Cristina Acevedo is a Youth Central volunteer, as well as a member of the TD Youth Earth Ambassadors. With a fantastic number of volunteer hours under her name, she has also started an environment club in her school. Cristina is consistently taking roles in special projects and sets a prime example for other youth volunteers in Calgary. I had the opportunity to ask her some great questions about her life with volunteering. Here’s what she said:
What do you find most exciting about volunteering?
The thing I find most exciting about volunteering is the knowledge that I’m helping someone, whether they are a person I’m volunteering for, or whether they are someone who will benefit from the volunteer work. I love the feeling of accomplishment that I get when I think about how I am one person who is making a difference, it may not be a difference that will completely alter the course of life as we know it, but it is a difference to someone, and that makes me happy.
The thing I find most exciting about volunteering is the knowledge that I’m helping someone, whether they are a person I’m volunteering for, or whether they are someone who will benefit from the volunteer work. I love the feeling of accomplishment that I get when I think about how I am one person who is making a difference, it may not be a difference that will completely alter the course of life as we know it, but it is a difference to someone, and that makes me happy.
What makes you want to volunteer?
I am driven to volunteer because I know that there are people out there who need help, and I am a young person who can provide that help. If I am capable of performing tasks that people need help with, why wouldn’t I help them? I just feel that I can help people out, so I should. I am also driven to volunteer because whenever I do it, I always encounter happy people. When volunteering, fellow volunteers are generally super happy, bright, positive people who brighten my day. I also love making people in need happy when I help them, their smiles and thanks truly make a person’s day!
Have you faced any challenges or difficulties in your projects? How do you deal with them?
Previous volunteering projects have been pretty easygoing, and I have yet to encounter a real challenge, but one time, when I was serving lunch at the Salvation Army, I got covered in beans due to a malfunction with the can opener, if that counts! That was pretty gross, but I was having so much fun that I just brushed it off, wiped off my shirt and arms, and kept working.
What is your favourite volunteering project so far? What were the highlights?
To date, I think my favourite volunteering project was painting the mural with TD Youth Earth Ambassadors. We painted a mural at West Hillhurst Community Centre, and although I’m not usually very into artistic things (with the exception of music and band) I had a lot of fun doing it! It took a while to finish, and was definitely quite a bit of work, but the finished product was so worth it. The highlights of that project would’ve been both seeing it when it was finished, and how great it turned out, and also painting with the other committee members. I got to know a lot of them better, making me love that committee even more than I did at first!
What was your initiative for beginning an environmental club in your school? Do you think the club is effective in its goals?
I decided to start an environmental club at school because of a few reasons, one of the first being that I have learned so much from being part of the TD Youth Earth Ambassadors, from both the members and the projects we’ve done. I wanted a place to share what I am learning with people who are really interested, who may become inspired by the ideas presented at our club meetings. The second reason is that I become increasingly more passionate about spreading the word that we need to think of the environment before we do things, that we are a part of the environment, rather than being something separate from it. We have to save it because currently we are doing damage that may be impossible to undo. I think it’s important for people to know these things, and by starting a group where I can share these ideas with people, the ideas will spread. Thirdly, I want to hear other people’s ideas regarding environmentalism, so that I can expand on my own. So far I do think the club has been able to achieve it’s goals. The club is fairly new, but we recently did a presentation to half of the student body. I feel that in that presentation we educated them, which was our goal, and I also feel that the members in the club are doing a great job to encourage each other to lead their peers positively towards a more sustainable lifestyle. Ultimately, our primary goal is to influence our peers to consider the environment when making decisions, and we are definitely on our way to making our impact in the school widespread. This does make me think that we have been achieving our goals so far.
What is the most significant thing that you have learned from volunteering? Has it changed your life?
The most significant thing I have learned from volunteering is that I can always help someone, and it has become important to me that I do just that. It is a special experience, volunteering, and it has taught me that it doesn’t matter the place I am in in my life, I can always make time to help people, and that will not only help others, but it will also benefit me. Volunteering has definitely transformed my life! I find that in time that I would have previously spent trying to find an activity to pass the time, I am doing things that will help someone. I feel like volunteering has made me a better person, because now, in my free time, I am always looking for a way to do help out, this makes me feel way better than whatever I did in the past ever did. I am definitely contributing more positively to society this way!
Where do you plan to take your volunteering path in the future?
I’m not quite sure where exactly I want to take my volunteering path in the future. I am definitely going to keep volunteering, and I’ll see where that takes me! One thing that I do want to accomplish is getting some people into volunteering, because I honestly think it changes anyone, and everyone’s lives for the better.