Community service calls on all of us

At the funeral Thursday for home builder David K. Hill of Inverness, he was remembered, to be sure, for the great mark he made in the business world.

But it was fitting also that Hill was remembered for the tremendous philanthropic spirit that permeated his life - his community service with Harper College and Roosevelt University, his work with the North West Housing Partnership and with the WINGS domestic violence shelter in Palatine, the community building at the heart of his professional priorities.

This was a man who gave back and in doing so, left the world a better place than the one he was born into.

Over the years, the value of community service has been recognized universally. Good works have had many adherents.

As for us, we in particular like the observation expressed many decades ago by 19th century publisher and writer Elbert Hubbard, who said, "Down in their hearts, wise men know this truth: The only way to help yourself is to help others."

Who would disagree?

And make no mistake about it, there are countless suburbanites involved in community service in one way or the other, people giving of their time or from their pocketbooks or with their energy.

But here's a bit of unfortunate and downright embarrassing perspective:

The Corporation for National and Community Service recently released its rankings of "Volunteering in America" and, well frankly, we in Illinois and the Chicago area should take them as motivation to improve.

In the analysis of service from 2005 to 2007, the average volunteer rate for Illinois of 28 percent ranked 31st out of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The number of hours devoted to volunteerism in Illinois ranked 41st.

The study's ranking of 50 metropolitan areas in the United States gave even worse scores to the Chicago metro area, which included surveys of Chicago, Naperville and Joliet.

The study ranked the Chicago metro area 37th in average volunteer rate (25.6 percent) and 44th in number of hours dedicated to volunteerism.

We can do better than this.

We owe it to our communities to do better than this.

We owe it to ourselves to do better than this.

If you're looking to help, there are plenty of places you can go to offer it - hospitals, schools, social service organizations. Or try, among other places, The Volunteer Center of Northwest Suburban Chicago in Arlington Heights (847-228-1320); The Volunteer Center of McHenry County in Crystal Lake (815-356-7457); Giving DuPage (630-407-6458); DuPage County Volunteer Opportunities (volunteerdupageco.org); or the State of Illinois Volunteerism and Community Service (www.illinois.gov/volunteer).