Dignity is a community welcoming to all people. We never ask anyone to be anything except who they are or to do anything they don't want to do. We truly do our best to welcome everyone. We are also a community of volunteers. We must continuously rely upon individuals willing to take time out of the other parts of their lives to give some of their time, some of their talents and skills back to our community to keep it going. And we are always in need of new people, with fresh ideas.

Just about a year ago now, I asked this question of our community: "Will Dignity San Diego be here to celebrate its 26th anniversary?" To my relief and to the relief of many, the answer is a resounding Yes! Thanks to the many members of our community who responded to that call for more involvement of both their time and talents we have had a very good year! Financially we are on solid ground. Membership while not increasing is at least maintaining itself. Involvement with other community groups and events are once again increasing. We've had a number of opportunities to present our position in the local media in recent months. We had a number of people emerge last year to serve in leadership roles within both our chapter as well as our region.

Yes, I would say our chapter is doing very well right now. But I also see many people who have yet to get actively involved with our community. I have to wonder why that is. I wonder how much more we could be doing, how much wider our outreach could be if more people were to get actively involved. I wonder what holds some people back.

In the next few months our chapter will hold our annual yard sale fundraiser, celebrate the chapter's 26th birthday and hold chapter elections. All that along with our regular weekly Mass, and monthly pot lucks. More than enough happening that every member of our community could be participating in any number of ways. Yes we are doing very well right now, but I wonder how much more we could be doing if more of you came forth and gave back some of what you have been given.

Here are some of the ways you might be able to help the community! We have a need to form several committees to oversee some of the upcoming events. Specifically we need people willing to serve on the following committees: Yard Sale Committee, Anniversary Planning Committee, Nominations and Election Committee. For the yard sale we need people to volunteer to work on the day of the yard sale, to store items donated for the sale, to price items for the sale, to pick up donated items and to move the items to the site of the sale. For the chapter elections we will be electing a new President and three new Community Council members. We need people willing to commit to serving the chapter for the next year or two.

How about you? Are you giving back to our community your fair share? There's no better time than now to get started!

May God continue to bless us all,

Mike

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