Posts Tagged ‘National Volunteer Week’

The Muscle Behind Our Mission–Meet Our Volunteers!

Monday, May 11th, 2009

Idealist’s mention of National Volunteer Week a few weeks back reminded me that every week should be National Volunteer Week.  Volunteers are, after all, how it all happens.  They are the muscle behind the mission, so to speak.  so right now I want to give all past, present, and potential Enchanting Challenge volunteers a GINORMOUS shout out!  Thank you to Maria & Aleigha for spending your senior year spring break planting trees with the Flora Fauna y Cultura organization in Tulum!  Thank you, Li Chong, for seeking out Challenge and expressing desire to work with Mayan communities this summer in the Yucatan Peninsula.  And thank you to Brian, Elisa, Angelica, Laurie, Kath, Jacqueline, and Giannina for showing so much interest and promise in the Forum of Healers in Mexico next October!

To give you a small glimpse of the awesomeness behind our volunteers, here’s a little look at one of them, Jacqueline:

jackie

Jacqueline is an amazing activist with a mile-long list of social justice feats.  Among her many contributions to society include planning walks to raise money for AIDS victims; taking part in HIV/AIDS prevention outreach; and acting as a field organizer for the Green Corps, where she worked for Greenpeace’s Clean Energy Now campaign in California.  She now coordinates and helps to provide health care, social service, education, and environmental outreach to youth & women through the Center for Adolescents in San Miguel de Allende in Mexico.  She is honestly a tireless social activist who has already changed the world in many ways.  We are so thankful to have her on board for October’s Forum of Healers volunteer opportunity!

And of course, we are always looking for more volunteers, so don’t hesitate to contact me if you are interested in an Enchanting Challenge volunteer opportunity, whether it be in the depths of the Mexican jungle or the end of the world in Chilean Patagonia!  Just email me at sarahannmaxwell@gmail.com with any questions!

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Posted in Forum of Healers Volunteer Opp, Service, Service Abroad | 1 Comment »

Happy National Volunteer Week & Volunteering During the Crisis

Thursday, April 23rd, 2009

I don’t know if you’ve heard the word, but it this week is National Volunteer Week!!!

Idealist's National Volunteer Week Pic

Idealist's National Volunteer Week Pic

Yep, so there are no excuses anymore!  What with the President signing the Serve America Act on Tuesday, Earth Day on Wednesday, and National Volunteer Week calling out to thank those who give their time, we can’t escape volunteering anymore! :-)   And that is a really great thing!  If you are an organization that employees volunteers, check out Idealist’s list of ways to thank your helping hands.  And if you are a wanna-be volunteer, check out Idealist’s volunteer search lists!  Not even a rock can hide you now! 

While these volunteer opportunities abound, let us be reminded by the crisis on WHY we volunteer.  First of all, the Global Economic Crisis is reminding us that to have and to not have are usually circumstances that have much to do with chance, and with being in the right place at the right time.  Most people without are without through no fault of their own, and the crisis reminds us how easy it is to lose so much, and how important it is to lend a communal hand.

Second of all, the crisis is leaving a lot of very skilled people temporarily without employment.  That unemployment may best be spent volunteering.  At a recent Idealist Nonprofit Career Fair at UCLA, National Public Radio’s Marketplace journalist Lisa Napoli spoke about why volunteering during your job limbo can be good for your resume as well as good for the world.  In her program entitled “Working For Free Profits the Soul“, she recappped how a whopping 1500 people crammed into the UCLA-Idealist nonprofit job fair, many of them speaking with nonprofits that were seeking out only unpaid volunteers.  Many of the applicants were well-educated with an arm’s length of qualifications.  So why are they willing to settle for something that won’t help them pay the bills?  Because it’s temporary, and it’s a good way to “reinvent themseles,” as Bill Radke puts it.  One person who had been recently laid off from their former job in the airline industry explained that they wanted “to keep busy and to learn some things and make some good connections, and hopefully do some good for the world.”  Not a bad way to spend your non-working time!!

And it’s really true.  The crisis is temporary, but the lessons from it are not.  You can use the crisis to find out where you are happiest, and where the world needs you, to find “where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet,” as the saying goes.  You can use the crisis to find out where the career of your heart awaits.  And when the crisis is over, perhaps the place that you have been volunteering at will have a sparkling job waiting for you, that can pay the bills and keep you (and the world) happy.

Keep a look-out–the next Idealist Career Fair is in Chicago on May 19!! 

Idealist Career Fair

Idealist Career Fair

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Happy Happy Earth Day!!!

Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009

Today is Earth Day!!!  What does Earth Day mean to you?!  Do you do anything to celebrate?  Does it remind you of the green movement, or all that we have Nature to thank for?  Does it make you want to be outside and enjoy wildlife?  For me, it’s a little of all of those things…Today is pretty rainy, but I still want to be playing outside…And a day marked as Earth Day definitely reminds me of all I have to be thankful for in the natural world…And of course, it makes me want to do everything I can to help clean our world.

But today is a really special Earth Day…For a couple of reasons.  First of all, it coincides with the National Volunteer Week!  Volunteer organizations all across the country are reaching out to thank their volunteers, and new potential volunteers are signing up to donate their time in areas that they believe in.  Perhaps your area is the Earth, and what better time to start giving your time to it than Earth Day & the National Volunteer Week!  Check out Idealist.org’s great webpage about National Volunteer Week!

Second of all, it is a very special Earth Day because yesterday President Obama signed the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act.  This act was passed without a single nay in what was once a very partisan-split Congress.  But in the call to service, our country seems to be coming back together.  Now, because of this legislation, the current limit of 75,000 Americorps volunteers will be expanded to a quarter of a million people in less than ten years.  The President & the Congress believe deeply in the power of volunteering, in the power of service, and they have chosen to honor this power through expanding one of the best service programs, the Americorps program.  Read the President’s beautiful & inspiring remarks on this Act:

What this legislation does, then, is to help harness this patriotism and connect deeds to needs.  It creates opportunities to serve for students, seniors, and everyone in between.  It supports innovation and strengthens the nonprofit sector.  And it is just the beginning of a sustained, collaborative and focused effort to involve our greatest resource–our citizens–in the work of remaking this nation.

Wowowowow!  I am so proud of our country and of our leaders for redirecting the mission of our nation into one of service…It is beautiful and inspiring for all the world to see…

President Obama at the Serve America Act signing

Finally, a third reason that Earth Day is so special this year is because of all the amazing efforts working tirelessly and together(ly) to make our world, and our Earth, a better place.  Take the glowing example of this effort–Power Shift 09.  The people that make up Power Shift 09 have been working (literally) around the clock to organize rallies, lobby days, conferences, and more to truly shift the power in our country to renewable energy & the green movement.  They don’t stop working, and they gather together people from all walks of life to join together in this movement.  Today, the Power Shift team in DC woke up at 4 am to continue to rally Congress to pass the American Clean Energy and Security  Act.  All day yesterday when the hearings on the bill started, the Power Shift team stood outside the conference doors and blogged constantly with updates on the bill’s progress.  They are keeping us all informed, and allowing us all to be a part of this admirable effort.  Good luck today, Power Shift!!

Power Shift 09 volunteers

Power Shift 09 volunteers

So there it is…All the reasons why I feel this Earth Day is especially hopeful.  If you read this, let me know why you think this Earth Day is unique, and what you are doing to celebrate & honor Mother Earth!

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Posted in Environment | No Comments »