Tong Xue is a student at Santa Barbara City College who was recently accepted to USC and plans to begin studying economics there in the fall. During the interim, he wanted to fill his time during the summer with a worthwhile cause while also learning something new. He signed on to United Way of Santa Barbara’s volunteersbc.org website to begin his search. Tong discovered an an opportunity to help with a local annual fundraising and awareness event, Memory Walk. He phoned the volunteer manager and was in the office that same day filling out an application and beginning his service the next day! In today’s tough economic times, one of the most valuable assets for a non-profit is volunteers; with their service hours, local organizations can continue to broaden their reach without expending extra very valuable dollars.

Tong was been kind enough to spend his first two weeks as a full-time volunteer, coming between 30 and 40 hours each week and then, still coming 15 hours a week, as he was also taking a summer course. With the Memory Walk coming up in October, Tong's support throughout the summer months was invaluable, as he assisted with kick-off events, production of marketing materials, and walker registration. Tong was a extremely dedicated volunteer, a pleasure to work with, as well as being invaluable.