Karen Baker is the state’s Secretary of Service and Volunteering, a relatively new cabinet-level post. She says Cesar Chavez Day is the perfect time to talk about service:
“I think what Cesar Chavez really believed in was a life of service. His whole life was a testimony to that.”
She says many people take part in service projects to honor the holiday – but volunteering happens every day in California. Baker says roughly seven million people volunteer in the state. And that’s up 800-thousand over the past year. Baker says the increase may be driven in part by the recession:
“You do have a bit of that pool that’s caused by underemployed people or unemployed people that are either interested in maintaining their skills or making a contribution or even finding something to do with their time.”
Baker says young people and retired baby boomers are also big into volunteering. She says Californians donated close to one billion hours of their time over the last year.