Sometimes a volunteer story starts with a simple click of an application. Mike’s began with lemonade—fifty dollars worth of it.
Mike, of Lambertville, Michigan, never expected to fall in love with gardening. In fact, he’d never planted a single seed in his life. But when his wife became involved with Sunshine Communities’ equine therapy program, curiosity led him to explore volunteer opportunities of his own.
“I showed up early—as always—and they were having a lemonade sale,” Mike recalls with a laugh. “People were flagging me down in the parking lot. I ended up buying fifty dollars’ worth of lemonade.” While waiting for orientation, he drove around campus and spotted the greenhouse. That moment of discovery would change his volunteer experience entirely.
During orientation, the inevitable question came: “What do you want to do?” Mike’s answer was immediate: “I see you’ve got a greenhouse back there.”
Within minutes, he met Terry and was handed his first project—planting the garden in the middle of summer. It was the first time the garden had ever been planted, making it an experience for everyone involved. “When I was handed seeds, I was shocked at how small they were,” Mike remembers. “These tiny things make that? It was completely new to me."
The greenhouse quickly became more than a volunteer assignment—it became a refuge from isolation. “The work I do for my day job is very isolating,” Mike explains. “I work alone most of the time. Here, I get to work with a team, see people, do things collectively. That’s something I can’t do at my regular job.”
Now, his days include trading stories with friends supported by Sunshine who search for him in the parking lot just to say hello. Kelvin knows exactly what car he drives. Robert keeps him updated on the happenings of the day. Jake and others have become genuine friends. Terry, his greenhouse mentor, taught him everything he knows. “They’re all my buddies,” he says simply—and the feeling is clearly mutual. During his interview, his crew couldn’t help but jump in to answer questions, eager to be part of his story.
Mike has served on nonprofit boards before, but Sunshine offered something extra. “Here, I wanted to do something different—work with my hands and build real relationships with people,” he says. His involvement has expanded beyond weekly greenhouse work to include volunteering with the Reading with Rabbits program at the Lambertville Library on alternating Mondays, helping at campus concerts and events, and serving as a golf cart driver during special events—an important job, as it turns out. Watering the plants on a quiet Sunday—even in the winter—brings him peace.