Pat Brewer - “A Few of My Favorite People: Volunteers!”

Hello, fellow VISTAs! I am Pat Brewer serving at Char-EM United Way in Petoskey and I am amazed by how much has happened since my last blog in January. Each day, I add a few sentences about the activities I have done and things I need to remember to my VISTA log/journal and it is almost 30 pages long!

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When I think back over the past five months since that blog, I think first of the many wonderful volunteers I have recruited, worked with, come to know, enjoy and appreciate so much. The following are some of the highlights of my work with volunteers since January:

• Eighteen volunteers helped with our “Toast to Literacy” fundraiser in February for the early literacy program, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. That event raised over $4,000 to pay for the nearly 1,300 books that are sent each month to homes of area preschoolers, free of charge to the families. 
• Over eighty volunteers--more than fifty recruited by me--worked at our annual anti-poverty event, Project Connect, in March that brought over 700 people together under one roof. The purpose of the event is to connect the public to the agencies and programs that can help them improve their lives. Volunteers included hair stylists and barbers who took shifts during the six hour event, cutting hair from the very beginning to the very end and gave some attendees their only haircut of the year. The event also provided free food, clothing, massages, photographs, personal care and household items, and books for children. One attendee even commented that there were “cool volunteers.”
• Forty-four volunteers helped to make it possible to host an “Instant Wine Cellar” party in April for 350 people. The event raised funds to support the online virtual volunteer center for Char-Em United Way called Volunteer Connections. The fundraiser included music and dancing, voting for a favorite dessert, a money machine, games, a silent auction, and raffles for eight instant wine cellars. We raised over $5,000 and it was the work of the volunteers that made it a successful event. 
• Forty-eight volunteers read to a couple hundred children for our June Day of Action literacy event in two counties. These fabulous volunteers read books to nearly 200 children at ten sites, including preschools, daycare centers, and libraries. Some of the books had a financial literacy theme as did the literacy kits that were given to each participating child. Both volunteer readers and the children enjoyed the stories and the time they shared. 
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When my VISTA year is finished and I think about the highlights, I won’t think of how much money I brought in from writing grants or asking businesses to contribute to our silent auctions or how many people I trained to use our volunteer website. The memories I will think of first and enjoy the most will be from the many fun, giving, and dedicated volunteers I have had the good fortune to encounter during my service. In January, I started writing a monthly column in the local newspaper to honor and appreciate some of the best of these volunteers and I know that the next VISTA will get to know and enjoy these fantastic folks through the work and the continuation of the newspaper column.