The CragBaby

I volunteer a couple hours every week. This morning I worked on a Valentine’s project with KCPW and Liberty Heights Fresh that entailed consumers purchasing flowers and chocolates, provided by Liberty Heights Fresh, through KCPW with the profits being given back to the public radio station. I went at 7:45am this morning to drive and deliver flowers, but was instead placed in the refrigerated trailor tying bows on the flower boxes. I worked with three great women and we were able to accomplish quite a bit in the period that I was there.

I started volunteering for the reason that that it would look good on my resume, no joke. Horrible reason, I know, but it is the truth. I now volunteer because I love it. It is easy to believe that there isn’t time to give, but it is amazing how it really is always possible to squeeze in a couple hours during the week. Not only do I feel good when I am done volunteering, but I meet the most amazing people every time I volunteer.

My favorite places to volunteer on a regular basis include:
- KCPW - KCPW is one of the local public radio stations that also broadcasts NPR and the BBC news. This might be my favorite volunteer opportunity as I have met so many great, knowledgeable people through their fundraising projects (pledge drives, Farmer’s Market, Valentine’s Day special with Liberty Heights Fresh). It seems that the people who listen to public radio, like myself, are adamont to keep it alive.
- Ten Thousand Villages - Ten Thousand Villages is a fair trade organizations that pays artisans a fair wage in advance of receiving products. The whole store is ran by volunteers and managed by two full time employees. The products are absolutely fantastic, plus you can know that the artisan was paid fairly.

I am currently working on another project with the Salt Lake Climber’s Alliance which is organizing their main fundraiser climbing comp. This project has been great so far as not only have I met a bunch of people in the outdoor industry, but also because I can support the sport that I so adore.

I heard of another great idea as I listened to a podcast yesterday on Wikipedia. The CEO brought up a good point that everyone who edits or adds information to Wikipedia is essentially a volunteer. I hadn’t even thought of that, but it is completely true. What a great, philanthropic volunteer experience! I think I will look into this next to see if there is any knowledge that I can add.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 14th, 2007 at 10:46 am and is filed under volunteering. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.