East Valley town working on 25,000-hour community service challenge for America’s 250th birthday

By Tom Blodgett
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As the nation approaches the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Gilbert leaders are asking residents to celebrate not with fireworks alone, but with service.

Through a partnership between For Our Town Gilbert and JustServe, the community is aiming to complete 25,000 hours of volunteer service before July 4 as part of the nationwide America250 initiative.

Mayor Scott Anderson promoted the effort in an email encouraging “every resident, family, school, business, and organization in Gilbert” to participate by volunteering and logging their hours online, including service performed retroactively back to January.

Rachel Hixon, director of JustServe in Gilbert and a board member on For Our Town Gilbert, said the initiative is designed to highlight service as a core American value.

“We just thought this was a great opportunity to show what our nation was built on, which is service,” she said. “The effort proposed and the effort that went forward through the For Our Town Board was that we would track the service hours and have a goal of 25,000 service hours between now and July 4th.”

The effort launched in early March, and organizers said the response has exceeded expectations.

“In fact, I think we’re close to half of our goal already,” Hixon said.

The challenge goes beyond organized volunteer projects and encourages residents to count everyday acts of kindness and neighborly assistance.

“If you are helping your neighbor mow their lawn, if you’re picking fruit for mom and dad in the backyard, if you are going down the street and helping someone weed their front yard or doing any everyday thing that you can do, we want people to track it,” Hixon said. “We want them to recognize that the reason this country is so great is because we serve each other day-to-day, minute by minute.”

For Our Town Gilbert is a collaboration of nonprofit organizations, businesses, faith groups and community leaders focused on volunteerism and community engagement. Assistant to the Town Manager Melanie Dykstra said the organization works to connect residents with community needs through quarterly meetings, service drives and volunteer events.

Among its recent initiatives have been teacher supply drives, community food drives and service projects tied to the town’s annual Sept. 11 memorial observance.

Dykstra said last year’s 9/11 Day of Service effort involved nearly 6,700 volunteers contributing more than 13,000 hours across 97 projects benefiting 88 organizations.

The current America250 challenge relies heavily on JustServe, an online platform sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that connects volunteers with organizations needing help. While church-sponsored, organizers stressed the platform is open to all community organizations and volunteers.

“One of the options that we’ve really enjoyed is that there are some nonprofits that may not have robust systems,” Dykstra said. “JustServe provides that platform at no cost to any of the nonprofits that might need volunteers.”

Residents can browse volunteer opportunities by interest, including projects involving seniors, youth, food banks, homelessness assistance and animal-related causes.

Organizers said many nonprofits rely heavily on volunteers to operate because they have few or no paid staff members.

Dykstra said the broader goal is to help residents reconnect with neighbors and build a stronger sense of community.

“Volunteer looks very different and it takes many, many different forms,” she said. “People just don’t always recognize that, but they should be able to feel good about that is how that they’ve helped build this community and it is through service, as small as it can be.”

Among the volunteer opportunities highlighted during the discussion were heat relief efforts during the summer months, service projects assisting seniors and organizations supporting refugees and people experiencing homelessness.

Organizers also emphasized that the effort will continue beyond July 4 and extend into upcoming 9/11 service projects later this year.

Residents can find volunteer opportunities through JustServe.org and log their hours through links available through For Our Town Gilbert.

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Tom Blodgett
Senior News Editor | Gilbert

tblodgett@iniusa.org

Meet Tom
Tom Blodgett joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2022, when the company acquired Community Impact Newspaper's Phoenix-area properties. Raised in Arizona, he has spent more than 35 years in journalism in the state.

Community: He has served as an instructional professional in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication since 2005, and is editorial adviser to The State Press, the university's independent student media outlet. He also is director of operations for an 18U girls fastpitch softball team from Gilbert.

Education: Arizona State University with a BS in Journalism. 

Random Fact: He lived in Belgium during his freshman year of high school.  

Hobbies: Tweeting enthusiastically about ASU softball (season-ticket holder) and grumpily about other local sports (pessimistic fan).