The value of volunteer work is made available by the Independent Sector and adjusted accordingly every year. In 2012 $22.55 was the highest value on record since 1980, when the value was $7.46 for a volunteer hour. According to the Corporation for National and Community Service, about 62.6 million Americans, or 25.4 percent of the adult population, gave 7.7 billion hours of volunteer service worth $173 billion in 2013. In 2014 Pennsylvania reported a volunteer hour being worth $22.63 and the national average being $23.07 (indpendentsector.org).
On April 18th Katie Kearney, Madison Lawson, Mackenzie Brennen, and Kaitlyn Burke cleaned up trash and debris at Riverfront Park in Reading for three hours. The worth of this volunteer work can be calculated as:
3 x 22.63 = 67.89 then 67.89 x 4 = $271.56
This number is the amount of money that our team saved the city of Reading by cleaning up along the river for just three short hours. This really puts it in to perspective how valuable volunteerism is to a community.