From Club Member to Volunteer

Learning how to go from club member to volunteer one event at a time. 

Do good day happened for me twice this month with Boys and Girls Club of Central Florida. The first opportunity was my photography class at the Taft Branch. I think the word that sums it up the best is "nervous."  I was nervous, my teens were nervous, we were all nervous.  I have five teens participating in this class, most of whom I have known for many years. They were trying to be respectful but still learning how to see me as a volunteer, and I was trying to lead them while still trying to figure out how to take on this new role.  We ended up going out on a 10 minute “field trip” photographing around the club, inside and out. Sitting in a room is not the way to learn about taking pictures, it's about experience. Giving the teens this opportunity seemed to loosen everyone up, and when we came back, I was able to understand what they wanted learn more about.  I used the time to learn a little bit about Osmo and learn how to take selfies with him like this one.

I showed Ms. Anna, the Service Director of the Taft Branch the selfie mode on Osmo.

I’m really happy about how the class went.  It is honestly just really cool to give these teens who have an interest in digital art a place to talk and ask questions about it.  I wish I would have had this as a club member, but during my time at the club there wasn’t a lot of interest in this area yet.  Now times are changing and there is interest, I am glad I can help facilitate it. 

The second event I volunteered at was their annual Celebrate the Children Fundraising Event.  Celebrate is the one time a year everyone gets together, and I mean everyone. You have about 1,000 club kids dressing up and engaging with donors. You have donors, old and new, coming back to this event or coming for the first time. There is a silent auction before the dinner event and entertainment put on by the club members, and the keynote speaker is the Boys and Girls Clubs of Central Florida Youth of the Year. The event is to celebrate the members of this organization and all that they can and will do today and into the future. This was my first year volunteering instead of attending as a club member. My job was to help Ms. Martha, a staff at the Tupperware Branch (who, fun fact, used to be a staff member at my branch when I was six years old) with the green screen Photo Booth-something most of the Macbethians are familiar with, I’m sure. It was a fun time to take what I had learned from Macbeth Studio and apply it to an event I have been familiar with. 

The calm before the storm.  Setting up for all the donors and club members who will be dinning here tonight.

I’m really thankful to have these opportunities to come back to Boys and Girls Clubs of Central Florida.  And I can’t wait to do more.  Tah tah for now. Next time I'll be discussing class number two with my teens.