laughs & lightbulbs

Wow, I just looked over my last couple of posts and realized I have been majorly slacking. I think I am more keenly aware of this right now, as opposed to other times of the year. You see, right now is finals week. Finals week consists of LOTS of studying, which means one has to find a proportionate amount of distractions to keep oneself sane through it all. Among these distractions are blogs.

I find great joy in checking blogs- learning what's new in people's lives: seeing pics of their latest vacation, hearing a funny story to make me laugh out loud, or reading about their last days as a Freshman (for example ;) ). I am so thankful for these blogs for providing me with entertainment through these long studious days! I need to give back! So, here I am... with a better post for those of you distracted by blogs. Happy studying :)

Unfortunately I don't have a funny story for you. Rather, I'd like to report on VITA. VITA is the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program that I oversee at BYU. I've mentioned it before, but just to recap: volunteers (in our case they're the students at BYU) work with the United Way and the IRS to provide free tax preparation services for low income individual in the school and in the community. Historically we have been one of the largest sites in the country and THE largest site among university sponsored sites.

This year was no different. With the help of more than 100 volunteers, we ran a lab open 40 hours a week and prepared more than 2000 returns over the course of 7 weeks. This resulted in a couple of interesting statistics: In those 2000 returns we were able to give:

More than $350,000 in education credits
More than $500,000 in Earned Income Credit (EIC)
AND more than $4,000,000 in total refunds!

That is amazing! To think that most of the people we serve are BYU students and all of that money is just going right back into our community here in Provo.

I love the opportunity VITA provides me with to serve. Now, being in the leadership of the program, I don't get as many chances to actually prepare returns and interact with the taxpayers. However, the last week of VITA I did. It was a fantastic experience that served as a final reminder of the service I can provide in doing taxes. I prepared the tax return of a young couple, only married within the last year, both still semesters away from graduating. As I finished up their return and informed him of the amount of his refund (several thousands of dollars largely due to education credits) the husband bowed his head and simply said, "That is such a blessing." He went on to tell me that he was not expecting any money back at all, and that he had been worrying about how to pay some upcoming bills. He told me this was an answer to their prayers.

I love that! I love being part of those life changing moments for people! I'm so thankful for my experience with VITA. It truly has been one of the more meaningful experiences of my college career.