Volunteers: Priceless
Last Saturday I met such a group in the little country town of Windsor, NC. As in many small communities across America, the county humane society is in constant need of money, space, cleaning supplies, animal food and medicine, manpower, well, everything actually. There are so many domestic animals in dire need of protection, there is simply not enough funding.
Windsor struggles economically, I was told. And the shelter, well, it needs everything. A group of volunteers put together their first ever fundraising “event” for the shelter. Tina, the fearless and tireless leader, and it seems a talented artist, created the backdrop for fun with photo boards for taking pictures, games with fabulous donated prizes, lots of vendors and a food truck, and held the event on National Dog Day on the shelter grounds. She has worked months on her props and gathering volunteers, holding meetings, and promoting. Her hardest task, it seemed to me, was convincing the community that it needs to support their shelter.
I feared her despair at the low attendance, and watched her continue to encourage everyone else. The event, 10-4, was pretty much done by 2. I told her I was an old fundraiser from way back and she must not get discouraged. The first year of anything is hard. People don’t have it as a priority…yet! I told her, “Get to the newspaper with photos, give them a great story. Don’t talk about attendance; you talk about how much fun it was for those who came. Talk about the adoptions, even if it was one. Tell them about the games they missed and the prizes they could have won. Give them a hint at something new for next year to be added. They will read it, feel like they missed something, and next year they will make it a priority. When you figure out what you can get for the money you earned, give them another story, with the plea for more to help do something else. Don’t wait until next year to promote the event, start now. And talk only about the positive things that happened. You had a lot going for you today; the weather was ideal, lots of enthusiasm among the volunteers, lots of vendors, and everything you did was successful. It will grow itself, you’ll see. But it takes time.”
And, like volunteers everywhere, she immediately sprang to action. “We could rent those things out for birthday parties, don’t you think?” She was talking about her photo props. The pirate setup was fantastic. And next year, we could…”
What would our communities be like without people like Tina? Our volunteer firemen, our library volunteers that allow the libraries to be open every day, PTA, the folks who collected new backpacks for our Title I school? Faith formation teachers, church choirs…I could go on and on. Think about your own community. What can you do to support or create something worthwhile?