Peter Lynch - Academy of Distinguished Bostonians Award Speech on Volunteerism

Peter Lynch inducted into Academy of Distinguished Bostonians for his passion for education and work with Boston's youth. Lynch spent 61 of 63 years of his life inside Route 128, with only 2 years in graduate school and 2 years in Army outside Boston. He expresses deep love for Boston and optimism about its future. Lynch was honored alongside Colin Powell, both Army ROTC cadets - Lynch barely made first lieutenant while Powell became a four-star general, head of Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Secretary of State.

Lynch highlights the scale and impact of American volunteerism that receives no recognition or media coverage. In 2007, 66 million Americans did formal volunteer work over 2 hours per week. One-third of those volunteers devoted 5+ hours per week for over 5 years - equal to 9 million full-time jobs. These millions get no citations, no awards, no credit. They volunteer because it's good for them, they love it, they're involved, they see how effective they are and enjoy the results. Lynch asks rhetorically if this has ever been covered on 60 Minutes or in the news - highlighting massive media blind spot.

Lynch makes compelling business case for why companies should care about volunteerism among employees. Volunteers have dramatically lower rates of absenteeism, much higher levels of job satisfaction, much lower mortality rates, and substantially less turnover than any other employees in companies. They're also huge positive for the people they help. Lynch emphasizes this applies whether company has 50 employees or 50,000 employees. He advocates for companies to create recognition programs - it costs nothing to give awards for volunteer of the week, month, quarter, or year. Asks why this isn't happening at every single business in Boston and America. Notes volunteerism is unique to America and helps the country but is not well understood.

Lynch provides concrete example of volunteer need: City of Philadelphia could use all the Big Brothers and Big Sisters volunteers that exist in entire America just for that one city. Emphasizes we need more volunteers, they're team players and very productive - it's a great thing for business. Encourages businesses to look into encouraging volunteerism. Closes by thanking audience for the award and recognition, noting it's a great place to live and work with so much more to achieve. Calls this one of the great moments of his life and thanks his wife Carolyn for 41 years of support. Reiterates his deep optimism about Boston's future.