Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Paul's Excellent Question

One of our volunteers Paul asked if most of the drivers for Germantown HELP were motivated by Student Service Learning hours. Why different people volunteer to take on various volunteer positions has always been an interesting question! Here's my answer.

Peace,

Cindy
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Very few drivers go because of SSL hours. Probably three that I know of... Most SSL-hour-students go with their parents doing the driving, or at least with them. Some drivers bring their children, but a lot are too young to collect SSL hours. Parents like to have their children help do something meaningful and realize how fortunate they are. Students do collect a lot of food for us, at school, swim team, etc. It's very helpful and they do a great job! Most of the box-packing groups include students.

Most drivers want to help out in their community, but they don't have too much time. An hour and a half, once or twice a month and AFTER work, is all the time they have. That's enough for us! Some are challenged by their church/synagogue/etc. to work in the community, so they help for that reason. Some people have been in need in the past and want to give back; others decide that they're darn lucky to have a job, good health and family, so they want to support those not as fortunate.

What motivates volunteers is an interesting subject. I run three nonprofits, with probably 100 regular volunteers among them, but they are quite different and different things motivate different people.

What makes you volunteer?

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

September ALREADY?

We've been buying a lot of food (as usual for this time of year), but contributions from Messiah Lutheran Church and Victory Christian Church have been a big help!

Cindy recently met with some very nice folks from Hughes Network Systems, who have a large facility in Germantown and others nearby in Gaithersburg. They helped us considerably last December with the Holiday Giving Project, collecting, delivering AND sorting a lot of toys. They are looking into ways to be more active in the community, which is great!

We held our third pickup yesterday at Trinity United Methodist Church. As always, thanks Trinity UMC for letting us borrow the front hall! The weather was so pleasant that we brought the boxes outside and waited there.

A very large proportion of Germantown HELP's clients don't have transportation and/or are disabled and can't get to a pickup. This is becoming more clear as we continue trying out the pickup idea, so we're actually rethinking it a bit. If we had our own location, where clients could come to the same place every time, it would be helpful. But, since we don't yet have one, we will go out to area organizations (I'm thinking the Boys and Girls Club, maybe some churches, and the three senior communities in Germantown) and try to partner with them.

The Germatown Oktoberfest committee has agreed to let JK Moving and Storage bring a truck to this year's festival, to collect nonperishable food for Germantown HELP. I'm not sure how many people will remember to bring some, but the timing is great. September and October are our busiest months!

If you have any ideas, please let us know!