STAND UP, STEP FORWARD: Volunteers in our Community
Welcome to Save The Bay’s Volunteer Blog where you’ll discover the impact Save The Bay volunteers have in your community, and learn about volunteering trends around the country.
2012 marked the longest cleanup season we have ever had at Save The Bay - thanks in part to Hurricane Sandy. Our final cleanup, on December 1, was over a month and a half later than we typically host cleanups. It was bitter cold and something was falling from the sky, but we couldn't really tell what! And even on December 1, in the cold, wind and rain/snow/sleet over 100 volunteers came out to help us clean up storm debris from Easton's Beach. Cleanups are the heart and soul of our volunteer program. More volunteers contribute time to our cleanup program than any other program at the organization.
Volunteers from as young as 6 and all the way up to their 80's come out to help us ensure our beaches and coastal ways are kept safe, clean, and beautiful for everyone to enjoy. They work when it's freezing cold, rainy, snowy, windy, hot, humid, or sometimes - just right. They come for a half hour, or stay for 2-3. They pick up trash - everything you can possibly imagine - and schlep it, sometimes for quite a distance. They may leave as clean as when they arrived, or with a few scrapes. They come to work with their friends and family, and many times meet new people during the process. And they pick up LOTS of trash. Ridiculous amounts of trash. More trash than you or I could ever imagine making at our homes in a year.
Volunteers deliver trash at a rainy cleanup at Goddard Park
This. This is what cleanups are made of. Hardy volunteers who care an awful lot about the work we do!
In
2012 Save The Bay hosted 34 cleanup, engaging
1,505 volunteers and removing 21,441 lbs. of debris from the coastline. The cleanups where we picked
up the most debris were: 4/14/12 - Field's Point, Providence - STB Earth Day - 2,396 lbs. 4/15/12 - Rocky Point, Warwick - 1,625 lbs. 4/28/12 - Waterplace Park, Providence - With Waterfire - 3,120 lbs. 10/13/12 - Rocky Point Cleanup, Warwick - 1,219 lbs. 11/23/12 - Rocky Point Post Sandy Cleanup, Warwick - 2,364 lbs. 12/1/12 - Easton's Beach Post Sandy Cleanup, Newport - 1,073 lbs.
And the cleanups where we
engaged the most volunteers were: 4/14/12 - Field's Point, Providence - STB Earth Day - 166 volunteers 4/15/12 - Rocky Point, Warwick - 113 volunteers 11/12/12 - Barrington Town Beach - 121 volunteers 12/1/12 - Easton's Beach Post Sandy Cleanup, Newport - 110 volunteers
How does this compare to
previous years?
#
volunteers is up 32% from 2011 (we offered only 30 cleanups in 2011)
%
of debris was up 5% from 2011 (again, we had more cleanups and the cleanups
after hurricane Sandy)
7 Year Cleanup Leader Marc at Rocky Point
Thank you to everyone who participated in a cleanup during the 2012 season. The 2013 cleanups for Earth Day are now listed on our site. Please take a moment to check out the schedule and see if you can join us. We are also recruiting new cleanup leaders for this season - as our numbers of leaders have dwindled. Please consider supporting the program by helping us to host and lead a couple of cleanups throughout the 2013 season! We'd love to have you on our team!
And don't forget to visit Keep RI Clean to join other groups in the area who are also hosting cleanups!
Rhode Island Resource Recovery just released this wonderful video, showing the step by step process of how the new recycling system works in the state.
It's very visual, has up beat music, and great information. I encourage you to watch with your families!
As of July 1, Save The Bay has become a certifying organization for volunteers who wish to participate in the Presidential Volunteer Service Award program. However, I keep getting the question, "Stephany, what IS the Presidential Volunteer Service Award and why should I do this?"
The Presidential Volunteer Service Award (let's call it the PVSA from now on!) is issued by the President's Council on Service and Civic Participation on behalf of the President of the United States. The award is given to individuals who are helping to improve their communities through volunteer service and civic participation.
To earn an award, individuals, families and groups must keep a record of volunteer activities and hours served on the record you created on the PVSA site or as a diary or calendar. Each volunteer must submit a record of service to Save The Bay - your local certifying organization. We will review and verify the hours and then distribute the awards based on the total number of hours you have contributed to your community by June 30, 2013.
Here are some questions I've been getting quite a bit:
1. What's the website to participate and register? www.presidentialserviceawards.gov
2. Do I only count my hours of service at Save The Bay? NO! You can count your hours of service to any organization in the area. We do ask that a portion be with us at Save The Bay, but we will consider all of your hours of service for the award.
