phyllis darling

Our celebrity readers program is coming along nicely. Prominent members of the community seem honored to be asked and happy to participate.

Apparently, it's not all about me....

I considered composing my blog solely of quotes from other VISTA’s submissions in the past few weeks. I hit the proverbial wall a month ago when I realized that I was simply cheap labor to get the job done. Not to provide “sustainability” or “capacity building” but to mindlessly punch keys and answer phones - setting the needle on the record for the thousandth time. Sometimes I have to hold hands, yell to be heard. I’m used and taken advantage of – none of which is on my VAD.

With a background in education, I’m an advocate of ‘process over product’. I often can’t find the point in completing a task if I’m not able to see the reason behind getting it done. I need the lesson learned, the knowledge gained, the relationships built, I need the process. My VISTA term has successfully broken me of this. It’s not about MY process, in fact, the only way it’s about me at all is balancing my idealism and the reality of the situation.

There’s a lack of instant gratification in indirect service that is incompatible with my personality, but it’s not about my voice being heard. I’m not a servant of my sponsoring organization or “The Corporation”, I’m a servant of my students.

The students that have volunteered 1168 hours with us since September, the students that raised and spent close to $3000 to provide school supplies, first-day outfits, full Thanksgiving meals, and Christmas dinners and gifts to 10 families in the county, and the students that are constant advocates and supporters of the program.

It’s these highly-motivated students, but it’s also the student that calls me in May because they need those 10 hours of community service, not because of their altruistic nature or acceptance of their role as a responsible citizen, but because they want to graduate, but those 10 hours is work getting done. It’s a non-profit, who relies on volunteers, now having the ability to remain open for one more day.

This isn’t to be read as a ‘do it for the kids’ inspiration, but instead as the reason that I’ve nullified my VAD, ignored the handbook full of my rights and responsibilities as a VISTA, and signed up for a second term.

Peace Keepers- A Peer Mediation Program

This month the North Olympic Youth Corps was awarded a grant from the Port Angeles Education Foundation to implement a peer mediation program within Port Angeles High School. The volunteer center collaborated with local attorneys, mental health consolers, and the high school faculty members to jump start this program. In February, Peace Keepers-A Peer Mediation Program, will train 20-30 student volunteers to act as mediators within their school. 2010 will be an exciting year for the Youth Corps!

Taylor Schraudner
North Olympic Youth Corps Coordinator
North Olympic Volunteer Center

Hmmm...

I'm eight months into my VISTA service, and to be honest, I'm hitting a wall. Hard.

It's getting more and more difficult for me to remember why I even signed up for VISTA in the first place. I thought I would be "working to end poverty"; instead, I set up volunteer opportunities for people who mostly make way more money than me. So I'm living at poverty level because...? I guess our volunteers have some projects with organizations that work on issues of poverty, but I'm mostly removed from that, other than getting emails and occasionally going on projects.

So I need some motivation. Seriously. Right now I'm just trying to finish so I can put it on my resume and get my Ed award, but I wonder what I'll feel when I look back on this year. I already regret not having taken a more direct service Americorps job where I felt like I was actually doing something. I've definitely learned that sitting in front of a computer all day is not for me, not even if it's for a good cause. Exchanging emails in a windowless office is not a particularly fufilling occupation.

These are issues I've struggled with my entire term, but now I feel more them even more strongly because it seems too far along in my term of service to stop now.

Thoughts? Ideas? Inspirational quotes? Why are you a VISTA? Why are you still a VISTA? I don't mean to sound like a whinypants, really. I could just use some words of wisdom right now. At least it's almost winter break...

Kym, Seattle Works

Stew for the Soul

Being capacity builders, it isn't often that we get to go out and be involved with direct service. But last week I took the opportunity to get out of the office and experience one of our program areas as a project coordinator for Operation Sack Lunch. I joined five others for a day of cooking and serving a beef stew lunch for the homeless. It felt great to be in a kitchen for most of the day, slicing, dicing, and stirring.

Lunch smelled tasty, and as half of use served the line at the shelter, the other half packed up the rest of the food to serve outside. The experience was good reminder of what the face of homelessness actually looks like, and that many of those who we served didn't look like what most people would expect.

After all the thank-you's, when I headed back to the office, I was feeling refreshed, rejuvenated and ready for the next couple weeks.

