Power for the Cause—Thrivent Financial Volunteer Excellence Award recipients talk about what drives their efforts, and why each cause is near and dear to their hearts.

Leora Kay Ask will tell you she has the best job in the world. As a Thrivent Financial representative in St. James, Minnesota, she has the opportunity to touch many lives in a variety of ways—from providing valuable service to her members to providing leadership through her volunteer activities in both her church and community.

“I couldn’t survive without volunteering,” Ask says. “It’s what gives me my lift in each day.”
 
And through the years, she has participated in a variety of volunteer activities. “I find that organizing events through the Thrivent Care in Congregations® and Care Abounds in Communities® programs give you such a good feeling,” Ask says. “And you don’t have to do it alone. I always know that people will be there to support the project.”

Among her most memorable activities with her Thrivent chapter was a fund-raiser for a 5-year-old girl who required an out-of-state heart surgery and another for a family of six that died in a house fire.

Her other volunteer efforts have taken her into the local schools where her activities were as diverse as crawling around on wrestling mats taking photographs of wrestlers in action and serving as a volunteer pairing official at tournaments to participating in a reading enrichment program. And she’s been active in her community with Wellspring Faith in Action, a program in Watonwan County that provides volunteer services, care and companionship to the elderly; as a leader for 20 years with the 4-H program; and as a volunteer spokesperson for the Minnesota Soybean Growers Association.

“Soybeans was one of the crops we raised on our farm,” says Ask. “I worked with my son on designing a coloring book with a variety of activities about soybeans. That book is distributed to kids in 14 states.”

Ask also loves to participate at her church, Augustana Lutheran in St. James. In addition to serving as an officer for the Women of the Evangelical Lutheran Church at the local and district levels, Ask is a lector, and while no longer the choir director, continues to sing in the choir. She also loves to work with the youth to get them involved in volunteering.

“It’s so important for them to learn at an early age just how important volunteering is and to appreciate the feeling of knowing you’ve helped someone else,” she says.

Whether Ask is providing support services for the elderly or helping a family in need, she finds a deep satisfaction in knowing she’s helping someone else.

“No matter how you started the day, once you start volunteering, it gives you the lift you need,” she says. “More people should do more of it.”