hi, we could really use more house (etc) volunteers (I know I know, if wishes were horses right) but IF you have emails from others interested in volunteering and havent the time to deal with it, send them to me! I can help, ive an email addy an empty mailbox and a bit of free time in the evenings.
erin
jrnation@live.ca
if there are any wanna be house volunteers out there..email erin!
and so since i don't have a closetful of hidden and waiting volunteers...lets discuss the reality of finding really good volunteers.....
we probably get 3 or 4 requests to volunteer each week...those three or four are invited to come up and have a tour to see what we do and meet everyone....only a few ever show up. of the few who do make the trek out here for the tour..most of those we will never see again..of the few that ever actually make it back to do a volunteer shift or two...maybe only one will still be here a year from now.
so why is this?..is it such a horrible place to volunteer?...not at all..our dedicated volunteers love it here.
so what is the problem?
it is the point where fantasy and reality meet...it sounds like such a nice and fuzzy thing to do with ones spare time BUT...spare time seems to just slip by, eaten up in someones life..i keep meaning to....stretches out to eventually reach..i just don't have the time.
but here is the secret to successful volunteering...the kind that makes you really important in the average saint's life...you commit and make the time.
erin does it, mo and tammy do it..so do laura and lana, and laura, and brianne..helga does it, ann does it..lynne does it, KO does it, brenda does it even tho she lives 90 minutes away, maria and francisca do it and they live all the hell way over in north vancouver somewhere, lots more of us manage to do it with families and fulltime jobs...but we do it and keep doing it because we really want to do it and make the time to do it and that is the secret to successful volunteering at saints.
I will be back to visit and mop floors, I promise!
For any wanna-be volunteers - if you can find the time in your life to spend a few hours a week at SAINTS, I promise it will fill your heart in a way you can't imagine. It's far from glamorous, but you can truly see, feel and touch the difference that you make. It's one of the most beautiful places I've ever been :)