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Rochester Ranks 3rd in Volunteering

A report released by the Corporation for National Community Service shows Rochester ranks among the top cities for volunteering across the nation.

Wendy Spencer is the group's president. She says last year, almost 300,000 residents participated in volunteering activities, from traditional community service to helping out the neighbors. That's over 30% of the city's residents, a higher percentage that almost every other city in the country.

"Congrats to Rochester - Number 3 of the 10 major metro areas for volunteering in the nation."

Spencer says all that community service time translates to real economic value, especially for non-profits who rely heavily on volunteerism to complete their mission. All those Rochester volunteers, she says, worked almost 40 million hours last year.

"That's a value of $900,000,000."

According to the report, 62.6 million people across the country volunteered almost 7.7 billion hours in 2013.

Veronica Volk is a senior editor and producer for WXXI News.