Hello, my name is Essence Doucet and I love volunteering with the Cuyahoga County Public Library! As a United States Air Force Veteran, I wholly understand the importance and responsibility I have to my community. Giving back to my community is an honor.

I started volunteering with CCPL in 2019. I have volunteered as a tutor with the 1-2-3 Read program, both in person and virtually, in the Student Success Center, and assisted with the mobile food pantry produce distributions. My favorite volunteer role is volunteering with the mobile food pantry. I love the client-facing, interactive aspect of this volunteer opportunity. You can immediately see the impact you are making by helping to reduce food insecurity in your community.

My favorite thing about volunteering at CCPL is the relationships I’ve developed with the library staff, other volunteers, and community members. The community members I serve know me by name and are always happy to see me. They are so appreciative of the work I do. This makes the work I do with CCPL all the more worth it. Their smiles inspire and motivate me to give more.

Living in Northeast Ohio you never know what type of weather you may experience while volunteering. One memorable volunteer experience I had working at a mobile food pantry was when we got stuck in a rainstorm. I showed up with straight hair and by the time I left, I had a cute little afro. All the volunteers were wondering how my hair changed so much over a few hours. I laughed about it all the way home.

If you are thinking about ways you can give back to your community CCPL is a great place to volunteer. There are so many great volunteer opportunities available. The new online volunteer portal makes it very easy to schedule volunteer opportunities that suit your schedule. My service mantra can be summed up by this quote from Shirley Chisolm:

Service is the rent we pay for the privilege of living on this earth.