Aside from work and family, for most of my adult life I’ve been attracted to community service. In Austin I was a member of the city’s ethics and arts commissions. For the writers’ league here, I contributed pro bono as a monthly columnist and workshop leader, helping to strengthen fellow writers and our exceptionally varied creative purposes. For the women’s life-writing group, I served on the board of directors and also wrote a column for its newsletter. As a young professional in Illinois, I was active with non-profit arts and humanities organizations. In Illinois, California, New York and Texas, I’ve been a volunteer for groups working to mitigate the cruelty of sexual assault and domestic violence. (Back in the day, when it was a thing, I also ran a consciousness-raising group for the Champaign-Urbana chapter of the National Organization for Women. I was there in Springfield when despite all we tried, the Illinois legislature first turned down the Equal Rights Amendment. That fight’s not over yet.) The rest of my service work has focused mostly on helping those in economic despair. If you’re in Austin now, maybe you can help Caritas, where, as a plain anonymous volunteer in my first Austin embed, I worked the pantry window and saw how diapers and tampons and toothpaste and canned tuna and beans actually helped people get through their week. I want to get back there, to do what I can, as soon as I can.
Dayna Finet 