7th Graders can be Hard Workers!

What happens when you give a group of over 200 eager 7th graders gloves and trash bags and set them loose on their beautiful campus?

You get one heck of a cleanup that's for sure!

Today I spent my morning at Martin Middle School in East Providence with the excellent 7th graders.

Inspired to conduct a cleanup on their campus after taking part in a Save The Bay Explore The Bay Education Program, we worked to find a time when we could get the kids out and involved in their campus community.

The school grounds are beautiful.  Vast fields, wooded areas, and a beautiful river and paths to walk.  One of the most beautiful locations I've been to in a while that wasn't a beach!

The students had a little over 1 hour to collect as much trash as they could.

They came in blazing with a full sized mattress being the first item that was dragged from the woods (approx. 100 pounds).  Another group found a giant stuffed teddy bear (similar to what you'd win at a carnival) weighing in at approx. 30 pounds.  Then came the old scooters, tires, a rusted trash can, and an old lawnmower.   That combined with the everyday trash - whew! What a pile!

The students collected 834 pounds of trash - in an hour.

Excellent job students.  Thank you to everyone who participated and helped in this excellent cleanup!

Volunteering and Television

Are you an avid TV watcher? It's OK to admit it - I am too. 

Well next week, some of your favorite shows will be featuring themes around volunteering and community service.

More than 90 primetime shows on ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox and several cable channels will be highlighting volunteering next week in their episodes as part of iParticipate.  iParticipate is a national initiative of the Entertainment Industry Foundation that will show the ways that individuals can help their neighbors.

The hope of this campaign is that the story lines on volunteering will reach the millions of viewers tuning in and help generate more interest in volunteering in their local communities and neighborhoods. 

So check out your favorite shows, see if they took part in the iParticipate campaign.  Then log on to the Save The Bay website or any of the other links on the left column to find service opportunities in your area!

Sure, Winter is Coming...

But there's still work to be done!

Join us for any of the upcoming volunteer opportunities with Save The Bay.

Buffer Planting at Save The Bay, October 22nd

Beach Cleanup at Barrington Town Beach, November 7th

Beach Cleanup at Grinnell Beach, Tiverton, November 8th

We hope to see you soon at one of our events!

Save The Bay Volunteering... By the Numbers

As Volunteer Manager, I get asked on a weekly basis about the stastics of our volunteer program.  From staff, other volunteers and people that I meet with at other organizations. Everytime I give a lecture or presentation at a conference, one of the first questions is "what are your numbers?".  Everyone wants to know what your numbers are when you manage a volunteer program.

Numbers and data represent "the health" of your program in the world of volunteer management.  The more volunteers, the stronger your program and the more networking opportunities you have with individuals to become potential members and donors to the organization.

However, any volunteer manager I've met would tell you that "the health" of their program should not be solely based upon the number of individuals who contribute their time. Sure, numbers are great and look good on paper - but the numbers are not always an accurate representation of your program.

Some organizations are small and have a limited capacity for volunteers. Yet their volunteers are reliable, helpful and give hundreds of hours of service a year to their organization.  I would call that a good program! 

Other organizations are large and have a variety of opportunities year round to offer to their volunteers, yet some people may come only once to help out, while a handful of really helpful, reliable individuals give countless hours to the organization in a variety of capacities.  I would call that a good program as well!

Save The Bay's Volunteer Program falls within the second category of organizations mentioned above.  We have a lot of opportunities to offer throughout the year.  Some people join us only once for a cleanup or specific project.  Then there are those volunteers for Save The Bay that come out to countless projects and give multiple hours a year to the organization.  I consider both of these types of volunteers incredibly valuable to our programs.

I think that the way we have our Volunteer Program set up at Save The Bay really helps us to reach out to more individuals and to get them participating in our programs.  We don't have an hour commitment you have to give to volunteer.  You volunteer for the projects we have listed that best suit your schedule and interest.  That's it - you give what you can - and we appreciate every minute!  See - we're so flexbile!

So, if we had to actually look at the numbers, how does Save The Bay stack up?

Last Fiscal Year (July 1, 2008 - June 30, 2009) Stats:
1,498 volunteers gave over 8,800 hours of service to the organization.

So KUDOS Volunteers!! You deserve it!