“When you volunteer, you think about others needing help and forget about yourself. By helping others, you help yourself.”

For Edith Harvey, who had raised 19 children, including six stepchildren and two foster children, it was hard to sit back after retiring from hospital food service. So, she volunteered to watch and rock sick babies at the hospital during the night, when their parents needed a break. Then in 1978 she added volunteering with Gwinnett County Senior Service, spending 17,000 hours preparing more than a million meals for seniors for 29 years and mentoring more than 100 inmates who worked in the kitchen. She also volunteers with the Lawrenceville, GA, Housing Authority. Somehow she has found time to sing with the choir of her church as well.

Her tireless service has been recognized by many organizations, including the United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta, Bank of America, HandsOn Network, Points of Light Institute, 100 Black Women, and the Met Life Foundation.

At 94 years of age, she says, “Do the best, when you can, even if it’s for an hour, and mean it from the heart.”