The U.S. Department of State hosted a mega project of over 100 visitors from around the world in April who were interested in learning more about volunteerism. Two were sent to Pensacola.
Our visitors were a one project manager from Colombia and an administrator from Samoa. The two also visited Washington D.C., Salt Lake City (UT), and San Francisco (CA) with the goal of examining the impact of volunteerism in U.S. communities and how volunteers, particularly young people, are inspired to help foster a culture of service and civic responsibility. Along the way, they also explored best practices in volunteer recruitment and management and participated in community service activities.
In Pensacola, their appointments started with volunteer work at First United Methodist Church in Pensacola where they fed the homeless and learned from Barbara Vititow about the different outreach projects sponsored by the Feeding the Homeless Plus program. Their second volunteer activity was then held at the Wildlife Sanctuary of Northwest Florida where they met with Dorothy Kaufmann to feed pelicans and to learn more about volunteer retention.
Kristin Fairchild and her team at Chain Reaction discussed the role of youth in volunteerism and shared information on the structure of the teen volunteer organization. This meeting was complimented that evening with an observation of a Council Meeting with the City of Pensacola where Chain Reaction teens were honored for their service.
Meetings continued at Baptist Medical Park with the coordinator of the volunteer program, Mrs. Carmen Rizzo. Upon the arrival at the hospital, two Baptist Medical Park volunteers who have dedicated their services to the hospital for over nine years met the visitors and shared the impact that volunteerism has had in their lives. Mrs. Rizzo then discussed the techniques used to attract, manage, and maintain volunteer workers. Prior to their departure from Baptist, the visitors met a student volunteer who explained how she uses volunteerism to receive hands-on experience during tough economic times.
At the Escambia County Emergency Operations Center, our group met with Mr. John Dosh who gave a tour of the facility and explained the role of volunteerism during emergency situations. In the main room, they observed how interaction between experts in different fields occurs in order to yield the best solution to the problem at hand.
The last appointment of the day was at the University of West Florida where the group met with Kate Hollimon and Lauren Loeffler, representatives of UWF Volunteer! and Career Services. The meeting covered the different types of programs provided by the university for students to obtain field experience and/or to foster a culture of service and civic responsibility. Our delegates shared the differences between the United State and their home countries in terms of volunteerism and noted that our society has a more volunteer-oriented culture than in either Colombia or Samoa and that this would be their biggest challenge in implementing programs similar to the American model.
Thank you to everyone who contributed to this project, including Jack and Cookie Kichler who hosted the Colombian to dinner in their home and to Jena Melançon for inviting the Samoan to eat one night in her house.
