Who Knows What Will Happen Next?

I’ve mentioned briefly that I’m trying something new in the way of volunteering. Many of you know that I’ve been a volunteer for the American Cancer Society, have captained a Relay for Life team, and now am on the steering committee for my local Relay for Life. In fact, today I will be out recruiting teams and sponsors for that very Relay.

But now, I have a new charity that I am learning about in a different way. I’ve also been pursuing a master’s degree in instructional technology and in my last semester (which I’m in now, oh yeah!) I must do a field experience such as an internship or real world project.

I looked for an internship which is what I really wanted to do, but instead I found not one, but two projects to do. One is for the First Circuit Court of Florida. My university is helping them put a face-to-face course they teach online and I’m on the team to make that happen.

The other is for the American Red Cross. The Red Cross is an organization that I’ve admired for a long time. When others are leaving a disaster area, they are going in to help.

You may know that the American Red Cross was founded by Clara Barton, but did you know that the International Committee of the Red Cross was where she got the idea? It was founded as the International Committee for Relief to the Wounded by Swiss citizen Henry Dunant who saw the awful scene of dead soldiers at the battle of Solferino, in Italy, and was moved to help them.

His is an interesting life. From wealth to poverty while being famous and finally winning the Nobel Peace Prize.

Well, back to the American Red Cross. I am making a new volunteer orientation presentation with a series of videos from volunteer leaders within my local Red Cross.

I have been working with their Volunteer Coordinator and Chief Executive Officer and we’ve decided to do 10 videos for the presentation. In fact, I did two of them yesterday and will be doing another one today. 

The volunteer leaders are talking about what they do, whom they help, and how new volunteers can  become involved. I’m learning quite a bit about what the Red Cross does, you might say.

The majority of what they do is help people deal with disasters. What’s the most common disaster they help with? Not flood, not tornadoes or hurricanes, but fires. Your house goes up, and whoosh, you don’t even have a change of clothes, at least not until the Red Cross gets to you.

Yesterday, one of the people I videotaped tried to recruit me to start volunteering with her after the project is over. Who knows?

God bless and have a good weekend.