It would be an understatement to say that our community has been itching to give back. For the past two years the staff has been inundated with volunteer inquiries from people looking to get involved, and we needed a way to channel all of their energy and enthusiasm into something meaningful. Fortunately, more relaxed COVID guidelines and spring’s arrival lined up beautifully to make this possible for us.
With a lot of nervous preparation and anticipation, we presented National Volunteer Month to our community. And the response was overwhelmingly positive!
Over 6 individual service days in April, volunteers cleaned, organized, and polished our facilities in preparation for summer. We tackled the Donation Center, which the staff lovingly used to call the “den of chaos,” we assembled new furniture for the community center, and we spent some time in the sun cleaning up the outdoor space at the Youth Emergency Center. For the first time, we also hosted a Family Service Day, where people under the age of 18 could sign up to volunteer with us.
OUTMemphis also spent a day serving at My Sistah’s House, one of our close community partners. Volunteers helped tend to the garden beds, clean up debris around the neighborhood, and prepped survival kits for MSH participants.
By the end of April, we were ready for a party. With the opening of our facilities on the horizon, we thought what better way to celebrate everyone’s hard work than by hosting the volunteer appreciation party at our community center? On the evening of April 30th, OUTMemphis staff came together to applaud the coming together of our community, the continued support of our volunteers, and the next chapter for OUTMemphis. We also recognized some of the volunteers and interns whose work has been exceptional these past few months.
None of our work this month, however, would’ve been possible without the partnership, support, and collaboration of each one of our volunteers. We hope that this next chapter brings even more family-oriented service opportunities, collaborative partnerships across organizations, and community-driven volunteer projects.
See you for next year’s volunteer month!
Anu
Anu Iyer
Volunteer Coordinator
Pronouns: She/Her/Hers They/Them/Theirs
