Volunteering
It's weird, as long as I can remember I have been a volunteer. I work, yes... and I enjoy a salary...but I think nothing of giving my time freely to others. When I was very young my mom would work the first aid tent at the Renaissance Festival every summer as a nurse. I would accompany her for the weekend and spend countless hours organizing bandage boxes and conversing with the patients. It was from that experience that I drew the desire to help people in any way that I could. My mom works in the Emergency Room as a nurse (like mother, like daughter I guess) and in high school I decided that to fulfill my community service assignement, something that was required of every graduate at my school, I would volunteer in the hospital. At first I thought I would be a cute little candy striper and push a magazine cart around or work in the gift shop... but instead I ended up in the line of fire... down and dirty in the emergency room with my mom. I cleaned beds, fluffed pillows, gave warm blankets, got drinks, gave bedpans, urinals and puke buckets...cleaned more beds and made more beds than I could ever count. For this, I was awarded the "most hours volunteered" award at my high school graduation.
I moved on to become a volunteer youth pastor at our church for 3 years after I married and Robert and I worked with 9-12th graders in Denver. We taught Christian Ed to these kids, served as mentors and spritual guides, as well as lead them to become servants in God's name to the communities around us, and the world. One year, the kids took a mission trip to Puerto Rico which Robert accompanied them on. On this very important and life changing mission, the kids volunteered at an AIDS hospice and changed what was left of the lives of the people they met there.
Another volunteer service I worked with through our church was WHIZ KIDS. It is program that offers tutoring services for inner city kids. I worked once a week for a year with a little 8 year old girl. I tutored her on math and reading, writing and learning the English language. I think that little girl taught me more than I could ever have taught her! Although my services only lasted one school year, that was the most rewarding job I have done to date!
Now, as a mother and an ER nurse myself, I find that my time to volunteer is limited. I have an innate need to give, however, so I make it work. I volunteer in both Paige and Cole's classrooms at school. I complete tasks for the teachers that assist them in their daily planning, I grade papers, file books and assignments, etc... my favorite task (if you can call it that) is working with the kids on their reading. It is an amazing feeling to see the progress a child has made with my help!! I have enjoyed working with these kids so much this year that I have considered going back to school to become a teacher. I wonder how teaching and nursing would meld together??
Recently I saw an advertisement from Disney to "Give a Day, and Get a Day." The concept was simple. Donate a day of your time to a volunteer organization, and get a free day at the Disney Parks. I thought to myself... how fun would it be to get the kids and hubby involved in the joy of volunteering... and as a reward, celebrate with a trip to our favorite little place on earth?!
I signed us up for a blanket drive through the Linus Project. The kids and I, and even Robert spent careful time picking out the materials we would need to make our blankets. And when we were done, the 4 of us and hand made 6 blankets. The blankets will be given to children who have experience traumatic or tragic events. What a good feeling it is to give something so special to a child in need. On the day we dropped off the blankets, it was as if we had forgotten what had probed us to do it in the first place... tickets? What Disney tickets? oooooh.... yeah.... the tickets....
This summer I am taking on probably the biggest volunteering assignment I have ever done. I am the newly appointed Volunteer Coordinator for the Lightning Bolt Swim Club. Paige's swim team is made of 100+ swimmers. Any swim person knows that a swim meet could not successfully happen without the help of literally hundreds of volunteers. For each meet we need timers, judges, runners, camp leaders, heating parents, concessions, scribes, communicators, check in people... etc... etc.... etc.... I get to coordinate all of that! It's going to be a huge undertaking, but one that I feel I can handle. Wish me luck!
I moved on to become a volunteer youth pastor at our church for 3 years after I married and Robert and I worked with 9-12th graders in Denver. We taught Christian Ed to these kids, served as mentors and spritual guides, as well as lead them to become servants in God's name to the communities around us, and the world. One year, the kids took a mission trip to Puerto Rico which Robert accompanied them on. On this very important and life changing mission, the kids volunteered at an AIDS hospice and changed what was left of the lives of the people they met there.
Another volunteer service I worked with through our church was WHIZ KIDS. It is program that offers tutoring services for inner city kids. I worked once a week for a year with a little 8 year old girl. I tutored her on math and reading, writing and learning the English language. I think that little girl taught me more than I could ever have taught her! Although my services only lasted one school year, that was the most rewarding job I have done to date!
Now, as a mother and an ER nurse myself, I find that my time to volunteer is limited. I have an innate need to give, however, so I make it work. I volunteer in both Paige and Cole's classrooms at school. I complete tasks for the teachers that assist them in their daily planning, I grade papers, file books and assignments, etc... my favorite task (if you can call it that) is working with the kids on their reading. It is an amazing feeling to see the progress a child has made with my help!! I have enjoyed working with these kids so much this year that I have considered going back to school to become a teacher. I wonder how teaching and nursing would meld together??
Recently I saw an advertisement from Disney to "Give a Day, and Get a Day." The concept was simple. Donate a day of your time to a volunteer organization, and get a free day at the Disney Parks. I thought to myself... how fun would it be to get the kids and hubby involved in the joy of volunteering... and as a reward, celebrate with a trip to our favorite little place on earth?!
I signed us up for a blanket drive through the Linus Project. The kids and I, and even Robert spent careful time picking out the materials we would need to make our blankets. And when we were done, the 4 of us and hand made 6 blankets. The blankets will be given to children who have experience traumatic or tragic events. What a good feeling it is to give something so special to a child in need. On the day we dropped off the blankets, it was as if we had forgotten what had probed us to do it in the first place... tickets? What Disney tickets? oooooh.... yeah.... the tickets....
This summer I am taking on probably the biggest volunteering assignment I have ever done. I am the newly appointed Volunteer Coordinator for the Lightning Bolt Swim Club. Paige's swim team is made of 100+ swimmers. Any swim person knows that a swim meet could not successfully happen without the help of literally hundreds of volunteers. For each meet we need timers, judges, runners, camp leaders, heating parents, concessions, scribes, communicators, check in people... etc... etc.... etc.... I get to coordinate all of that! It's going to be a huge undertaking, but one that I feel I can handle. Wish me luck!
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