One organization strives to make a difference all year long and will use this year's national day of caring and volunteerism to ensure its mission stays on course.
Time Bank Mahoning Watershed will have a display table set up at the volunteer picnic Oct. 24 at the Warren Community Amphitheatre so it can add to its databank of service exchange members.
"Our organization helps people make friends in addition to providing service sharing, so it goes beyond the traditional meaning of volunteerism," Time Bank Mahoning Watershed founder Tony Budak of Hubbard said.
And even though the organization is a 24-hour, seven-day- a-week operation, Budak said Make A Difference Day seemed like a good opportunity to spread the word about the Time Bank.
Make A Difference Day is sponsored by USA Weekend Magazine and the Points of Light Foundation and is held the fourth Saturday of October each year. This year, the 19th annual Make A Difference Day is set for Oct. 24.
The Trumbull County event is sponsored by the Tribune Chronicle, and this will be the newspaper's seventh year of sponsorship. The newspaper hosts the annual picnic as a thank you to the volunteers, and this year's picnic also will serve as a collection site for several organizations.
Time Bank Mahoning Watershed was founded in December 2007, but no activity took place until about 14 months ago. It started out with 20 active members but now boasts 82, including eight organizational members that have more than one person participating.
The Time Bank Mahoning Watershed serves Mahoning, Trumbull, Columbiana and Mercer counties, with most of its members coming from the Youngstown and Liberty areas. Budak said there are some members from Columbiana, Howland and Sharon as well.
"I would like to have members in every nook and cranny of the Mahoning Valley, and I plan to use the volunteer picnic to raise awareness of our organization and boost our database of members. We're trying to make a difference every day," Budak said.
He said what makes Time Bank different from other volunteer efforts is the reciprocity factor. Most people are willing to help others but are too proud to accept help for themselves, Budak said.
"The Time Bank is not about seeking help because you are weak. It's about trading your skills and talents for the skills and talents of another person so both people win," Budak said.
The Mahoning Watershed is a local chapter of a nationwide pay-it-forward program that prefers a favor-based system to cash. Within the system, helping to fix someone's car, watching someone's children or planning a party are all ways that participants can assist others while also getting help themselves.
Participants go through a job interview when they join the Time Bank and fill out forms detailing their skills in a list of job categories, such as child care or construction. Then they sign up for the Time Bank's Web site, which makes profiles of the skills they offer and what hours of the day they would be available to do the work.
Any member may post a message asking for specific help, such as requesting that someone with a truck help move furniture for an hour. The person who comes through with the truck then earns a Time Dollar, which shows up in a balance on the Web site. That person can use that dollar to buy whatever it is the other members are selling.
Budak said the idea has been around for decades and is the brainchild of Edgar Cahn, the former special counsel and speechwriter for Attorney General Robert Kennedy under President John F. Kennedy. Cahn, whose career has focused on poverty and civil rights, created time banking after suffering a nearly fatal heart attack, according to Time Bank's central Web site.
He said Time Banks originally were run with a telephone, a notebook and a diligent banker, but the project has really grown since the advent of the Internet.