Returning again this year is the column 'Faces that Build,' where we meet people who participate in different ways in the construction and support of the Meeting.

There are many ways to support the Meeting during the week of the event: donating at the Donaora desks, purchasing lottery tickets, or adding €1 to the receipt at the restaurant checkouts. Those who experience the Meeting from home can donate online at sostienici.meetingrimini.org or through the Meeting Rimini App.

Today, we meet two Sicilian volunteers, Domenico and Filippo, who return each year to work enthusiastically at the Donaora desks!

Domenico has been volunteering at Donaora for three years. He started following the suggestion of two friends. 'I used to volunteer for cleaning when I was young,' Domenico recalls, 'then my family and I attended the Meeting as spectators until this opportunity came along, which I accepted.'

When asked what strikes him most about this experience, he responds decisively: 'I meet joyful faces, that's what strikes me! When people approach me and make a donation, I often ask them what motivates them to give, and their immediate response is always, "I want this story to continue, for this beautiful and exceptional experience to keep going!"'

Domenico shares that this type of work allows him to experience the Meeting more intensely. 'During the days of the Meeting, volunteering at Donaora makes me live everything with passion; there's no fatigue, every moment is filled with a new sense of enjoyment, and the relationship with others becomes even richer and full of gratitude.'

Filippo got involved as a volunteer in 2022, and with determination and enthusiasm, he insists he will never give up this experience. He had never volunteered at the Meeting before, always attending as a visitor. Then one day, some friends suggested he volunteer with them at Donaora, and trusting them, he made himself available. 'A whole new world opened up for me,' he says now. 'During the training, they suggested asking people why they donate. I do it often, and almost everyone is moved with gratitude. People donate because they want the Meeting to continue because what it offers is too beautiful!'

'It's clear that the Meeting is precious for everyone’s life!' he comments, adding that it is precious for him as well because the act of generosity he performs during the days in Rimini teaches him how to live his daily work life.

'When I used to attend the Meeting as a visitor,' Filippo confides at the end, 'there was a component of fatigue and one of gratitude. Now, it's only gratitude; the fatigue has disappeared. And one of the fruits of generosity,' Filippo adds, 'is the friendship that grows at the desk among us volunteers, some of whom are perfect strangers, a sign of how much a human gesture, made out of gratitude for what one has received in life, generates.'

Thus, it seems fitting to conclude by reopening the challenge to participate in these days of the Meeting with the determination to invest your heart into something, to be won over by the generosity that changes life!