Helping Hands is a limited series highlighting local nonprofit organizations and the people behind their efforts to make a difference in our communities. We'd like to thank our Community Partner, McLane Middleton, for supporting this series. The organizations and stories featured are selected independently by our newsroom and are not influenced by our Community Partner.
Volunteers play a large role in our communities. Many of us have been touched in different ways by someone who dedicated their time to working with students in an after-school program, serving up hot meals to those in need, keeping our trails clear of debris, striving to beautify our town centers, or so much more.
This week-long series, Helping Hands, was born out of a desire to continue the work begun through our Hometown Heroes stories, which ran for three years and has been paused as we search for a new Community Partner. We know many of the nonprofits around us have hordes of volunteers who help keep their missions alive and thriving. This series aims to capture at least a sliver of those individuals and bring their efforts to life through our stories.
Our team of four summer interns chronicled the stories of why people commit themselves to causes and the impacts their devotion has on those around them. We asked our interns to shadow their assigned volunteers, if possible, and write first-person reflections of the experience to accompany their reported articles. Their work has touched us, and we hope it does the same for you.
We are proud to share their journalism with you and to have their voices — and the voices of those they profiled for this series — reflected in our coverage.
