1) Working in the community has taught the author that individuals have the power to create change through their actions and example. 2) Anyone can make a difference in their community through contributing their time, money, effort, communication or passion in various ways. 3) Small individual contributions and acts of service, when combined, can have a large impact on the community as a whole.

1. 7.B Things Being Active in the Community Has Taught Me! In working with the VBS, FeedMore, the kids and staff at Deep Run and many other dynamic causes in Central Virginia, I have learned much If we choose, and it is a simple matter of choice, we will become the change agent making a difference in our community – that is the power of our example becoming an example of our power

2. People Care 500 People show up to give VBS blood 5 times a year The MOJO on the floor of the CVFB Engaging once they become aware – 3 second WOW responses Local impact had by Rotary Chapters Coal Pit Project for Innsbrook

3. 2) Whatever Your Circumstance, You Can Make a Difference! Time, $$$, Effort, Communication, Passion – each of these is a gift! Connect the Dots! Steve Case, AOL – Sector Blending Connect the Dots! Full Utilization of Assets – MoW Reefer Put Yourself in Front of Something, Leave Yourself Alone with it, Create the Ideal!

4. 2)Find your passion, feed your passion, fuel your passion! What turns you on? Health, Clothing, Hunger, Housing, Performing arts, Animals, Education, Environmental issues? Now – feed your passion by finding out all you can! Then – fuel your passion! Apply Bruce Mau’s “Incomplete Manifesto for Growth” Allow events to change you, drift, harvest ideas

5. 3) A Little Goes a Long Way! One pint of donated blood saves THREE lives One dollar given to the CVFB results in FIVE food dollars from the CVFB One pound of food can be stretched a long way! An hour of time to a Rotary, builds a group Mastermind Napoleon Hill’s idea The whole is greater than the sum of parts Isn’t that the very essence of community?

6. 3) Build A Network That Goes a Long Way! Back Pack Advocates! Power of Ten (P10!) RMA – Think, Shop & Buy (and do!) Local Gary Glover’s coats, Gary Weiner’s shoes, Mike Winckler’s Goodwill, Paul Carr’s blood drives – probably more than a few of you too! Wendell Berry – Solve for Pattern Combine resources to create better and broader based solutions!

7. 4) You are the Community and the Community is You! Speaking of you -- set unreasonable goals! Non liner innovation begins with unreasonable goals. Challenge the status quo! Reverse engineer success. Feeding 3,000 kids each weekend Be Aware! Help people build bridges! Awareness creates advocacy Sustainability is key Make it visual – a back pack is a bridge from hunger to hope! Draw a bridge – what is on the issue side? How about the solution side? N. Neck Oysters

8. 4) Find a New Community! Google your passion Climb for the Cure -- Mt Rainier Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center Find the synergy between your interests and action opportunities What is on your personal Bucket List?

9. 5) Show & Tell To touch is to feel This is a back pack – you have all heard about it, now see it, touch it and experience it. Walk across a farm field – gleaning Estimates are $4.0 billion pounds of fruits and vegetables die on the ground Viral networking The power is in the visual and the audible SPCA – Robins Starr Humane Center The upcoming One Can, Can initiative

10. 6) Each Day is an Opportunity Just because you didn’t yesterday, doesn’t mean you can’t today Explore every opportunity & create synergy CVFB & Meals on Wheels >> Community Kitchen Whatever the most recent result, you can’t change it Fail admirably & learn what you can, then move on Define your passion, build the bridges, create the touch points & feel the synergy

11. 6) Opportunities There is a chasm of difference between knowing what is going on and doing something about it If you “know” but don’t “do”, do you really “know”? George Bernard Shaw: “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world. The unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”

12. 7) Passion is a Force Multiplier Area walks for CF, breast cancer, juvenile diabetes All walks of life, each knowing and each doing! VBS Staff high fiving at blood drives Deep Run High School 2010’s Marathon Dance raises $134,000!!! Over $450,000 in the last three years!!! Ask Riley & Tucker Gordon about it! Riley, a Senior, is passionate in her pursuit of a cure for Cystic Fibrosis which her Brother suffers from. The Goal? A transitional acronym from CF – Cystic Fibrosis to CF Cure Found! Napoleon “ In war, morale is to materials and three is to one”

13. .B) You You are the difference You are the point You are the source of the choice The space between stimulus and response, is similar to the space between cause and cure – it is all about actionable choices and outcomes When you choose to get involved, you become a point of contact, thus creating a change agent that becomes a part of the solution. You, yes you!