As the projects got underway, participants across the globe began flooding the internet with Tweets and Facebook posts. Pictures poured in through the Trippermap that Poole and her team created specifically to track the day’s activities.

Images from the Indian state of Orissa captured Arti Ahuja, Secretary for Women and Child Development, working directly with volunteers as they led residents of a local orphanage in instructive art projects, interactive story-telling, and dance lessons.

India alone had 25 cities participate in the International Day of Service. According to Sujit Mahapatra, one of the local service leaders in Orissa’s capital city, Bhubaneswar, many of the participants had never volunteered before.

“It was a life changing experience for them as they saw first hand the kind of problems others face,” Mahapatra said. “Many of the first time volunteers have been motivated to continue their efforts and have promised to keep going back to the locations they donated their time to on May 7th.”

Thousands of miles away, volunteers from the Gaza Strip focused their efforts on a local nursing home. Participants provided company for many of its residents and undertook overdue maintenance work on the facilities. The service leaders were so enthused by the project that they had T-Shirts made to commemorate the day.

While the efforts in India and on the Gaza strip are examples of how an established base of volunteers can enhance initiatives like the International Day of Service, the concept of community service is still very new for citizens in many of the participating countries.

Observers of a low income community clean up initiative in the African Kingdom of Lesotho were confused as to why people would spend a cold Saturday morning working for no pay. The local head of the service project, Mamello Morrison, explained that getting to see the participants at work certainly helped answer those questions for many people unfamiliar with the idea of volunteering. The efforts of those involved demonstrated how a small group of motivated individuals can impact the lives of thousands of people in need.

Participants are already hard at work building on the momentum from Saturday’s initiative. The next installment of the program is scheduled to coincide with the United Nations International Volunteer Day on Friday, December 5, 2011 and will become an annual event.