VolunteerSpot loves highlighting the good works of users around the country. Today our spotlight shines on Rene Rowland, volunteer coordinator for Earth Island Institute. Earth Island works to protect cultural and biological diversity in the world.
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Please tell us about your organization and your volunteer needs.
Earth Island Institute’s International Marine Mammal Project works to protect whales and dolphins around the world, including their ocean habitats.
Our current need for volunteers is to help pass out information literature to movie-goers following screenings of The Cove movie, an award-winning documentary about our work to protect dolphins in Japan. We will distribute postcards for www.savejapandolphins.org, our website for the public to take action on the issue. We will also ask volunteers to collect names and e-mail addresses from interested people.
How did you get started as a volunteer leader?
Having recently seen The Cove and realizing its compelling message, I signed up to volunteer at an animal protection conference.
What’s one piece of advice you have for volunteers or their leaders out there?
If you are passionate about helping a cause, remember to take care of yourself first. Your health and well-being come first, and will make you a better volunteer. I have fallen in love with VolunteerSpot because its powerful data-crunching features free me to do other things. So it helps me take care of myself by giving me time.
Why did you decide to use VolunteerSpot?
When I realized that we would be needing to quickly schedule a large group of people at various locations and times, keeping track of it seemed rather daunting. My volunteer colleague mentioned that she had seen a web interfaced used for taking polls. Then I wondered if there was something more specific to our need: that of letting volunteers sign up for various tasks online. I did a few searches online, and voilà, you had already invented it! This beta version is really good, and does much more than I even imagined it could.
Anything else you’d like our readers to know about your organization or volunteering?
Earth Island Institute is a nonprofit organization working to protect the biological and cultural diversity of the Earth. Founded by environmentalist David Brower in 1982, Earth Island now oversees 50 projects around the world.
To learn more about Earth Island Institute or to make a donation, please visit www.earthisland.org.
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We salute Rene and all the volunteer heroes out there everyday making our world a better places to live! If you're using VolunteerSpot, write and tell us about what you're doing, and give us a chance to shine our Volunteer Spotlight on you!! Just email us at VS@volunteerspot.com.
