I am standing inside a classroom in Chios, preparing to leave the island after another summer of service—and after marking ten years of the Greek America Foundation’s Greek America Corps volunteer program.
The room is quiet now, but it still carries the energy of the children who filled it only days ago. Children who arrived in Greece from countries torn apart by war. Children who crossed borders, endured uncertainty and experienced things no child should ever have to understand.
Here, they were given something every child deserves: the opportunity to learn, laugh, play and simply be children again.
Working alongside our local partners, Greek America Foundation volunteers helped the children practice Greek and English. They played games, planted a garden, painted walls and brought color and life into spaces never designed to feel like home.
Our volunteers came from throughout the United States and Canada. They left behind their jobs, routines and summer vacations. They crossed an ocean not as tourists, but as people ready to serve.
They came to help, but they were also changed.
Over the past decade, our volunteers have served refugee children rebuilding their lives after war, forgotten senior citizens facing loneliness, children living in orphanages and institutions, homeless people on the streets of Athens and families struggling with food insecurity.
They have gathered food from markets, prepared meals, cleaned beaches, planted trees, cared for animals, restored neglected spaces and painted schoolyard walls.
Nearly $600,000 in scholarships has allowed approximately 150 young people from across North America to travel to Greece, serve communities in need and discover a deeper meaning behind their heritage.
None of this would have been possible without the donors, families, volunteers, partners and local organizations that believed in this work.
For that trust and generosity, we are profoundly grateful.
Through ten years of service, we have learned something simple:
Hope exists in every living space we enter.
Need takes many forms and is found across people, places, and environments.
Isolation can be felt in individuals, in communities, in neglected spaces, and in the natural world.
The need for care, safety, and restoration is universal, regardless of where or in what condition something exists.
Service means recognizing our shared responsibility to care for one another and for the world we inhabit.
The Greek America Foundation was built around the belief that our Greek identity carries responsibility. Philotimo is not a slogan. It is something that must be practiced.
It is showing up when someone is hungry. Sitting beside someone who is alone. Entering unfamiliar places and offering your hands, your heart and your time.
Our volunteers have also learned that being Greek is not only about where our grandparents were born, the food we eat or the traditions we celebrate.
It is also about what we do for others.
Many returned home with a new understanding of leadership, identity and service. Some continued serving in their own communities. Others returned to Greece year after year.
We have not only served communities. We have helped build a generation that understands that leadership begins with service.
Now, as we look toward the next ten years, our responsibility is to make this work sustainable.
Today, we are launching the campaign for the 2027 Greek America Corps volunteer program.
The program will continue creating opportunities for young people from North America while expanding to include dedicated volunteer experiences for adults. Parents, professionals, retirees and others who have long wanted to participate will be able to contribute their time, experience and skills.
The campaign will support scholarships, transportation, housing, program coordination, community partnerships and the materials needed to complete meaningful projects.
It will allow us to return year after year, deepen our relationships with the organizations we serve and ensure that financial circumstances do not prevent someone from participating.
Ten years of showing up have taught us what is possible.
Now we must build something that lasts.
Help us send the next generation of volunteers to Greece. Help us open the program to adults. Help us continue standing beside children, seniors, families and communities that deserve to know they have not been forgotten.
Don’t close this window before considering how valuable your support will be, not only to the volunteers but to the people the volunteers are going to serve. Please email Caroline Burgos to discuss ways you can help us sustain this program into 2027 and beyond.