If you are reviewing the laundry list of possible New Year’s resolutions, I’ve got THE 2009 resolution for you! It has significant benefits and won’t cost you any money. This year, resolve to volunteer at least 100 hours to strengthen our Douglas County community.

Recent research compiled by the Corporation for National and Community Service has established a strong relationship between volunteering and health. People who volunteer have lower mortality rates, greater functional ability and lower rates of depression later in life than people who don’t volunteer. If you want to be healthier, don’t resolve to lose 15 pounds, resolve to volunteer!

Additional research from the American Sociological Review and the Quarterly Review of Economics suggests a strong relationship between the quality of life for a community and the ways that its residents are socially connected; this includes less crime and stronger local economies. If you want our community to be economically healthy in 2009, don’t just resolve to buy more, resolve to volunteer!

And it isn’t just good for you. It is a great resource to the organizations who benefit from your time. Increased volunteerism means non-profits can provide increased services with less additional cost to the community. For every hour of volunteering, according to The Independent Sector, $18.05 in community resources are saved. By volunteering just 10 hours, you will have a $180 impact!

The good news is that many of the people reading this column today are already volunteering. In 2007, Kansas had the ninth highest rate of volunteerism at 36.8 percent. Does that include you? One in three members of our community are already volunteering. Can you imagine the success of our community if we achieved 50 percent? Or 75 percent?

Just in case you like this idea but don’t know where to start, here are some big and small ideas for volunteering across the community:

• Shovel an elderly or disabled neighbor’s sidewalk.

• Help with Martin Luther King Jr. Day events.

• Informally mentor a child in your neighborhood.

• Volunteer to be an active PTA member.

• Join the church choir or band.

• Coach a soccer/baseball/kickball team.

• Serve on a non-profit board.

• Cook or serve meals for the homeless.

• Volunteer with one of the 140 nonprofits looking for volunteers.

If you are ready to start, visit the Web site for the Roger Hill Volunteer Center, (www.rhvc.org) and search for the right volunteer opportunity for you.

If we can make this resolution for 2009, then by this time next year we will all be a little bit healthier, a little more socially connected and people across our community will be just a little better off.