Our photo tour of Schwab Volunteer Week moves west, with fantastic images from Austin, Denver and Phoenix.

 Austin

Perla Daly got the “plum” assignment (sorry, I couldn’t resist) to photograph Austin employees volunteering at Urban Roots Farm. I always love these outdoor photos – especially this one (upper left) of Jason Distel picking plums.

Instead of thinking outside the box, photographer Susan Ross of Austin made the box work for her as she photographed volunteer Brenda Strom preparing to paint at GirlStart.

(Please indulge me for a moment. No Austin shout-out would be complete without a huge “thank you” to my colleague Stephen Lazar, who helped coordinate and edit all the photos that poured in last week.)

Denver

David Werges started last week by photographing Schwab employee Beckie Watson presenting a grant to Trudy Swain, executive director of Save Our Youth of Denver.

This photo reminds me that Schwab Volunteer Week is not just about our service – but it’s also about putting our money where our mouth is.

“Giving back to your community just feels good and is such a rewarding experience not only for you but for the people or organizations you are helping,” Beckie said. “For our particular project, we were led to the side of a nonprofit building and stared at the forest of vines and weeds growing there.  We all agreed that if there had only been a few people to undertake this, the task would seem daunting and would have taken many hours to complete.  But together, we were able to conquer and transform this space in a few short hours.”

Also in Denver, Rich McGourty sent in this photo (above, left) that amazes me for two different reasons: First, the three Schwab employees are brothers (Jarett, Jason and Reece Baer); and, second, they are each hauling 80-pound bags of concrete. Uphill. Their volunteer team poured footing for a new boardwalk for disabled campers.

At a different Denver-area camp, Dave Werges found a familiar face (above, right). I had started the week photographing a project at the Tenderloin Club of the Boys & Girls Club of San Francisco. Schwab’s two Outstanding Community Service Award winners, Brian Howell and Vicki Mueller, had flown in to work alongside Charles Schwab Foundation President Carrie Schwab-Pomerantz. After Brian returned to Denver, he ended the week working with colleagues on the Gates Summer Camp. (That green T-shirt indicates he’s not just working; he’s serving as the project lead.)

Phoenix

You can't get much more colorful than this. Photographer Cara Babcock found Sheila Sanders helping to paint a mural at the Greater Phoenix Youth at Risk Community Center in downtown Phoenix. Last year, Schwab volunteers designed the mural. This year, the project continued when they painted the design on the exterior walls.

See these and other Schwab Volunteer Week photos in the Image Gallery on our Community page. Journalists, bloggers and newsletter editors may download editorial photos using the “browse and download” link in our Press Room.

IMPORTANT DISCLOSURES

The Charles Schwab Foundation is a nonprofit, private foundation, classified by the IRS as a charity under section 501(c),(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. The Foundation is neither a part of Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. (“Schwab”), Member SIPC, nor its parent company The Charles Schwab Corporation.

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