During my first speech as mayor, I emphasized Provo’s spirit of volunteerism. Provo citizens have long been known as some of the most service-oriented people anywhere, and I applaud you for that. I’ve worked alongside many of you through the years. You are amazing.
I want to celebrate and build on Provo’s spirit of service. And I would love to let the outside world catch even more of a glimpse of it, so I am pleased to announce our ProvoServes initiative. For the next while, when you catch someone serving—or you serve someone yourself— please post it to social media with the hashtag #provoserves. A generous donor has agreed to donate $2.00 for every hashtag posted up to $1,000 to 2ft Prosthetics (A Provo based charity that delivers and installs prosthetic feet to people around world.)! So please take a moment and recognize your service or that of another in our city.
And while you’re at it, let’s all look for ways we can step up our service game. I invite you to keep an eye out for little or big ways you can help those around you. Pick up some litter, write a thank you note, or just go introduce yourself to a neighbor you haven’t met yet. Doing so can make such a difference.
If you’d like to consider signing up for a more structured way to serve, or for more information on the initiative, visit service.provo.org. United Way is helping us by providing access to some great opportunities through that webpage.
To make this more fun, we’ll be looking for individuals and groups to recognize for their service efforts. And we’ll wrap up the initiative with a big push for five days from June 11-June 16. Join us at the Movies in the Park event on Monday, June 11th and then at a community festival on Saturday, June 16th (details at service.provo. org). During that week, we’ll have some larger organized service events, like trail clean-ups, that you can sign up for.
At the festival and on social media we’ll highlight some of our outstanding service-oriented citizens. If there’s someone you’d like to see recognized for the service they give, please send an email about them to provoserves@provo.org or fill out a nominee card at the Provo Recreation Center or Provo City Center.
I hope that through this initiative we’ll all catch even more of Provo’s spirit of service. And I hope you’ll come join me as we celebrate that spirit and recognize a few of your remarkable peers on June 16th.