UPDATE (6/29/13) – Now instead of the Heritage Park project, we’ll be helping out with flood clean-up in Sunnyside. Yay! 🙂
UPDATE (6/26/13) – In the wake of our flooding (see all of YAA’s coverage here), the project at Heritage Park has been cancelled. We are looking for an opportunity for our volunteers who have signed up to instead help with the clean-up efforts. DM @YouthCentralYYC if you can provide any for around 40 youth volunteers.
To say that I enjoy volunteering with Youth Central is rather an understatement really. I think I’m right on the money to describe our Youth Volunteer Corps’ (YVC) fellow youth volunteers as passionate, on-task, and certainly welcoming; new volunteers evolve from being perhaps intimidated by other experienced volunteers to becoming those busy figures themselves.
No matter how long and in what roles they have involved themselves in, our volunteers will tell you in their testimonials for sure that their very first project was the prelude to the fantastic recollection of their devotion. What took many of these young figures and YC alumnus to being a vital part of their communities were those significant baby steps into the realm of confidence.
Yet simple things such as having a not-so-ideal experience at your first project may alter that vision slightly. In many large and small events alike, it’s loneliness that seeps in as a result of others around them socializing with one another but seemingly not with them for some reason. Those kind of misunderstandings can just happen by accident, you know? I’m guilty of falling into this trap myself and realizing only after a project that it must have been extremely awkward for those fellows who didn’t get invited into our conversations.
For those that are unsure whether to join Youth Central or not, their worries are certainly understandable; it’s difficult to make yourself feel at home right away.
So it is for this reason, as a member of the YVC Steering Committee, I am more than excited to announce our inaugural Bring A Friend Day! Make sure you set your calendar for June 30th because that’s when Heritage Park will be filled with Youth just like you with endless potential! 🙂
Just as the title says, this is a special project not only to facilitate a “volunteer reunion” party of sorts, but also to welcome any friends (especially those that are currently not involved with Youth Central) that you think would be an amazing fit for volunteering! Starting at 8:30 AM, all of the attendees, including the friends you have brought with you, will be split into groups where they will do icebreakers (a YC tradition), then work hard at gardening and beautifying areas in Heritage Park. Don’t forget that we will play classic camp games too during the day!
If free food is your thing, (just like me), lunch and refreshments will be provided to reward you and your new friends after a rigorous morning! After replenishing your energy, you can expect an afternoon of fun too with our music and cheer for the day to propel you through with excitement in finding new acquaintances! All the summer team leaders will be in attendance too so familiarize yourselves with them and you will be all set for all the amazing summer camps, recurring mainstays, and some of Calgary’s busiest festivals!
Not only will your friends have gained hands-on experience through their first project, there will also be brochures, many of our coordinators, and other promotional materials to inform youth about all of our programs, such as right here on Youth Are Awesome. Don’t just get them exposed to YVC volunteering, get them exposed to the other programs too! These opportunities for both you and your friends are a great way to launch a new era in your personal community involvement.
You can RSVP on the Youth Central Database by June 19th and our volunteer coordinator, Giang, will sent you an email asking for the information of the friends you will bring! Yummy burgers, hot dogs, livelihood, and the possibilities of other fellow youth that you’ll meet awaits!
Thanks to those on our projects/Hunger Dinner sub-committees who have spent meetings and meetings shaping up this event! (This blog post is a fraction of what they’ve committed themselves to :P)
To empower and encourage others to take action and volunteer in our communities is an inspirational act. To present this opportunity to your friends is to open new doors!