3. What is the award? Award recipients will receive a letter from the President, a certificate, and either a bronze, silver or gold pin.
4. How many hours do I have to give to get an award? The PVSA has a breakdown of hours you have to give in order to qualify for either the bronze, silver or gold level.
Kids - 14 and younger
Bronze Award 50 - 74 hours
Silver Award 75 - 99 hours
Gold Award 100 or more hours
Adults - Ages 26 and up
Bronze Award 100 - 249 hours
Silver Award 250 - 499 hours
Gold Award 500 or more hours
Young Adults - Ages 15 - 25
Bronze Award 100-174 hours
Silver Award 175 - 249 hours
Gold Award 250 or more hours
Families and Groups (two or more people)*
Bronze Award 200 - 499 hours
Silver Award 500 - 999 hours
Gold Award 1,000 or more hours
*Each member contributing at least 25 hours towards the total
5. How long do I have to complete the hours to get an award? Our service year at Save The Bay will be from July 1 - June 30. You have that 12 month period to perform community service hours and enter them in to the system or turn them in to us.
6. Do you already have people registered to do this? YES! We have 4 people so far registered on the PVSA site with Save The Bay. One has already qualified for a bronze award and one a silver. See - it's not hard! Time adds up quickly!
7. What's the benefit of doing this program? The benefit is really for your recognition. It's a great thing to tell your school, teachers, and perspective employers that you have received this award. It shows you are an individual dedicated to your community and service.
If this is a program you would like to participate in, please register on the website and notify me that you are enrolling. You will need Save The Bay's key code to link to our program. Once you are registered on the site, I'll give you the code!
This is a question I ask our volunteers quite a bit at Save The Bay.
The answers are always fantastic.
"I volunteer because I like to go to the beach and want a clean and healthy Bay to swim in."
"I volunteer to show my kids the importance of having a clean environment."
"I volunteer because I believe in the work you do."
"I volunteer because it's a way to put my skills to use."
"Volunteering gives me the chance to meet new people and learn new skills."
"I love getting out in the field and getting dirty."
Now Volunteer Match is offering a contest for you to enter! Go over to their Facebook Page or Pintrest page and upload of photo of you volunteering with a sentence about why you volunteer. Be sure to include #WhyIVolunteerPhotoContest! If you receive the most likes, you and the organization you're volunteering with (maybe Save The Bay) can be entered to win some great prizes.
Learn more about this great Photo Contest and get involved today!
80% of marine debris comes from inland and only 10% is what is left at coastal areas or released by fishing vessels?
I wasn't aware of these statistics until I watched this piece from Surfrider Europe.
Take a moment to watch this great video and share it with your friends. Then make a date to join us for a cleanup or pick up trash while you're on a walk this summer in your neighborhood. Help us Keep Rhode Island Clean!
This past weekend, Save The Bay kicked off our 2012 Cleanup Season and Earth Day. We hosted 6 cleanups during the extended weekend - Providence, Westerly, Bristol, Newport, Conimicut and Rocky Point - and once again were amazed at the incredible turnout from our loyal volunteers and the amount of debris we found!
Some quick numbers for you from the past weekend.
Providence - 166 Volunteers & 2,396 lbs. of debris
Newport - 51 Volunteers & 669 lbs. of debris
Bristol - 38 Volunteers & 813 lbs. of debris
Westerly -55 Volunteers & 989 lbs. of debris
Rocky Point - 113 Volunteers & 1,625 lbs. of debris
Conimicut - 25 Volunteers & 208 lbs. of debris
Some of the crazy items we found:
2 surf boards, a life boat, a shopping cart, an outdoor dining set, interior card door panel, a vat of cooking oil, a propane tank and of course all of the regular small debris.
Thank you to everyone that came out to participate in our earth day cleanups - all 448 of you. Your help ensured that we were able to remove 6,700 lbs. of trash from our coastlines this past weekend.
Missed our cleanups last weekend? Join us in the coming weeks - see what we have going on! Can't make it to one of our cleanups? Visit www.keepriclean.org to see what's happening with other groups in the rest of the state!
How old were you when you first started volunteering? Do you even remember volunteering as a child? Was it required by your school or did you volunteer with your family? Ponder these questions while you read.
I first volunteered when I was 11 years old. I helped at my town's 4th of July Parade by spinning cotton candy - and I continued to do that through my high school years. Yes, I am a cotton candy spinning pro and should my non-profit career not workout, I can easily snag a job with the circus. (Mom always told me to have a backup plan!).
