Volunteer Story: Matt and Meg Segal

The USO of North Carolina has nearly 800 volunteers who aren’t paid for their time, but choose to help us achieve our mission. It’s National Volunteer Week, and we’re celebrating all of our volunteers and their stories because they truly care about America’s service members and military families.

Meg and Matt Segal are an unstoppable volunteer team that we’re proud to call our own. Meg and Matt have been volunteering with the USO of NC as a couple for around seven years. Matt served in the Army for nearly 28 years between his active and reserve time, and retired as a colonel in 1999. The pair attended one of our very first USO of North Carolina galas, and were inspired to volunteer after learning about what the USO of NC offered at the time.

Matt joined the military during the Vietnam era, when “it was not a very friendly place and we were not treated well.” After his time in service, he wanted to “do what we can to make sure service members were not treated the way they were during that time,” and he continues to do that today through volunteering.

Meg and Matt volunteer in a number of ways, from greeting service members and families at the RDU airport center front desk, to supporting Marines traveling through the center on their way to MOS training schools, and even volunteering for extra outside events when the opportunity arises.

When asked why they continue to volunteer as a couple, they both chimed in, “As a couple, “its fun, it’s great. We don’t get paid anything but what we get paid is worth far more than money. When you go home after helping a bunch of Marines on Tuesday or whatever it is you’re doing – you feel better than when you came in.”

Learn more about how you can get involved as volunteer at https://northcarolina.uso.org/support/volunteer.