Volunteer Spotlight: Melissa Johnson

Arlington Community Federal Credit Union (ACFCU) was one of the first organizations to sign on to Volunteer Arlington’s Time to Serve pledge. As it suggests in their name, connecting with the community is incredibly important to ACFCU and the professionals who work there. Through the pledge, ACFCU offers employees at least 8 hours of paid time off per year to do community service. We applaud their efforts and enjoyed learning how Melissa Johnson, ACFCU Director of Business Intelligence, uses this time (and more) to volunteer in the community. 

Melissa sees the importance of paid time off for volunteering as a way of “positively reinforcing the culture and the type of values that you deem important within the organization.” She notes that ACFCU sprinkles volunteer days throughout the year encouraging their team to engage with the community. Along with that, they share information about volunteer opportunities, so their team can easily find ways to positively serve. This was how Melissa found the opportunity to volunteer at the Carlin Springs Family Market. 

Melissa’s favorite part about volunteering at the Carlin Springs Family Market, and really volunteering in general, is the connection and relationship building with other volunteers and those she’s serving. Melissa has been volunteering with the market for nearly a year and noted that she gets to see so many ACFCU members out and about when she volunteers and loves the chance to connect with members outside of the office.

She also volunteers on the International Leadership Board of the sorority she was in during college. Melissa started this volunteer role last year. She greatly enjoys both aligning their technology with their strategic goals and reconnecting with the collegiate members through coffee chats at the different schools. 

For both volunteer pursuits, Melissa finds the connection and relationship building the “most powerful part of getting involved with these types of volunteer opportunities.” To Melissa, seeing the impact you create has been rewarding. There are always stories about the impact of volunteer efforts, but she believes that seeing these stories play out and having your own stories to share is more powerful than hearing someone else’s story. Melissa greatly enjoys learning about the people she volunteers with and the people she’s serving, taking stories with her to keep her inspired, not just about her volunteer roles, but also at ACFCU.  

She continues to volunteer because she loves knowing she’s doing her part to serve the community in a positive way. Melissa loves “having the opportunity to build relationships organically with those she may not normally have the opportunity to do that with.” Building those relationships allows her to see how her work, and ACFCU’s work, can thread across the community.