they do great things, but now for me it’s more personal. I’m so glad. Thank you again. Thank you for sharing.
Daniel Kasambira (34:01): Thank you.
Stormy Bell (34:01): Well Daniel, thank you so much for being my guest today. I know my listeners have enjoyed it as much. I hope they enjoyed it as much as I did because I took a lot out of this. You graduated a little bit ahead of me and maybe at a reunion we’ll see each other. That’s awesome. To make it back up.
Daniel Kasambira (34:22): That’d be fantastic. Thank you also for providing this opportunity to this day for people to be able to share. Because you didn’t have to do this, but you think it’s important to make a difference across this world. I share the story when I talk about it. Often I share the story of the impact one person can make. The story of a pastor writing a sermon and his son [saying] hey daddy, daddy, daddy come spend some time with me. The pastor kept saying, hey, gimme a few more minutes to do that. He said, daddy, daddy, daddy come spend some time with me. Comes back and he said, his pastor said, okay, what I’m gonna do is I’ll give my son a puzzle to put together and this will take him 10-15 minutes to put together. I’ll give you some time.
The child came back in five minutes, puzzle completed. He said, wow, son, how’d you put the puzzle together? He said, dad, it was easy. Cause I knew it was two sides of the puzzle. The first was a picture of man’s faith and the second side of the positive picture of the world. Once I was able to put the man’s face together, the world came together. I think on an ongoing basis, we make a difference in people’s lives. You put together one person at a time, whether volunteering, spending some time together, the world can come together as a better place. You’re doing that by the work you’re doing with The Art of Volunteering and I appreciate you taking the time and effort to do that because you’re taking people’s lives one at a time and the world’s come to a better place.
Stormy Bell (35:54): Thank you for your kind words. All right, thank you. I hope to see you next time on The Art of Volunteering. Have a great day. Bye.
Show Notes & Links
United Way of Madison County – www.uwmadisoncounty.org
United Way of Madison County in Huntsville Alabama – www.facebook.com/uwmadisoncounty
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