2023 Finding Comfort and Joy

A Letter from our Executive Director, Karen Delaney

We started 2023 together in the pouring rain – and hundreds of you showed up to fill and place sandbags, help with evacuations and staff shelters.  It is hard to describe how much it changes one’s view of the world to see ordinary people show up, day after day, to perform hard labor – covered in mud, for free – just because they care about their neighbors and their community. 

Together, we moved tons of mud and debris, digging out parks, businesses, and hundreds of homes throughout Santa Cruz County.  And just when things were beginning to settle down, we started over again to help our Pajaro neighbors when the levee burst.  Thousands came forward again: giving time, donating items to replace what families lost, and donating funds so we could continue to recruit, train, and equip people in our response to floods.

Big disasters make the value of volunteers and the work of our Volunteer Center visible, as our army for good shows up, cleans up, and restores broken homes to families.  What is truly astonishing is that every day, across every imaginable cause in homes, parks, libraries, and schools, thousands of our volunteers – our neighbors – show up to provide hope, aid, and comfort to their neighbors. 

To end the year, we took a leap of faith and increased the number of families in our Adopt-A-Family program because we know what a generous community this is, and you all blew us away!  More than 2000 children in 600+ families are receiving warm clothes and specially selected gifts for the Holidays, along with food certificates and household essentials for the whole family.  It takes a village of donors, adopters, toy drive partners, agency partners, and volunteers to collect, wrap, label, and deliver that much happiness – and together we did just that!

From all of us here at the Volunteer Center, to the 50,000 people who use our web-based tools to connect to community, and the 12,000+ people who took action with us for good in 2023, we want to say Thank You!  Knowing you and seeing what you do for our community fills me with comfort and joy today, and every day.