The latest activity now trending at business conventions across the state and nation aims to tap the attitude of volunteerism among large groups of people, and built-in community service for convention-goers is reaping big benefits for Habitat for Humanity of Chester County.

The local Habitat for Humanity chapter “received a flood of volunteer queries after it registered with the Pennsylvania Convention Center,” and it recently hosted an army of funeral directors at one of its construction sites, according to a report in The New York Times by Matt Krupnick.

“When they pulled up in the turquoise party bus, I was thrown for a loop,” said Kim O’Toole, the local Habitat for Humanity Director of Corporate Relations and Development. “I always think of funeral directors as somber or quiet folks, but they were really excited.”

It was a unique and uplifting outlet for funeral directors more accustomed to the worst in people’s lives, and it’s an attractive proposition for the conventions of many more industries.

“Attendees want to do good work while at a convention,” said Professional Convention Management Association Chairman William Reed. “We all do it in our home communities, and the feeling is really great. Why shouldn’t we have that feeling while attending a convention?”

Read more about convention volunteering and its support of Chester County’s Habitat for Humanity in The New York Times here.