A small drop of rain in the ocean creates a small ripple effect. A small good action we are taking today will create a tremendous butterfly effect in the future.

One of my friends told me he donated some money to the Cares organization after he went to my website and read about my volunteer work.

It brightened my night to know that my own passion had inspired someone to do good deeds. It made me want to volunteer even more to help other unfortunate people.

Then the same friend told me he was interested in doing a volunteer with me at the New York Cares. I was so excited because so far I have recruited 3 of my friends to do the volunteer with me on the weekend. So it’s nice to have more people.

It might sound like a coincidence. The day after two of my friends showed me the interest of doing volunteer as well.

I am thinking if we have enough friends to do volunteer together, I will find a different project and purpose to the New York Cares. We are talking about delivering food to people who live with HIV and are too weak to go buy food by themselves.

I am very excited actually. I will go back to Thailand for a month. So I am looking forward to coming back and volunteering with friends.

I think two to three hours a week for volunteer work is not much at all. In a way, I think it’s sort of relaxing as well. I wake up early on Saturday, do volunteer and have lunch with friends. I can make my day very productive instead of sleeping until noon.

From my observation, the number of people who are interested in volunteer is increasing. I believe we all want to make this world a better place but sometimes we are so caught up with our own life until we cannot spare a little time to help other people.

I remember on the Thanksgiving last year, there were a lot of volunteers delivering food to the seniors. I was so surprised when I found out that some of them were doctors, lawyers and businessmen.

A small ripple effect starts from a small drop- a small drop that spreads and creates a bigger ripple effect. I am glad that I have created one and I hope it will keep expanding from my friends to their friends and so on.

As someone says if we want to see a better world, we have to start from individual. One has to initiate and take action and then gradually expand it to people around us.

This action will create a slow but solid change.

Tae Athikomvittaya