City Council member and Leadership Perimeter Program Director Catherine Lautenbacher and advocate Beth Lehman joined the What’s Up Dunwoody podcast to talk about the First Annual Perimeter Community Volunteer Fair, happening Friday, May 1st at Dunwoody United Methodist Church. If you have ever thought about getting more involved in your community but didn’t know where to start, this is the episode for you.
The Idea That Turned Into an Event
Beth Lehman has a way of showing up. After retiring at 36, she didn’t slow down. She built a volunteer career, co-founded a peer support group called Sober Livers, and led the Liver Life Walk Atlanta at Brook Run Park. When she enrolled in Leadership Perimeter’s Class of 2026, she wasn’t there to fill a seat. She was there to figure out how to do more.
As part of the program, every class member takes on a project. The idea is simple: don’t just learn about your community, do something for it. Beth and a group of five other class members started asking a basic question. What do people who want to volunteer actually need?
The answer they kept coming back to was: a place to start.
“As my group was sitting around trying to think of what we could do to maybe better the community,” Beth said, “we thought, wouldn’t it be great to come up with a fair, a volunteer fair, where local community nonprofits could come and show what they’re all about.”
That’s exactly what they built. The First Annual Perimeter Community Volunteer Fair is happening on Friday, May 1st, from 10am to 1pm at Dunwoody United Methodist Church, 1548 Mount Vernon Road. The event is in the fellowship hall. Signs will be posted when you pull in, and volunteers will be on hand to point you in the right direction. Light refreshments will be provided.
It is a free event. All you have to do is show up.
Fourteen Nonprofits. One Room. No More Excuses.
Here is what makes this event worth clearing your morning for. The organizers didn’t just invite a few familiar names. The participating organizations cover everything from arts and conservation to hospice care and food security. This is the full lineup:
- Community Assistance Center
- Sandy Springs Conservancy
- Spruill Center for the Arts
- Art Sandy Springs
- Tommy Nobis Center
- Chastain Park Conservancy
- The Link at North Springs High School
- Sandy Springs Education Force
- Capstone Hospice
- Sandy Springs Youth Sports
- Lake Forest Elementary
- Friends of Sandy Springs Library
- Ronald McDonald House – Atlanta
- Atlanta Community Food Bank
Every one of these organizations will have a table, a representative, and real volunteer opportunities ready to discuss. You can walk in not knowing what you want to do and walk out with a genuine commitment somewhere. And if you have a specific skill, like teaching, coaching, fundraising, or just showing up consistently, there is almost certainly an organization on that list that needs exactly that.
Catherine Lautenbacher, who runs the Dunwoody Nonprofit Roundtable and knows this ecosystem as well as anyone, did a quick count recently. Dunwoody alone has at least 34 nonprofits. The Leadership Perimeter coverage area, which includes Dunwoody, Brookhaven, and Sandy Springs, has far more. The problem has never been a shortage of places to volunteer. It has been knowing where to find them.
“There’s no excuse now to go, where can I volunteer?” Beth said. “You can come to this fair and end up volunteering for 12 organizations if you want to.”
One fair. One morning. No more excuses.
What Leadership Perimeter Actually Does
If you are not familiar with Leadership Perimeter, Catherine Lautenbacher has been running the program for 13 years. She is the best person to explain it.
Each year, the Flagship Program accepts up to 46 participants from across the Perimeter region. The goal is intentional diversity. You’ll have doctors sitting next to teachers. Firefighters next to accountants. Retired professionals next to people early in their careers. Ages typically range from 20s to 70s, though the program is open to everyone who qualifies.
Participants go through a two-day opening retreat where they learn about themselves, each other, and the region. Then it is one full day per month, each session focused on a different pillar of community life: city government, economic development, social services, education, sustainability, and more. There are speaker days, mentor dinners, and a big annual event called the Perimeter Summit.
The speakers are not small names. Catherine mentioned a Georgia Power representative who manages the Morgan Falls Dam in Sandy Springs, original Chattahoochee Riverkeeper Sally Bethea, the head of Second Helpings Atlanta Food Rescue, and Invest Atlanta. At the most recent Perimeter Summit, the class heard from Dan Corso on Atlanta’s role in the 2026 World Cup and what it means for communities across the entire region.
The program measures what it produces. According to Leadership Perimeter’s own data, 91% of alumni reported stronger strategic leadership skills after completing the program. 87% reported stronger leadership effectiveness. The net promoter score, meaning the percentage who would recommend the program to a friend, sits at 99%. There are now more than 1,000 alumni, and each one logs an average of 42 volunteer hours per year. The program has also helped launch 22 community initiatives and formed 48 cross-sector partnerships.
That is not coincidence. Every participant commits to volunteering for the full year after the program ends. The Volunteer Fair is Beth’s class project, and it is a direct expression of that commitment.
“I’ve taught her about city government and inclusivity, economic development, state government, education, social services, sustainability,” Catherine said. “So this is the thing she’s doing outside of my teachings, and that is her class project. And she came up with a great one.”
If Leadership Perimeter caught your attention, visit leadershipperimeter.org to learn more about the Flagship Program or to nominate someone for the Class of 2027. Nominations are open now.
