- Jesus Contreras writes an open letter connecting years of local volunteer work to the discipline he brings to his accounting career in Miami.
Miami, Florida, November 14, 2026, ZEX PR WIRE, I live in Miami now because of work, but I am still, in every way that matters to me, a Treasure Coast kid. I grew up in Stuart. I learned to fish there, ran track and cross country there, played soccer on fields I could walk to. So when people ask why I still make the drive back as often as I do, the honest answer is that Stuart is where most of the people I owe something to still live.
This letter is for them, and for the people in Miami who have no idea where Stuart is but who shape my week just as much. It is also for anyone in accounting who has ever wondered whether community work and a demanding career can actually coexist, or whether one has to give way to the other.
What the Work Looks Like When No One Is Watching
Over the years, I have helped collect food donations from churches across the Treasure Coast for Thanksgiving food drives, work that started when I was in middle school and followed me through high school, college, and into my career. I have gone door to door delivering food that had not been picked up, so it did not go to waste. I have helped gather car seat donations with the Martin County Sheriff’s Office so families who could not afford one would not have to choose between safety and cost. I have translated at community movie nights so language was not the thing standing between a family and information they needed.
None of that shows up on a balance sheet. But if you work in assurance long enough, you start to notice that it runs on the same logic a balance sheet does: resources exist, needs exist, and someone has to make sure the first actually reaches the second.
What a Spreadsheet and a Car Seat Have in Common
My job is to check whether what an organization reports is actually true. Whether the numbers on the page match what happened. People sometimes assume that is a dry, technical skill with no connection to anything outside an office. I would push back on that.
Every donation drive I have worked on depends on the same basic question I ask at work: did the thing that was supposed to happen, happen? Did the car seats reach the families who needed them? Did the food reach the tables it was meant for, instead of sitting in a warehouse? Verifying that something occurred the way it was supposed to is not a skill I turn off when I leave the office. It is the same habit of mind, just pointed at a different set of facts.
To Anyone Who Thinks These Are Separate Lives
I have heard versions of the idea that volunteering is what you do before your career gets serious, and that once the career takes over, the volunteering quietly stops. I do not think that has to be true, and my own schedule is the argument against it. I was doing fundraising work for Camp Kesem and Dance Marathon while I was also earning two bachelor’s degrees at the same time. I kept showing up for the Treasure Coast food drives during college breaks, and I kept showing up after I graduated and moved to Miami, including supporting relief efforts for earthquake victims in Venezuela through local donation drives.
None of that was ever the easier path. It is simply the one I chose, because I do not think a career is supposed to replace the obligations you had before it started. It is supposed to sit alongside them.
Still Here, Still Counting
To the families on the Treasure Coast who have picked up a donated car seat or a Thanksgiving meal over the years: I am still around, and I still drive back. To the people in Miami who know me only as someone checking numbers for a living: the same instinct that makes me good at that job is the one that keeps pulling me toward community work. I do not think those are two different instincts wearing different clothes. I think they are the same one.
To read more, visit the article here.
About Jesus Contreras
Jesus Contreras is an Experienced Senior Assurance Associate working in public accounting in Miami, Florida. He was born in Caracas, Venezuela, and grew up in Stuart, Florida. He holds bachelor’s degrees in accounting and finance from Florida State University and a master’s degree in accounting from Florida Atlantic University, and he is currently studying for his CPA license.
Disclaimer: The views, suggestions, and opinions expressed here are the sole responsibility of the experts. No journalist was involved in the writing and production of this article.
