For CeCe Clemens, the motivation to volunteer is simple.

"I do it because I want to be involved," she says. "It's the right thing to do."

Clemens' passion and purpose for volunteerism stems from such a genuine, sincere place of wanting to improve her community. It never, she says, feels like work.

"It comes natural to me," she says. "Compassion is a quality -- a value -- we should all have."

So upon learning she would be among the 2010 United Way Volunteer Award winners, to say she was puzzled would be an understatement.

"I thought, 'But I don't volunteer. What I do with United Way doesn't feel like volunteering,'" Clemens says. She received the GIVE Volunteer Award, honoring a United Way affinity group and/or fundraising team member for using inspirational leadership, energy and resources to make an exemplary contribution to the work of United Way.

Clemens' inherent desire to give back to others has helped fuel much success for United Way's work in Education, Income and Health. As a member of the United Way Women's Leadership Council, she helped assemble 150 bags of donated baby items for low-income local mothers.

As marketing coordinator for The Medical Center of Plano, she leveraged her professional contacts to have reusable shopping bags donated, affording the first-time moms a goodie bag they can use time and again for their children and daily errands.

"I didn't want to give them just a plastic bag," she says. "These moms have a tough enough time as it is. We wanted to give them something they can use beyond one day."

Clemens received her United Way award June 10 at the organization's inaugural Volunteer Appreciation Luncheon at The Westin Galleria Dallas.

"It was really nice to be recognized," says Clemens, also a member of the Young Leaders Society.

Though, she admits, receiving the honor has had one downside.

"My daughters are a little upset with me because I haven't brought the award home yet," she says with a laugh. "It's still sitting on my desk at work."