The joy, passion, and ease of connecting with the community is obvious as soon as you meet Renee Videlefsky. You can almost spell the alphabet with the number of organizations she surrounds herself with. She is a Unicorn of volunteers - impacting those she interacts with directly, snowballing a path to change. Unlike emerging tech Unicorns, though, she won’t IPO because she loves her communal connections.

When it comes to why she’s so involved, Renee’s humility shines through: “I feel so fortunate that I am in a position to dedicate my time to so many noble and impactful causes. Selfishly, I believe I gain much more from “doing good” than, perhaps, the recipients!”.

The Covid-19 pandemic abruptly suspended many of Atlanta community member’s volunteering involvements. For Renee, she could no longer tutor her elementary school children, conduct tours as a docent for the Bremen Holocaust Museum, and could not facilitate in-person Talk with me Baby @ Work conversations for Hands On Atlanta, among many other in-person initiatives. This demanded a pivot from volunteer organizations and from Renee. As a result, she delved into the growing food insecurity problem in Atlanta and redirected her volunteering efforts towards that.

“I certainly witness the appreciation and gratitude of the recipients of the food distributions on a regular basis. In the past, I experienced wonderful and emotional ‘ah-ha!’ moments when the children I tutored in reading suddenly ‘got it’, and their huge smiles were the best reward!”. The years-long investment of tutoring children is something Renee will certainly get back to once we can all safely do so. And until then, she’s pivoted to support those same children in a different way through meals.

Renee continues to show up for the youth community through The Sandwich Project and by packing meals for Atlanta Public Schools with Hands On Atlanta. No matter the challenge, Renee welcomes you to join her in conquering it - all while smiling and seeing that all things are possible.

Inspired by Renee’s story?

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