community partners call the spring volunteer fair a success...volunteer fair on the same day as the...
TRANSCRIPT
Community Partner
Recognition Breakfast Join us February 13th, 2011 in Ballroom A
of the Shepherd Union Building to celebrate
another year of partnership. The event
starts at 8:00 AM sharp. Please be sure to
RSVP with Jeff Robbins by February 7th!
Call 801-626-7737
MOU Renewal 2012
Partners who have not re-turned their 2012 MOU’s by February 13th will no long-er be partnered with the CIC and will have their posting removed from our website.
Site Visits
If you want to strengthen your ability to attract quality volun-teers and learn more about the CIC then a site visit is for you! Jeff Robbins will be conducting site visits. Contact him at [email protected] to schedule a short visit.
Community Partners Call the Spring Volunteer Fair a Success By Jeff Robbins
CIC VISTA, Community Partner Liaison
Service Event Calendar
The Spring Volunteer Fair
started with shining banners and
plenty of coffee as hundreds of
students connected with local non
-profits in the WSU Shepherd Un-
ion Atrium. Twenty-One different
non-profit organizations gathered
together on January 18th in order
to connect with potential volun-
teers from the Weber State Univer-
sity student body.
Organizations checked in at the
CIC tent (featured right) where
members from the CIC handed out
free popcorn and helped direct stu-
dents to surrounding booths. Past
Fairs have connected numerous
students to local non-profits, but
this year’s student traffic was unri-
valed in comparison to previous
years.
One reason for the
tremendous turnout
may have been be-
cause this year’s fair
coincided with the
WSU Career Fair. Both
events were hosted at
the same time in the
Union and likely helped generate
increased foot traffic. CIC organiz-
ers hope to continue hosting the
Volunteer Fair on the same day as
the Career Fair in order to build on
this Fair’s success.
(Continued on next page)
(continued) Non-profit
attendees are calling
this year’s event a huge
success for volunteer
recruitment. United
Way reported attracting
more than thirty volun-
teers and many other
organizations concurred,
saying that they experienced a sig-
nificant amount of interest from
students. The Fair also offered nu-
merous side benefits, like being
able to mingle with other non-
profits. Linda Larsen is the direc-
tor of Operation Adopt-A-Ghost,
an organization that supports de-
ployed soldiers and their families.
She discovered that “meeting peo-
ple from the other organizations
and networking with them” was
very useful. “We all have service to
the community in the forefront of
our thoughts all the time, and by
working together, seeing where
each organization’s mission meets
another, we can all do more.”
Maggie Favero, the Educational
Director for the Eccles Dinosaur
Park in Ogden, also attended the
Fair. For Maggie, one of the salient
benefits of attending was being
able to generate name recogni-
tion. “It is always amazing to us
the people who come to talk with
our volunteers who have
never been to the park, yet
we have been in Ogden for
over 19 years.” It is im-
portant to recognize that
even though not every stu-
dent at the Fair will volun-
teer, almost all leave with
a heightened awareness of
the organizations they encounter.
Such interactions can lead to un-
foreseen benefits in the future.
Unless students
have had previ-
ous experience
with your organi-
zation, it is likely
that they are una-
ware of your role
in the communi-
ty. The Volunteer
Fair is“...a great
opportunity to
show off what
[non-profits] have to offer”, says
Maggie. For this reason, the Vol-
unteer Fair is as much about har-
vesting volunteers as it is about
planting seeds for future volun-
teers, donors, and advocates.
Volunteer Fairs occur twice a
year at the beginning of each WSU
semester—once in September and
once in January. Students want to
know where they are serving dur-
ing the semester so there is no
better time to find student volun-
teers. While taking a morning
away from the office can be a sac-
rifice, Linda Larsen suggests that it
is worth the time. “Not coming to
a Volunteer Fair would be a huge
mistake for any non-profit or any-
one want to make a difference in
the world.”
Representatives interact with waves of
motivated students
Ready...Go!
“Not coming to a Volunteer
Fair would be a huge
mistake for any non-profit…”
-Linda Larsen, Operation Adopt-A-Ghost