April is National Volunteer Month, and CWS is blessed to walk alongside every person who gives their time, energy and resources to serve others. You help ensure our neighbors near and far have enough food, a safe place to call home and the resources they need to live better lives!
In honor of April 20—National Volunteer Day—we’re recognizing a few of CWS’s exceptional volunteers! We asked each of them why volunteering is important, and why they volunteer with CWS in particular.
Volunteer Champion: Kim Schoepske
Welcome Team “Queen”, CWS Greensboro, NC Resettlement and Placement Program
Volunteering with CWS since 2019
Volunteering is important to me because of my faith. I feel God put us here to serve and help others.
I volunteer with CWS because I love the families we work with. All the individuals and families we have met are always so kind and appreciative. They have blessed me as much as I hope we have made their start in the U.S. a little easier. I was a social work major but worked 30 years in the IT field. I feel after all these years I am finally doing what I was called to do.
Volunteer Champion: Ulli Klemm
Event Coordinator, Mechanicsburg/West Shore (PA) CROP Hunger Walk
Volunteering with CWS since 2005.
With a deep awareness that every good gift comes from above, I simply want to share the goodness of God with others. And doing so makes my heart sing.
I volunteer with CWS because of its commitment to be and bring tangible hope to the most vulnerable in our world. As a child, I was deeply impacted by the stories my parents and grandmothers told living through the horrors of warfare. As they depended on the kindness of strangers to feed them, so I seek to pay it forward and extend generosity to others.
Volunteer Champion: Judy Maxson
Event Coordinator, Greater Lexington (KY) CROP Hunger Walk
Volunteering with CWS since 2003.
Volunteering is important to me because I humbly believe I’m not on this earth for ‘me’ but to connect with and serve others in need; to advocate, to join with their voices, to stand in solidarity, to seek the common good for all God’s children.
I volunteer with CWS because I can make a difference not only in the lives of my Central/Eastern KY neighbors but those around the world by engaging my Greater Lexington community in the CROP Hunger Walk mission.