Yesterday, we had our Volunteer Day at the lovely Israel Congregation of Manchester. Our volunteers and steering committee members enjoyed three different types of soup, delicious bread, cheese and crackers…and yummy desserts all provided by steering committee members. We know how to put on a luncheon!
About 20 of our intrepid volunteers were able to attend. For me, it was a perfect opportunity to put faces to the names and voices of the folks who work so hard for N2N. The purpose of our little shindig was two-fold: first of all, we wanted to thank and appreciate our volunteers. Neighbor to Neighbor would not exist without them, and the work that they do so tirelessly is remarkable. Our second goal was to ask them how they do what they do–tips and tricks they might have for working with care recipients–and how we, as an organization, and me, as the program director, could do things better. The volunteers were full of sweet stories about their interactions with elders in our community, and they had great suggestions of how we can make Neighbor to Neighbor even better. I appreciate their candidness. While I feel as though I am settling in nicely to this job and love coming to work every day (!), I’m smart enough to know that I could do my job better, and I want to know from the people on the front lines how I might do that.
Someone referred to me as the “captain of the ship,” and that made me laugh and cringe a little. You know how the Navy has been in the news about the several collisions their ships have gotten into in the past year? I was listening to an NPR story on my way home from our event yesterday. The reporter noted that in one of the instances, the person piloting the ship (i.e., the captain) was not instructed on some basic ways of maneuvering his ginormous ship! You’d think that would be a priority, right? While I have been extremely lucky to have an amazing retired “captain,” Kate Coss, to teach me the ins and outs of N2N, I want to make certain I don’t crash into anything. If you are a volunteer and you have input, please, please, please contact me:
(802)367-7787
I love this organization, and I want to make sure I can get us around any potential icebergs safely and, I hope, with good humor. 🙂
PS: We are just about to launch our annual letter appeal for donations. If you don’t get one of our letters in the mail, I will post it here in the next few days so you can take a look. Please help us assist our Northshire elders by donating to Neighbor to Neighbor. You can donate via this website by clicking on the Donate tab at the top of the page. Thank you.