Volunteers worth more than we can count

A volunteer’s time has never been free. It is a gift — and a valuable one.

That value was on full display Thursday as the Burke County recipients of the Governor’s Volunteer Service Award gathered to be recognized for their efforts in the community.

The honorees ranged in age from teens to senior citizens. Their acts of service spanned delivering meals to those in need, advocating for children in welfare cases, working with our neighbors with developmental challenges, rehabilitating hiking trails, and staying by someone’s side during their last hours on Earth.

We salute Linda Wharton-Duffy (Guardian ad Litem), J. Iverson Riddle Developmental Center Ambassador Council, Brenda Pittman (AMOREM), Ken June (The Outreach Center), and South Mountains State Park Trail Volunteers. Read more about them on page 13A.

The Governor’s Volunteer Service Award is meant to recognize individuals and groups that make “a significant contribution to their community through volunteer service,” with nominations coming through county coordinators and awards presented locally. The program includes nominees from the public, nonprofit, and private sectors, with service categories ranging from youth and seniors to animals, education, and veterans.

Independent Sector and the University of Maryland’s Do Good Institute estimate that a volunteer hour in the United States was worth $36.14 in 2025, up 3.9% from the year before. In North Carolina, that hour was valued at $34.34, slightly below the national average but still a powerful measure of what our neighbors give.

North Carolina’s figure trails the national number by $1.80 per hour, but that should not be mistaken for a smaller contribution. The state’s value rose from $33.01 in 2024 to $34.34 in 2025, a little more than a 4% increase. That growth closely mirrors the national trend and reminds us that volunteer work is tied directly to the strength of the broader economy — but its meaning goes far beyond wages.

The dollar amount can never fully capture the true worth of volunteer service. No calculation can measure the comfort of a hospice volunteer, the patience of a literacy tutor, or the quiet dignity of someone delivering meals to a homebound neighbor. Still, the estimate gives communities a useful way to recognize what too often goes unseen.

Burke County’s volunteers are not extras. They are part of the infrastructure of community life. Nonprofits, schools, civic clubs, churches, youth leagues, and emergency services all depend on people willing to give time without expecting a paycheck.

Their work also points to something larger: Rural communities survive and improve because ordinary people choose to take responsibility for one another. In a county with older residents, food insecurity, health access challenges, and disaster vulnerability, volunteerism is not sentimental. It is practical, economic, and deeply democratic.

Burke County’s local needs make volunteer service especially valuable. The Census Bureau estimates Burke County’s 2025 population at 88,655; 22.4% of residents are 65 or older; 14% of residents live in poverty; and 12.9% of people under 65 lack health insurance.

Volunteers often show up precisely where these numbers become human. A senior needing a meal and a daily check-in. A family needing food assistance. A child needing a mentor. A neighbor needing transportation.

Nationally, formal volunteers gave an estimated 4.99 billion hours of service between September 2022 and September 2023, valued at more than $167.2 billion. More than half of Americans — 54.2% — also helped neighbors informally, such as by running errands, lending tools, or watching homes.

The North Carolina Center for Nonprofits says more than 40,000 charitable nonprofits operate in North Carolina, including food banks, senior centers, animal shelters, health clinics, housing assistance centers, schools, museums, faith institutions, and transportation providers.

Volunteers support the same institutions that people rely on in daily life.

We should thank them, yes. We should also support them.

Perhaps the best way to thank a volunteer is to become one yourself. Find an issue you are passionate about. Look around for a need that is not being met. Then ask where your time, talent, or presence could make a difference. Not every act of service requires a title, a committee, or a long-term commitment.

Sometimes it starts with one person deciding to show up.

A stronger community is not built only by government programs or paid staff. It is built hour by hour by people who decide that someone else’s need is worth their time.