About a year ago on a bleak January afternoon, a fellow Tactile team member posted a link in our general Slack channel to a written statement by the honorable Mayor Jim Kenney. It spoke of our ability as Philadelphia residents to counteract the recent and troubling political tide by individually making a positive local impact. Included in the statement was a link to the Serve Philadelphia website (https://www.serve.phila.gov), and I decided to put my work on hold to browse this resource in search of the right opportunity.

I came across a listing by a local non-profit named Rock To The Future (RTTF) (http://rocktothefuture.org). To pull a direct quote from their Mission Statement, RTTF is “a 501(c)3 organization that provides music education for Philadelphia’s underserved youth at no cost to them or their families.” As a musician, I was surprised that there might be a practical application for my otherwise useless playing-in-a-band hobbyist knowledge. Turns out they needed some folks to lend a hand at their afterschool program in Kensington, so I signed up for an orientation meeting, wrote a pitch to Marc about letting me leave the office early every week or two, and began my volunteer work at RTTF.

Now that I’ve settled into my volunteer routine over the past year or so, I’ve taken a liking to dropping by every couple of weeks to fix up some of the guitars and other miscellaneous equipment. The arts education and community support provided by RTTF closely aligns with our core values here at Tactile. I’m thankful to work at a company that encourages me to launch out of the office a little early to go hang out with the RTTF team, their volunteers, and the kids in the program.

To help support their program and the students they serve, please consider making a donation to RTTF (http://rocktothefuture.org/donate/). I encourage you to also check out the Serve Philadelphia website to explore the wealth of volunteer opportunities in the city. Think globally, act locally!