Last month Amy Davis forwarded an article to me that highlighted the financial impact of HOBY Alumni and Volunteer hours in the past year. The article stated that the value (national average) of a volunteer hour was $21.36.  As an organization HOBY's volunteer financial impact was over $5.6 million!  That got me thinking about our impact here in Maine.  The only data I have access to is what our Alumni have logged on the L4S site.  Here are some highlights:

• In the past 5 years (how long I have volunteered with HOBY), HOBY Maine Alumni have logged 9,473 hours of volunteer time representing an positive financial impact of $202,343.28! 
• The 2010 Alumni have given back 2,434 hours since their seminar alone  - that's almost $52K!
• Finally, our Alumni Board President, Kristi Leclerc has logged the most hours of all alumni since her seminar year in 2008.  Kristi has logged 894 hours which equates to nearly $20k!

I suspect HOBY Maine's actual impact to be significantly higher as I know many of you have not logged all of your hours - or you stopped logging hours after your seminar year.  Please take a few moments and update the L4S site - make yourself a reminder and do it each month - it is another great way to share your appreciation for HOBY.  By logging this information you help HOBY and HOBY Maine demonstrate the incredible impact of our programs, alumni and volunteers!

HOBY has made it even easier by creating a Facebook App for logging hours.  You can find it on our HOBY Maine Alumni FB page on the left hand side - all you need is your login and password.  If you don't have it - email me and I can get it for you!

To read the original article click here: http://election-2008.tmcnet.com/news/2011/08/23/5724678.htm

Keep up the amazing work HOBY Maine! 
Syd

Returning to HOBY as a junior facilitator is a privilege and honor. As an ambassador, I had a life changing experience. I became a better leader, I became more confident, but most importantly, HOBY gave me a new outlook on life. As a junior facilitator, my life changed in a completely different way.

There aren’t many places in the world where one can witness such an amazing transformation of young adults. I watched as a group of shy, quiet, high school sophomores walked into an unfamiliar setting. I watched as they introduced themselves and made friends. I watched as they struggled through team building. I watched them slowly started to come out of their shells. I watched them become stronger leaders and for me, that experience was incredible.

Every year I return to HOBY I learn something new. This year I learned about a new generation of students. The most recent group of ambassadors at HOBY Maine is a great group of leaders. I have faith that they will all go on to do outstanding things. Programs like HOBY give me confidence that our country and our world will always have strong leaders. As long as HOBY is around, extraordinary leadership will be around as well.

I love HOBY because it’s the one place in the world where I can truly be myself. Sadly, at home, at school, and even around my friends, I don’t act like myself. I act like a dull version of HOBY me. It is something about my character that I need to work on and HOBY helps me with that.

My goal as a junior facilitator was to give the ambassadors an amazing HOBY experience. If I make the slightest impact on just one student, my job is done. 

-Ben Glidden, HOBY Maine '07 Alumni