Volunteer Spotlight

How Max Gordon Found Community Through Service

When Max Gordon moved to Palatine in 2024, he didn’t know many people and had time on his hands. He went looking for a way to get out and get involved, found BPB online, and reached out. When the team learned he had a technical background, they asked if he’d want to join the media crew.

“It felt like such a cool and unique way to help out,” Max says. “That is kind of how I got my start.”

Even though Max has since relocated to Champaign for work, he still made the drive up to attend Family Fun Day for the first time this year. We talked with him about what drew him to BPB and why organizations like it can create real connections even when the world feels like it’s pulling people apart.

What drew you to BPB’s mission?

What stood out to me about BPB is that there is such a strong sense of community within the organization and a strong sense of wanting to help the community around them.

BPB’s mission has so much value because it brings more diversity into our country and our culture. When you meet people from different backgrounds, with different languages, traditions and ways of looking at the world, there is so much you can learn. It is a wonderful way to expand your world and give people space to express their own cultures and their own ways of viewing things.

What does your volunteer role involve?

I mainly help with recording, editing and setting up interviews, photography and various types of media work.

One of the first projects I worked on was the 2024 annual event video with the Traveling Quilt Project. That was a really cool project. I helped record interviews with people as they explained their quilt designs and what they meant.

Was there a moment from that project that stood out to you?

Yes. I remember filming the annual event video and listening to people explain their quilt designs. That was honestly a pretty touching moment.

People shared personal stories about how much they valued their home countries, but also how much they valued the new opportunities they had in America. Someone might point to part of their quilt and say, “This is a memory from back home,” or explain that a certain image represented a family member, a place they missed or a tradition that mattered to them.

It made me think about what it would be like if I moved to a foreign country where I did not speak the language. There would be so many things I would not understand right away, or things I might not think about in the same way.

Even small things can shape how we see the world. For example, people from cultures that read from right to left may process direction or movement differently than people from cultures that read left to right. That is such a small detail, but it points to something bigger: we all have slightly different ways of looking at the world.

Seeing those quilt designs and hearing those stories really opened up a new perspective for me. You could feel how people were navigating two worlds, they had the life they left behind and also the new life they were building here. That must be an incredibly difficult journey, and it is great that BPB can help make that journey a little easier.

What would you say to someone who is thinking about volunteering?

If you want to get out of your shell a bit, meet people from very different backgrounds than your own and make a difference in people’s lives, I think BPB is a great place to do that.

The impact can be really long lasting. For someone who is new to the country, the people they meet through BPB might be part of their first experience of feeling welcomed here. If you want to do something that can really make a big impact, I think you are in the right place with BPB.

What do you enjoy about volunteering more generally?

I just like volunteering in general. If you have the free time and you are fortunate enough to give back, I think it is a great way to support a community, especially if that community has benefited you in some way.

It is also a great way to get out of your own head. It feels good to help another person, and I think that is something we need more of in the world.

There is so much negative information around us all the time, whether it is online, in the media or in the news. But when you take a step back from that and connect with other people, you can focus on the good things happening in your own community.

I think that is really positive, especially for our mental health nowadays. It reminds you that there is a smaller world around you where you can take action. You can take care of it. You can improve it.

We may not have the power to make the whole world better all at once, but we all have the power to make our communities better. BPB is a wonderful outlet for that. It is such a great place to start, and I would definitely recommend that people give it a try.

Ready to get involved? You can learn more about volunteering with BPB or donate to support our programs.