As I got older, my volunteering shifted from spinning cotton candy once a year to getting involved with my schools and community, volunteering for different events and programs. Once high school rolled around, I was at a school where community service was a requirement - 20 hours a semester. Add on an additional 30 hours a year if you did Service Club and tack on additional 20 a year if you were in National Honor Society. And of course I had to participate in those things as well most of my time at the school. If I think back, I probably completed between 300 and 400 hours of community service during my time in High School. Hmmm.... the volunteer manager in me is upset I didn't keep a record of how many hours I volunteered to know that stat now. Moving On...
I spent my evenings, weekends and vacation weeks honoring my commitments to service. I taught music lessons at my old junior high and I directed the beginner's band when necessary. I volunteered at our local Children's Museum doing everything from being a costumed character, managing birthday parties and eventually working in the children's library stocking shelves, checking out books and hosting story times. At the time, I enjoyed all of the things I was doing to help (OK, maybe not wearing giant costumes and animal heads or kids throwing birthday cake at me and dumping red punch on me, but I digress), but I still saw it as a "requirement" in order to graduate.
Once college rolled around, I continued to volunteer in my new community. I volunteered in the dorms, for student councils, and at organizations throughout the city. Volunteering in college was not a requirement for me, yet I naturally felt drawn to participate in these areas. I don't know if it was a natural need I had to be engaged, a desire to be helpful, or I was just looking for something to take my mind off of being homesick, but I continued to volunteer for all 4 years at college. By the time my senior year rolled around, I was so enamored with living off campus, trying to wrap things up to graduate and job searching that my volunteering commitments went from a plethora to one (and one that I really wasn't that engaged in either). And I still remember, over 10 years later, feeling as if I had a void in my life during my senior year at college - I just always felt something was missing but couldn't figure it out. My now adult self can pinpoint that void was from not feeling connected and helpful to people and my community.
After college, it was not until I moved to Rhode Island that I picked up with volunteering again. But now, as a young adult, volunteering took on a whole new meaning. I wasn't being asked to volunteer. Volunteering wasn't something I needed on a resume. But it was a way for me to meet people, gain experiences, and give back to this new community I was living in. When I moved here, I had a natural pull to be volunteering. I needed it in my life. Ten years later, I'm still volunteering in Rhode Island, more now than ever.
As a volunteer manager, much of my time is spent finding ways to engage youth and families in volunteering. I recently read a statistic from a 1993 study (yes, outdated, I know) that the earlier children are involved in volunteering, the higher the chances are of them continuing to volunteer in adolescence and adulthood. The study suggested that while many organizations encourage children ages 14-18 to volunteer, they really should be targeting those around the ages of 10-11 or younger to "reduce the erosion in service values and behaviors" (Benson & Roehlkepartain, 1993). This means, if you can get your child volunteering by the age of 10, there's a higher likelihood that the values they gain from volunteering will be instilled within them as they develop in to teens and adults and a higher chance of them continuing to volunteer as an adult.
I am a big proponent for families volunteering together. While some of our projects at Save The Bay need to have an age requirement on them, I still encourage families to participate as a team in any project they meet the requirements for. Volunteering with your children is a great way to create family traditions and memories. Spending time engaged with your children giving back to your community provides the chance for you to learn and grow together as individuals. It's a chance for you to bond with your child in a new way and to have something different to talk about at the family dinner table than work and school. Volunteering with your children helps them learn responsibility for their commitments, their community and others. It allows them the chance to learn outside of the classroom and discover the world with a fresh set of eyes.
There are countless ways to begin volunteering as a family or to engage your children in volunteering. You can start by talking about volunteering and giving back, choosing options as a family to participate in. You can let each child take a turn choosing a project they want to participate in. Talk about what their classmates do with their families, what your friend's families do, what you did as a child. This is the perfect time to talk with your children about how you became engaged with volunteering when "you were their age". And if you couldn't answer any of the questions at the start of this post, then now is the PERFECT time for you to begin your volunteering adventure along with your children, so they can learn the life-long importance of giving back to their community.
Generation On, a fantastic resources for youth and family volunteering, released this video about kids volunteering. It's short, sweet and to the point. Watch it with your kids. Do any of the projects these youth identified in the video sound interesting to your child? Ask them. Then get on the plethora of websites out there to find an opportunity in your area that will engage your children and family. Then go out and volunteer, and keep volunteering. Even when life gets busy and you think there's just no time to be volunteering, there is. Carve out a niche of time in your family schedule and physically write it on the calendar - a weekend morning or afternoon, a weekday night, a day during vacation weeks, one day a month - and commit to it. To a nonprofit organization, it may not matter how much time you can give every month, but the time you can dedicate can mean so much to their mission, programs, constituents and work.
