By Maureen Renzi, PICPA Vice President of Communications

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I have worked at the PICPA for many years and have had the privilege of meeting hundreds of CPAs. A consistent impression that I’ve taken away is that CPAs volunteer for many different causes in their communities and love doing it. This year Jerry Maginnis, PICPA president, wants to shine a light on all these volunteer activities, which in turn has inspired PICPA’s first Week of Service May 17-23, 2015.

The theme of the week, PICPA Cares, will highlight how collectively CPAs contribute to enhancing and enriching our communities. We are asking firms, accounting departments, and individuals to carve out some time during the week of May 17-23 to participate in a volunteer activity and let us know what you are doing. Each chapter is working to identify a community service project that week, so watch for details on local PICPA service opportunities.

We’ll work to promote activities in your local area by sharing pictures and ideas at #PICPACares and on our other social media channels and website. Activities can include events such as going to food banks; participating in charity races, walks, and bike rides; providing free personal financial education programs; planning fund-raising events; or other charitable works. Those who register with the PICPA have the option of ordering PICPA Week of Service T-shirts to wear in the community and bring greater attention to the profession’s commitment to community service. More details can be found at www.picpa.org/picpacares.

We know that service is not limited to this week-long focus, so to help quantify the profession’s ongoing commitment to charitable works we encourage members to go online, log in to the My Account section of the PICPA website, and report their community volunteer hours in the Volunteer Tracker. To date, members have logged an astounding 9,847 hours of service. The volunteers we have heard from shared their experiences as board members, instructors, coaches, food sorters, and more. Considering the PICPA has 22,000 members, we are confident the cumulative volunteer hours we tally will be staggering. I hope you will help us collect this data and let us know what your contribution is, no matter how big or small.

PICPA’s Week of Service may not be until the spring, but preregister now and start planning your volunteer activity.