Heather and Danna
We got an early start on the Thanksgiving season this month with a sense of deep gratitude for two of our volunteers who have now been with Just Harvest for ten years.
Beal Bank employees Danna Watson, an assistant branch manager, and Heather Wylie, a retail banking specialist, first started their work with Just Harvest on Oct. 16, 2012.
“I was researching places to volunteer for work that would match what we needed,” recalls Danna. She was hoping to find “a place where we could use our banking and financial knowledge to help that organization and/or the people it serves.” Just Harvest and our clients have benefited from their compassion, dedication, and skills ever since.
For the past decade, Danna and Heather have graced our offices one day a week, for 3-4 hours or roughly 24-32 hours per month. This amounts to thousands of volunteer hours for each of them. They track donations, prepare bank deposits, provide data entry, and help our Free Tax Prep program every tax season. Back when Just Harvest had an annual Harvest Celebration Dinner and silent auction, they supported that huge undertaking every year. Danna also served on the Board of Directors’ Fundraising and Finance Committee for most of 2020.
And to top it all off, they sound like we’re doing them a favor, commenting on “how much we truly enjoy volunteering with you guys. It hardly seems like it has been 10 years. COVID has definitely changed how often we see you all in the offices but it was always nice coming in and seeing everyone’s friendly faces and knowing we are helping.”
Helping is an understatement. There is no way to put a number on the value of their years of service, which has truly made Just Harvest a better organization. We are so grateful to them, and to Beal Bank, for supporting their volunteer work with us.
We may not be able to end hunger in the next ten years, but we’d be fortunate to have Heather and Danna around for another decade to help us try.
Interested in volunteering your skills to Just Harvest? Our Free Tax Prep program is now recruiting volunteer tax preparers for the 2023 season; no experience is necessary.
You can contact our grassroots organizer Dana Dolney at [email protected] for other opportunities.
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