Robert Hulme, a local real estate agent, set aside his job and other personal commitments to volunteer his time, talents and energies for the Pride of Provo, a community project to help improve more than 500 homes in the Provo area last spring.

The City of Provo selected homes of elderly, handicapped, bedridden or residents who didn't have time or money to fix their homes themselves. Volunteers then helped for five weeks during a three-month period to fix the exteriors of the homes, landscape and do yardwork.

"I was looking for some way to give back to the community," Hulme said. "I've been involved in different things throughout the years. I'm always looking for new things. This project just sort of fell in my lap. I'm glad I did it. I got so involved, I forgot about selling real estate."

In addition to volunteering, Hulme helped gather more than 900 volunteers from among personal acquaintances, including realtors from Utah County Association of Realtors and youth from his church who participated as part of a Youth Conference. He made several visits to invite people to participate and helped find sponsors to bring doughnuts, drinks and other food for the volunteers.

"I think the best part was how much fun everyone had who was involved in volunteering," Hulme said. "I still have youth coming up to me talking about what a good time they had. The youth were able to forget about themselves as they served. It made a difference in their lives and the lives of those we helped."

Hulme is already making plans for how the project can be improved to make a larger impact on the community for next year and how he can help get more people involved.

"You learn from what you do and you make it better," Hulme said. "The end result is worth all the hard work, seeing how people are affected, seeing tears in people's eyes when you do something for them they cannot do themselves. I can't wait to do it again next year."