Taking part in the Risk & Insurance Management Society Inc.’s Community Service Day is a great way to help others and also offers an opportunity to forge close bonds with peers, says one risk manager.

“It’s a great opportunity to meet folks in the profession in a different context,” said Michael Griffin, director of risk management for Starwood Vacation Ownership Inc., who was among around 50 volunteers who gathered Sunday to assemble bookshelves for the South Boston Boys & Girls Club.

“RIMS is geared so much to social (events) in the evening,” said Mr. Griffin, who is based in Orlando, Fla., and has participated in several RIMS conference Community Service Day events sponsored over the past four years by RIMS and Aon Corp. “This is different, and the friendships and relationships that I have formed out of the community service day, frankly, have been far deeper and longer lasting than the ones I’ve (made) during any other aspect of RIMS.”

The bookshelves, stocked with books donated by RIMS conference attendees, will help the local Boys & Girls Club create a small library for members ages 6-12 and advance the club’s literacy program, said Tim Bothwell, director of operations for the Boys & Girls Club.

It will allow many of the low-income Boys & Girls Club members to borrow books so they can complete school reading assignments, Mr. Bothwell added.

“When this opportunity came knocking (from RIMS and Aon), I jumped right on it,” Mr. Bothwell said. “It’s going to provide the resources so these kids have a quiet spot to read, and it will help them have more selection for reading.”

The Community Service Day events help RIMS build goodwill and a legacy in cities where its conferences are held, said Joseph Restoule, past president of RIMS and leader of risk management for NOVA Chemicals Corp. in Calgary, Alberta.

A desire to give something back to communities is a common motivation for Community Service Day participants, many of whom say they regularly volunteer in their free hours.

“I think it’s very important to give back to your community,” said Deborah Adams, who was participating in the Community Service Day as part of the RIMS Anita Benedetti Student Involvement Program.

Ms. Adams, who is in the MBA program at Gannon University in Erie, Pa., after graduating with a degree in risk management and finance, has also served as a volunteer firefighter and recently received a community blood-bank award for having reached a 10-gallon mark as a platelet donor.

Renee Browne said she was excited to learn of the opportunity to participate in 2010 Community Service Day. Ms. Browne, who also is attending the RIMS conference as part of the Benedetti student program, studies insurance with a concentration in actuarial science at Howard University in Washington.

At Howard, she participates in a campus honors program that provides volunteers for a food bank and a literacy program, she said.

“I’m here today because I like to give back to the community,” Ms. Browne said. “I’m really involved in my campus doing that.”

Perhaps it’s the type of people that participate in Community Service Day that helps foster deeper relationships, suggested Starwood’s Mr. Griffin, who also cited the bonds forged through teamwork.

“When you are digging in the dirt for eight hours in the back side of New Orleans you tend to grow a bond with the crew you are working with,” said Mr. Griffin, referring to the 2007 Community Service Day.