This scenario had continued for the last 6 years. I began writing this blog as a way to address the many who had contacted me who wanted copies of a newspaper article I had written. In it’s heyday, I was authoring 60+ articles per week for various newspapers throughout the US. Many of those papers have closed due to Internet providing news and their inability to remain open and competitive in a ever-increasing non-print economy. I witnessed 34 papers close, out of the 60 that I wrote for. I assisted many newspaper columnists to locate employment elsewhere, as well as assist many more to structure their resumes to “market” themselves towards prospective companies.

In this trend to eliminate published news, I felt it best to end that portion of my volunteer efforts at the end of 2009. I will also end my involvement in the volunteer effort that has taken me on a journey of helping many friends, associates, family members and complete strangers. I have placed or assisted in placing a little over 6,000 people in the last 14 years. About 900 in a church “calling” that I had. For the 1st 3 years I was a ward employment specialist, the next 3 years, my better-half and I were stake employment specialists and had a great team in Mr. Maxwell, Mr. Brooksby and Mr. Moss, who were instrumental in accomplishing 543 placements in the last year of our participation in that “calling”.

Since then, my wife and I have continued to assist members of our faith (http://www.lds.org) and everyone and anyone that had been referred to us by friends or family. We first participated as a way to help our fellow Christians, then expanded upon it to help those that needed it, regardless of their religious, political, nationality or standing on any particular issues. We assisted because they needed help and for no underlying agenda. We did not use our format for assistance as a proselyting agenda.

It has always been our intent to help who needed to be helped. We were never looking for accolades, or to be known in the community, as most of our assistance remained confidential to the people we were assisting. But it is surprising to note that most people don’t report back to inform us that they “landed” a job that we helped them find. Quite frankly more often, we found out from either the friend that referred them or through a family member.

We are thankful for our faith and our determination to make a difference in peoples lives. We have always done this effort pro-bono. We had never charged anyone for our services. That included the newspapers we wrote for, the Professional Placement Companies that we assisted or to the individual coming to us. This was not a money making adventure for us, it was however very costly as this philanthropy endeavor began to ‘take on a life of it’s own’. We will continue to serve our community of Corona/Norco, California as well as be involved in local philanthropy endeavors to include;

 Soroptimists (http://www.sicorona.org/),

Inspire (http://www.inspirelifeskills.org/),  

Great Love Foundation (http://www.greatlovefoundation.blogspot.com/) and contribute to our local

Boy Scouts of America (http://bsa-ciec.org/openrosters/view_homepage.asp?orgkey=21).

We are also creating a college scholarship fund with the University of California. We encourage all to be involved in your community and in the lives of your neighbors.

We are all each other’s neighbors.

We wish you prosperity and the best that this life has to offer.

Gary “Mac” McGee

Moroni 8:3