VOLUME XI – Thank You, Not Farewell

Dear South Jersey,

In a week where the sun shined heavily through the clouds, although our most trusted weathermen called for rain the entire week, I come to you humbled and with a smile on my face.

Today’s rain and overcast skies came appropriately as I gave my final presentation on social media and events marketing to my beloved Medford Arts Center.

In previous posts, you may have read that throughout the month of March I helped the MAC with getting a new Facebook Fan Page up, linking it to their Twitter account and also getting their events in various newspapers throughout South Jersey and Philadelphia.

In speaking with some of the members of the MAC today and teaching them what I know, I was made aware that at the last event held at the center, people came from unheard of towns for such exhibits. When asked where they heard about the event, they told center volunteers that they saw the event in the newspaper.

How rewarding to have heard such great news! These are the types of things you can experience, South Jersey! This is what it’s all about and without this blog, not only would I not be able to inform you, the community, of all of these opportunities, but I myself would not have known either.

I would like to extend my greatest gratitude to Tracey Femiano and Janet Jackson Gould for taking me in with all smiles and helping me grow as a person and a volunteer. I hope that we will keep in touch for a long time over the course of our futures.

I would also like to say best of luck to Tracey, along with Lou Dallara and Elaine Walsh, in continuing to make the Facebook page grow and continuing to increase foot traffic at the MAC via media coverage.

So, this is certainly not goodbye to the MAC. Anything you guys need, please don’t hesitate to shout out to me. But it is thank you. Thank you for one hell of an experience. You are wonderful people.

Stay tuned for a special post on another type of volunteering within the next few days, South Jersey. Until then, keep your eyes open and always make your best effort to give back to those who need your help.

Yours,

Kevin Haslam

VOLUME X – Field Work Part I

Dear South Jersey,

So after helping out with the Medford Arts Center’s social media (by the way – make sure you “Like” the new Medford Arts Center Facebook Fan Page), I decided to pledge a month’s worth of work to YMCA Camp Ockanickon.

I’m about halfway through my work with “Ocky” and I must say I’m yet again having a blast! On the other end of the spectrum, this job entails less computer work and a lot more manual labor. To me, though? It’s all the same.

Regardless, so far, I have been treated extremely well by the entire staff at Ocky. The people I deal with are friendly, knowledgeable and hard-working. The people that pass by as I work greet me with smiles and hello’s. I am very happy to be helping out and even happier to know that the small amount of work I do (about six hours a week) benefits the children who get to enjoy something I never did as a child.

So far so good, as I like to say, and thank you to all who have greeted me with a smile. I will enjoy my final two weeks at the camp as much as the first few. So, without further ado, here is my chronicle of the first half of volunteerism for YMCA Camp Ockanickon…

My first week, I was able to stay close by to the workshop and do some maintenance work. My first assignment was to rake some leaves out of the “firewood area” and clean up some other rubbish.

Do you remember those so-called “decorative” lawn ornaments we used to fill up with leaves back in the 80s and 90s for Halloween? You know, the ones that once filled up would look like giant pumpkins or spiders or insert-generic-Halloween-cliché-here? Then, we realized that it was just a glorified way of putting all of our leaves in one place until it got wet and nasty again.

Well, I wish for one day I could have all the glorified decoration trash bags in the world to see how many I could fill up with the leaves I raked. Actually, it wasn’t that bad, I just wanted to reference a former trend that is long forgotten now.

Anyway, aside from that, I did stack the firewood up in that area and then was asked to move on to my next project – picking up branches from a wooded area near the workshop.

Now, this task, I was able to use some tools, including saws and clippers. It was some real man-work, but nothing anyone with arms and legs can’t handle. It took me about six hours total to complete the job, but the area is nice and clear of large and obstructable branches!

Next, I was asked to check the insides of 32 cabins that children call home for the summer and make sure they had all of the essentials: a broom, a trash can and a WORKING smoke detector.

I was able to swiftly move through cabin-to-cabin with ease and mark my findings on a checklist for the maintenance staff to reinsure. This was quite rewarding, because I really felt as though I was providing safety for the kids.

Again… overall I have really enjoyed this experience so far and am looking forward to the rest of my time at Ocky. Today, I started a new project and will be happy to tell you all about my last two weeks in what will be Volume XII of The Do-Gooder’s Diary. In the meantime, be on the lookout for a short feature on another volunteering op in the South Jersey area and make sure you’re keeping up with The Central Record for all of your South Jersey local news.

Thanks for reading and I’ll be checking back soon!

Yours,

Kevin Haslam