Many folks in the Niskayuna area volunteer community know about Stephen Souky. His reputation as a dedicated volunteer precedes him just about everywhere he goes around town. And Stephen Souky himself displays a noticeable pride in his accomplishments as a volunteer. Now the long-time fixture in the volunteering community is celebrating a new milestone: he has been volunteering in various capacities in the Niskayuna community for a full decade.

Ten years of volunteering is nothing to sneeze at, but Stephen Souky seems almost bewildered that it has gone by so fast. “I guess I never thought much about counting the years, or counting how much volunteering I have been doing,” he admits. “I mostly just volunteer for one thing, which leads to the next thing, which leads to the next, and so on down the road. Before you know it, I guess, it has turned into ten whole years. It’s hard to believe, in some ways.”

Volunteering has been near and dear to Stephen Souky’s heart for longer than ten years, and he has always maintained an active stance within his community. Perhaps that helps to explain why Stephen Souky is so surprised to learn that he has been at it for a decade, because he feels like volunteering has been in his blood all his life.

“The Beatles say that ‘Happiness is a Warm Gun,’” says Stephen Souky, who is a fan of the group, “but I say that ‘Happiness is Volunteering.’ That’s a little joke, of course, but I do really believe that volunteer work does as much or more for the person volunteering as it does for the people he is helping, in many cases.”

In addition to his work in the community as a volunteer, Stephen Souky also maintains an active role in his church congregation and at church functions. As a result of all this devotion and selflessness, Stephen Souky is seen as a man of great intentions and is always highly regarded by his peers.

“I don’t do it for the milestones, though, to be honest,” Stephen Souky points out. “I just love to volunteer.”