Dess Benedetto receiving a Paul Harris award at a Rotary Club meeting.
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT
Giving back to the community is important to Ms. Benedetto and she has supported numerous civic and charitable organizations, both personally and professionally. In Rotary International, Ms. Benedetto is currently a member of the Palm Springs Sunup Rotary Club after 18 years as a dedicated member of the Rotary Club of Walnut Creek. Ms. Benedetto has held many Rotary service roles including Club Secretary, Board Director, Membership Chair, Club President, Community Foundation Board Director, Foundation Board Chairperson, and Assistant District Governor.
In Scouts BSA, Ms. Benedetto was a Den Leader in Cub Scouts, then an Assistant Scoutmaster and finally Scoutmaster of Boy Scout Troop 277 in Pleasant Hill, participating with her family in Scouting for thirteen years.
In Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA), Ms. Benedetto served as a Child Advocate for foster children through the CASA program for six years. Ms. Benedetto’s additional volunteer activities include serving as an attorney mentor in the Volunteers in Parole program and conducting the Free Wills Clinic for two years at a community Senior Center through the Contra Costa Senior Legal Services program.
With Fellow Scout Leaders at Training
“Those who are happiest are those who do the most for others.”
—Booker T. Washington
Volunteering at Monument Crisis Center
“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”
—Mahatma Gandhi
Rotary Club Presidents at District Conference
“It is every man’s obligation to put back into the world at least the equivalent of what he takes out of it.”
—Albert Einstein
Rotarians Walking in Twilight Parade
“For it is in giving that we receive.”
—St. Francis of Assisi
Zoom Assistant Governors Meeting for Rotary District 5160 (Halloween)
“We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.”
—Winston S. Churchill
With Japan International Exchange Student at Walnut Creek Rotary Club
“The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.”
—Pablo Picasso
Dess in front of a Shelter Box Tent
“I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver.”
—Maya Angelou
Blue Star Moms Rotary Donation
“Think of giving not as a duty but as a privilege.”
—John D. Rockefeller Jr.
Annual Charity Bocce Tournament
“No one is useless in this world who lightens
the burdens of another.”
—Charles Dickens
Rotary Speaker at Palm Springs Sunup Meeting
“Give, even if you only have a little.”
—The Buddha.