More than 500 hundred employees across the South Plains attended the Volunteer Center of Lubbock's Service and Leadership Symposium hoping to make a difference. 

The goal of the symposium's to get local businesses connected to their communities through service projects and a non-profit agency fair to make it easier to find a volunteer fit. 

Volunteer Center of Lubbock Executive Director Sharon Bass said by volunteering with different organizations, it helps find purpose to act on and make positive change. 

"We think it changes the community because we think that everybody has a purpose in being and when people are really acting into that then it changes them but it also changes the community as a whole," she said.

Last year the center's efforts impacted more than 40,000 people in our area.