Volunteer Center of South Jersey member Greg Davis was awarded the “Citizen of the Year” title by the Gloucester County Chamber of Commerce.
By Krista Cerminaro
Volunteer Center of South Jersey board member Greg Davis has been recognized by the Gloucester County Chamber of Commerce as Citizen of the Year.
Davis has served on the VCSJ’s board for roughly 12 years, and was president for four. The mission of the organization, according to Davis, is essentially to connect volunteers with agencies that need volunteers, and improve the volunteer experience.
His passion for volunteer work is evident through his accomplishments at VCSJ — Davis co-founded the Spirit of Community awards with director June Bretz, an awards ceremony that recognizes local volunteers in the community, which is now the largest volunteer recognition event in New Jersey.
Davis’ favorite aspect of the awards ceremony is having the opportunity show appreciation and thank local volunteers for doing what they’re doing.
“One of the things I love about the event, is you just learn that there’s so many nonprofits out there that most people don’t even hear of, and all kind of really cool work that goes on,” Davis said. “[It’s] a chance to go thank those people and reward them and say, ‘hey, you’re doing real great work’ — kind of what the chamber’s done for me.”
According to Davis, it’s also a way for VCSJ to promote volunteerism through recognition.
“A lot of volunteers don’t feel the need to be recognized, but when you can, it really completes the whole thing,” Davis said. “We create a society that wants to volunteer. They talk about the four pillars, which are recruitment, retention, recognition and utilization. If you think about that four-legged stool — if you can’t recruit people, it doesn’t happen. If you don’t retain people, it doesn’t happen. The recognition piece of that four legs, that’s where the award ceremony comes in. Which is the neat part — that’s the piece that was kind of missing before.”
Davis’ drive to volunteer stemmed from the refinery he’s worked at for 26 years. The company was owned by Valero from 1998 until 2010, and Davis credited the company for inspiring him to do more for his community.
“They are a company that is one of the most generous, charitable companies in the U.S. — they’re very into it,” Davis said. “They actually had a policy that all employees should give back 24 hours of service per year. It was very encouraged, they gave you time to go do it, so that’s I think what kind of planted the seed in me.”
Additionally, it was during Davis’ presidency the VCSJ was changed from the Volunteer Center of Gloucester County to the Volunteer Center of South Jersey, expanding to a seven-county region, according to Davis.
Davis said being president was key in developing his leadership skills.
“I’m a manager at the refinery, but you manage a fairly non-diverse group of people. It’s mostly engineers, operators, it’s one type of person. When you try to manage an organization like this, you’ve got all types of people — so as a leader, it did a lot for myself, just figuring out how to direct people, how to motivate people, how to lead.”
This year, Davis also implemented a scholarship for the VCSJ. Davis came up with the idea at the last awards ceremony, and agreed to match the $500 that was raised. The VCSJ plans to give out two $500 scholarships in just the first year.
Davis also credited the director of VCSJ, Michele Epifani, for pulling it all together and making the center thrive.
Aside from his involvement with the VCSJ, Davis is also a father of two daughters, who, he joked, have both caught his volunteer bug.
“I think it kind of rubbed off — I mean a lot of kids, they model their behavior after their parents…when I was doing stuff that was family-friendly, I’d bring them in and they’d see, and they’d get the same bug that’s like, ‘wow, people appreciate you for doing this, this is the right thing to do,” Davis said. “It’s a bug — once you start doing it, you see it, [and] you have that good experience, you just want to do more.”
Davis says some of his goals as a board member are development and expansion of the board, which is looking for members.
“No matter what you like doing, there’s something you can do to improve the community,” Davis said.
