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Giving back is not a one-time-of-year-only effort for Brentwood resident Barbara Welding, a legal assistant for the past 17 years at the Downtown national law firm, Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott LLC.

BarbaraWelding

Since 2009, Welding has volunteered for Military Connections, a Pittsburgh based non-profit that since 2003, has shipped care packages and vital supplies to military personnel stationed overseas.   That is the same year Welding lost her son-in-law in the war in Afghanistan and what brought her to Military Connections to begin volunteering.

“The military doesn’t provide a lot of what we send and it just gives soldiers a sense of home,” said Welding. Military Connections sends packages all-year round and this year, the organization had a goal of shipping 8,000 stockings overseas. “So far, we are on track to reach that goal.”

In addition to Military Connections, Welding also volunteers for Womenspace East, another Pittsburgh-based non-profit organization that provides emergency shelter, housing and other programs for women and women with dependent children.   Welding collects items and makes up personal bags to send to the shelter.

If that is not enough, Welding is an active participant in her employer’s Reading is FUNdamental effort which is a one-on-one lunchtime literacy mentoring program. Attorneys and staff in Eckert Seamans Pittsburgh office meet with second-grade reading buddies from a local school to build literacy skills and a love of reading.

“I’ve been blessed in my life but we all know people who are less fortunate. Volunteering is a way to help an organization that may not have a big staff, or budget, but is doing important work, and that’s what appeals to me. I feel privileged to be able to do what I do,” said Welding.  

For more information on the organizations Welding volunteers for, visit www.militaryconnections.org, www.wseinc.org and www.RIF.org.

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