Volunteer Spotlight | Kim, Parent Volunteer, Fishers, IN
Participating in speech competitions can be a great learning experience for kids. They gain self confidence, learn public speaking skills, and make friends. Today, our Spotlight shines on Kim, who uses VolunteerSpot's online signup sheets to coordinate parent volunteers for the school's Speech Team.
Tell us about your role as a volunteer leader.
Our school hosts Speech Team meets twice a year at our school. The visiting school’s students are here from about 8am to 4pm and we sell concessions for breakfast and lunch (and snacks). Selling food items helps raise money for our Speech Team. I took over at the last minute to coordinate the November meet because no other parent had stepped up to do so when the previous person was no longer involved because their student had graduated. There was a limited amount of information about how this had been done previously and I had to get volunteers and donations together in less than two weeks. It was a little overwhelming.
How do you use VolunteerSpot to coordinate your parent volunteers?
Another parent suggest VolunteerSpot. She was interested in using it for another event, and offered to help figure it out together, since she isn’t intimidated by technology and I truly am. I just figured I didn’t have the time to figure out how to use this program and was going about it the old fashioned way by using emails and “reply to all”. So we sat down and very quickly were able to get it set up with the number of volunteers we needed in different shifts and all the food donations we needed. I was also able to easily run a report at the end, showing the few items left that weren’t donated. This made going to the store to shop for them a simple 30 minute trip.
What other activities are you involved in as a volunteer?
I volunteer with the Show Choir (the woman who helped me figure out Volunteer Spot usedit to coordinate the concessions for the Show Choir event in January.) I was in charge of advertising in the programs for various shows.
What’s one piece of advice you have for parent volunteers out there?
Be involved. If your child is going to participate, don’t just expect other parents to make it possible for your child to have a great experience while you contribute nothing other than pick up and drop off. Volunteering can be a lot of fun. You get to spend time with your child, get to know who they are hanging around with, and gain a fair idea about their choice of friends. You meet some very nice people (I’ve made many friends while volunteering). You feel very good being a part of the “village” raising the kids. You gather a lot of “insider” information about teachers, the school, other opportunities etc. For high school it has helped me figure out the best way to approach classes, teachers and staff about things. Volunteering just plain helps build community.
Why did you decide to use VolunteerSpot?
Because I was overwhelmed with the task I had in front of me with such a short time frame to get it done. I am thankful I had my closest friend of 12 years (who I met while when our oldest kids where in Kindergarten while volunteering on the decorating committee for the school carnival) help me and support me with the idea of checking out VolunteerSpot. It literally saved me. I was very stressed about the event since I work full time and knew the school and our Speech Team coach/teacher was counting on me. It seemed like a great idea to use it, I was just worried that I really didn’t have enough time to spend learning how to use a computer program.
Anything else you’d like our readers to know?
I knew VolunteerSpot existed because our PTO Volunteer Coordinator uses it for activities throughout the school. She has multiple events going at any given time to call out and coordinate volunteers. We have 2,700 students in our high school so there are always events and activities that need help. She has found that VolunteerSpot is a great way to get help and keep track of things. Parents are more likely to get involved. If you don’t feel you have the time, just know that VolunteerSpot is a fantastic, easy to learn, easy to use tool that makes it so efficient to get people, supplies and schedules all coordinated. You can even send out thank you notes at the end to encourage people to keep volunteering.
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We salute Kim and all the other school volunteer leaders out there making a difference in our world. 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].
