Goodbye (for now?)

I always hate leaving a HODR project and this is no different...one tradition we have s to say "good bye" so here was largely my "good bye to the other volunteers" that I gave last night:

I know the work is sometimes hard and sometimes there aren't enough people to do the work, but what you do is important.

You may not get the credit, nor even the excitement of first responders and don't get paid what professionals do, but you fill a very valuable role in the recovery process. The survivors of the disasters need your help. Many of them are so busy just "getting by" that when a disaster hits, they are pushed in a hole they may never get out of. But you, and volunteers like you that will come and help over the coming weeks, put them back on the road to recovery. You push them weeks, months, and even years ahead in their return to normalcy.

But more than that, you serve as an inspiration. Your presence tells the survivors that people from around the country (and in your international deployments around the globe) haven't forgotten them. That others care.

You inspire those in the town that see you and may go help their neighbor. But you also inspire those who never see you but only know you are out there helping.

I have never been on in international project, but knowing that you are out there working and helping others is inspiring. It makes that bad day, that snow or rain, that whatever that much better.

For all of this, thank you. But remember that thank you is not just from me, but but from the thousands of others who have also been inspired by you.