Beth’s Experience, in Her Own Words
Beth has been on the podcast before to talk about her personal story. She received a life-saving liver transplant in 2021 and has since become a public advocate around liver disease, organ donation, and recovery. Leadership Perimeter added a different kind of chapter to that journey.
“I’ve always known I live in a special place,” she said. “And meeting the people behind that has really solidified that and really, really opened my eyes.”
She talked about small things she didn’t expect to pick up along the way. Like the fact that when you recycle aluminum foil, you need to ball it up first, otherwise it blows away in the sorting process and never gets recycled at all. That came up during a sustainability session and stuck with her. It’s a small thing, but it’s the kind of specific, practical knowledge you only get from the people actually doing the work in your community.
The bigger takeaway was something harder to quantify. “It’s not just about community development,” Beth said. “It’s also about self-development.”
Her husband has a philosophy she shared on the episode. When he walks into a room full of people, he assumes that everyone there can do something better than he can. Leadership Perimeter gave Beth the tools to figure out what those strengths look like in the people around her. And more importantly, it pushed her to figure out what she herself brings to the table.
“Everybody has a strength,” she said. “Everybody has a superpower.”
The Volunteer Fair is Beth putting that belief into practice at a community scale. The idea is that everyone who walks through those doors at DUMC has something to offer. The fair’s job is to help them find where it fits.
From Leadership Perimeter Student to Dunwoody City Council
Catherine’s story is worth knowing, because it shows where this program can take you.
She didn’t start out as a politician. She started as a Leadership Perimeter student. After going through the program, she kept showing up. She got to know the people on Dunwoody City Council. She saw what the job actually looked like up close. She decided she could do it. And eventually she did.
Catherine was first elected to Dunwoody City Council Post 1 (District 1) in 2021 and was reelected in 2025. She is now four months into her second term. Her day job is still running Leadership Perimeter. She also runs the Dunwoody Nonprofit Roundtable, a separate organization where local nonprofit leaders can connect, hear speakers, and share what they are learning from each other.
“I went through the class and then I worked for the program and then I got to know all the city council people and what they did, what it was like,” she said. “And I thought, one day I can do it, and then one day I am.”
That is the through line of this entire episode. You learn. You connect. You show up consistently. And over time, showing up becomes who you are.
Living in Dunwoody, you see this pattern everywhere. The people who make this community feel the way it does are almost always people who started by just deciding to get involved. The Volunteer Fair is your on-ramp.
Call to Action
The First Annual Perimeter Community Volunteer Fair is Friday, May 1, 2026, from 10am to 1pm at Dunwoody United Methodist Church, 1548 Mount Vernon Road. The event is in the fellowship hall. Signs will direct you, and light refreshments will be provided.
Visit igottavolunteer.com to see the full list of participating organizations and submit any questions before the event. You can also reach the team directly at igottavolunteer@gmail.com.
If Leadership Perimeter caught your attention, visit leadershipperimeter.org to learn more or to nominate a leader in your network for the Class of 2027. Questions about the program can also be directed to the Leadership Perimeter team at Info@leadershipperimeter.org or 404-256-9091.
Show Notes
- Catherine Lautenbacher is a Dunwoody City Council member (Post 1, District 1), reelected in 2025, and has served as Program Director of Leadership Perimeter for 13 years; the program serves Dunwoody, Brookhaven, and Sandy Springs and has produced 1,000+ alumni.
- Beth Lehman is a Leadership Perimeter Class of 2026 participant, nonprofit founder, co-founder of Sober Livers, and lead organizer of the First Annual Perimeter Community Volunteer Fair on May 1, 2026 at Dunwoody United Methodist Church, 1548 Mount Vernon Road.
- The Perimeter Community Volunteer Fair features 14 participating nonprofits including the Community Assistance Center, Spruill Center for the Arts, Atlanta Community Food Bank, Ronald McDonald House – Atlanta, Sandy Springs Conservancy, Tommy Nobis Center, and Capstone Hospice; free event, 10am-1pm, fellowship hall.
- Leadership Perimeter reports 91% of alumni develop stronger strategic leadership skills, alumni log an average of 42 volunteer hours per year, and the program carries a 99% net promoter score; Class of 2027 nominations are open at leadershipperimeter.org.
- What’s Up Dunwoody podcast host and Dunwoody REALTOR® Matt Weber covers living in Dunwoody, moving to Dunwoody, and everything in between; local updates, Dunwoody real estate resources, and community guides available at whatsupdunwoody.com.
What Is What’s Up Dunwoody?
What’s Up Dunwoody is a local media platform created by REALTOR® Matt Weber, focused on living in Dunwoody, moving to Dunwoody, and staying connected to the community. It began as a podcast and has grown into social media content, local guides, and two of the largest Dunwoody-focused Facebook groups where residents share recommendations and stay in the loop. Matt has expanded slightly outside of Dunwoody and now covers the entire top end of the Perimeter through his Top End ATL channels.
Matt is a Dunwoody REALTOR® who helps people navigate buying, selling, and moving in the area. Stay in the loop with local updates, listings, and insights by signing up here: whatsupdunwoody.com/email