With it warming up around the country community theaters are a buzz with preparations for their summer seasons. It takes a small army of volunteers to orchestrate a successful community theatre production – from stage hands to wardrobe and technical assistants back stage, to front-of-the-house ticket sellers, ushers, and concessions.
Today our Spotlight shines on the hard work of a stage production group. Turn back the season and join us in celebrating Patty Gardner, Volunteer Coordinator of the Portland Christmas Revels in Portland, Oregon.
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What's your role as a volunteer leader?
The annual Christmas Revels is a music and dance production that depicts ancient ways of celebrating the winter solstice and the Christmas season. It's a different show each year, celebrating the traditions of different countries; this year was “Spanish Treasure”. I’m responsible for recruiting and scheduling volunteers to help with the stage production - about 300 slots to fill over two weekends! I also help with other events throughout the year to raise funds for the stage production - about 100 more volunteer spots to fill.
Are you involved in other volunteer activities?
Oh yes, I participate as a volunteer at my daughter's school and am on a committee at church.
How did you get interested in volunteering?
My daughter led me to it. I started helping out with Portland Christmas Revels when she was in the Children's Chorus, and now I’ve been their volunteer coordinator since 2008. I find volunteering fun and rewarding.
Why did you decide to use VolunteerSpot?
I really needed a good scheduling program, because in 2008 I spent about 200 hours fielding emails, filling slots, keeping track of all the volunteers, and changing timeslots when people needed that. I took a community ed course on volunteer coordinating, and a couple websites were mentioned. I checked them all out, and VolunteerSpot was the most useful and the most user-friendly one I found. It made the coordinator job sooo much easier!
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If you’re near Portland, Oregon next Christmas Season, be sure to check out the Christmas Revelers, you’ll be glad you did! www.portlandrevels.org
We salute Patty and all the other volunteer leaders out there making a difference. 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 [email protected].
