I was at the fair, too, watching the shy and not-so-shy students exploring potential futures with representatives from local businesses. I was curious. What types of volunteering would these 8th graders do? I waded into the crowd to find out.
It wasn’t the reception Racheal expected. The children stared at her. When she reached out to give them a hug, they ran off.
Racheal was volunteering with her church in a remote village in Mexico. Growing up, she had traveled to rural areas of her native country, Nigeria, helping people as part of a Christian ministry. She thought this trip would be similar, but it was not.
When Nevada Volunteers formed a Student Group at the University of Nevada, Reno through their Higher Education Initiative, one of the projects the students decided to work on was a Volunteer Fair to promote volunteering in the community.
I had meant to get there on Wednesday. I didn’t make it till Saturday. I missed all the action of volunteers stacking cans, building incredible CANstructions—a snake, a train, and the Empire State Building. I was sick in bed, and by the time I got there three days later, all I could photograph were the results. As incredible as they were, the results weren’t the story I was after.
Sandie and Donna wanted to talk about definitions. These two long-time friends were ready for a good discussion and they weren’t afraid to challenge my assumptions. I had come to ask them how they felt about volunteering, but their comments about the definition of volunteer proved far more valuable.