Presidents Corner: Destined to Manage Volunteers

Lee Ann Harvey

Sometimes you wonder why you save things but there was one item in the box that I was glad I had saved. It was my journal from the journalism course I took during my senior year in high school. By then I was already a seasoned volunteer having started with doing service projects as a Girl Scout and then becoming a “candy striper” in two different hospitals as a teenager. I had written in my journal about volunteering and the many other classmates I knew who also volunteered. I thought it would be a good idea to have an article in the school newspaper about students who volunteered so that others would also become volunteers. We now take for granted that high school students do community service, but that has not always been a requirement. Back then, many of us volunteered because it was something we felt passionate about doing. This was especially true if we had a parent who modeled volunteering for us just as my mother did when she was Girl Scout troop leader for my troop and then for my sister's troop.
 
Do you feel that managing volunteers is your destiny too? Did you have an “ah ha” moment when you realized this profession was the perfect fit for you? We would love to hear about how volunteer management was your destiny too