volunteer my time

I did the annual “Friends of the Forest” volunteer project that’s sponsored by the company where I work. This time I took my daughter along- it was her first volunteer project.

This one was in Grizzly Gulch, about an hour west of Denver, then another half hour up a rough road (shuttled by Arapaho National Forest trucks). Like the project I did last year, the main goal for this one was to do some restoration work so that the native (and endangered) greenback cutthroat trout could be introduced.

Also like last year, the weather was fantastic and the views were too. Here’s a pic of where we met to disperse to the different worksites. The very noticeable peak in the background is Grizzly Peak- 13,427’. On the left side you can see the lower slopes of Torreys Peak- one of Colorado’s “14’ers” at 14,267’. I’ve hiked both over the years that I’ve been in Colorado- Torreys from this area, and Grizzly from the right-hand ridge.

I should make something to be given to charity like a chemo cap or a blanket for a homeless child or pet in need.

I emailed the Equality manager to volunteer for the First Contact Group. A response came back saying they are still finalising the details and will get back to me at the beginning of May.

I was in some training sessions this week at work for new starters, one being Equality and Diversity Awareness. My employer acts very strongly about students and staff being respected and treated fairly which is great.

The best bit though was that they are starting a ‘First Contact Group’ which people can volunteer for, and people come to them for basic advice and support.

I’ve been thinking it through for a couple of days now and have decided that, as long as my boss will allow it, I will volunteer for this.

I babysat Bea and her sister again last night as favour to my Mum’s friends. I didn’t expect anything pay wise so it can be classed as volunteering but I did get bought a plant for my troubles which was lovely and unexpected :-)

Maybe I’ll volunteer at the Humane Society this summer..

I think I’d like to help out in a soup kitchen. I’m going to look into doing that.

As I’ve been doing quite a lot of free babysitting of Bea I think this should count towards this goal.

Spent the day helping my friend who runs a charity. She was doing a massive mailing of Xmas boxes to the soldiers abroad and so I helped pack boxes and stuff.

There were loads of other people helping too and the atmosphere was really nice, I had a great day.

Technically I could ‘done’ this goal now but I’m not going to as I want to get a few varied volunteering days under my belt beforeI do that.

I’ve noticed a couple of the local charity shops close to me are asking for volunteers but they seem to want someone for like two or three days a week and I cant do that as I work full time. I guess I will just keep an eye open for someone wanting a short-houred-non-experienced volunteer…