Walk and Knock Turns 25

On the day I saw my breath, more than anything else, this internal wind was overwhelmed by the width and breadth of the kindness that surrounded me. Not just kindness, but selfless compassion. My second VISTA term has brought about a few worthy service sequels. However, none has compared to Clark County's Walk and Knock. It was the twenty-fifth anniversary and the need was, and is, far greater this year then ever before. To make this one truly spectacular, we started planning months in advance. As I had been of a particular help with recruiting youth and families last year, the planning committee asked me to participate in this way again. I attended meetings and also offered this event up to numerous high school and college volunteer fairs. The response was truly gratifying. Everyone seemed to see the urgent necessity for Walk and Knock 2009! All I could do now was hold my breath that the turn out would reflect the intent I had witnessed. December 5th, 2009. Has it left your mind yet? I doubt it. The cold slowly sunk into our skin as a few of us waited for a ride and wondered how long we were going to be outside. As it happens, last year I walked and knocked, picking up bags of food enough to fill two cars! I got a glimpse of the aftermath this year. We were taken directly to the boxing portion, where car after car dropped off literally loads of food and we stuffed the boxes full of both nutritional nourishment and macaroni and cheese! Not that I hold anything against this delicious dish! It is probably the most given item of food at Walk and Knock, from my experience . All the boxes were loaded onto a gigantic truck, the kind you see cars loaded in, to be transported to our very own, Clark County Food Bank! I observed teams of every age work as efficiently as I imagine they would in a factory. We had just the right amount of people and I breathed a very cold sigh of relief. Special shout out to the Hudson's Bay Key Club! What a tremendous job you all did! In fact, this is them in the photographs that accompany this story. Such a well run, committed and consequential cause lets me know that working together, we can make sure that our neighbors have what they need.

Family Volunteer Day, what a way to end it!

My term is ending a few short days. My last big duty was to plan Family Volunteer Day. This was the first year our volunteer center had done anything for Family Volunteer Day. That should not be a surprise since we are celebrating our 2 year anniversary this month. What was a surprise was that we managed to pull off 3 projects in one day!

The event was held in the YMCA's gym and had different stations for the projects. The projects were: fleece blankets for children and babies in low income families, holiday cards for veterans, and dog toys for shelter animals. Turn out could have been better, but it was the first nice day of weather after 2 weeks of storms and a Saturday.

We ended up with 47 blankets, 20 cards that passed inspection, and 22 dog toys. A few tips: for the blankets- have the fabric store cut them to legnth, cards- train your leaders to be hawks about what goes inside the card, dog toy- get a rotary cutter to cut the sheets in to strips or you'll hand will be killing you (don't ask).

A quick note: I had a great time this year and I really loved hanging out with you guys at the IST's. I wish you guys all the best.

Reading to English Language Learners

I had never realized until I started visiting the preschools and childcare centers that our volunteers read at just how many small children there are in King County who don't speak english. This is even the case in more suburban areas where one might not think to look for especially diverse classrooms. At one head start site that we visited for instance, fourteen out of the twenty children enrolled in the program were native Spanish Speakers. We have also found programs that have found it useful to offer their own bilingual educator to help english learners fit in and to have someone to talk to. This begs the question though, what happens when kids don't have someone to speak to them in their own language?

This thought worries me more and more the more that I think about what these kids go through on a day to day basis. Not only are they learning an entirely new language with little or no help from adults at home, but they're also attempting to do this at the same time that they are developing their native language skills. It is widely thought that children are able to pick up a new language in the blink of an eye, but through the research I've done on the subject for my volunteers, I've found that it can take years for english language learners to catch up to their peers both academically and socially. One little boy that I worked with was in what they call the "quiet stage" of language development. Because he didn't have the basic words needed for classroom survival he remained silent, unable to communiate with his classmates or to take away all that he could from the learning opportunities going on around him. This is why I believe so strongly in the volunteer reader program. Yes it's helpful in developing the cognitive abilities of children who are native english speakers, but it also gives english learners the chance to interact one on one with someone who has nothing but time to listen, even if this involves nothing more than gestures and looking at pictures. It gives kids a chance to hear english spoken in a non-threatening environment, while at the same time providing another supportive adult relationship.

Thanksgiving Holiday Meals

Thanksgiving Meals project was a run to the finish. The organizer had 2 weeks to get over 30 drivers to deliver over 100 meals to houses in Mason and Thurston counties. Routes had to be mapped, food had to be made, volunteers recruited, decorations gathered… and all in a short amount of time. Maria, the project lead, pulled it off in the short time she was given and no one on our route went without a Thanksgiving meal this year.

Probably the most interesting aspect for me was the variety of people who came to prepare the meals and drive. I videoed them as they talked about how long they have been doing Holiday Meals and why they volunteer. We had mothers delivering meal with their children, friends delivering meals together, singles wanting to help. The reason of why was usually similar among all generations and types, “Because no one should go without food, especially during the holidays.” It seems a concern for the hungry transcends generational, class, lifestyles, and racial gaps. All people were just there to help.

I was impressed with how everyone in at VCW pulled together and took part in this project, even though we all have so many other things going on at this time of year. Where there was a gap in the project, it was quickly filled. I think the team effort to accomplish this was impressive and I think Christmas Holiday Meals will come together with the same life and tenacity.

Alena Swanson, VCW VISTA Leader
Volunteer Center's of Washington

Term Ending

I have decided to end my term early. Working with United Way of Pierce County and the Volunteer Centers of Washington has been an enriching experience and I appreciate all of the people I have met and the knowledge I have gained. The opportunity has presented itself to live in California where I can more readily pursue my goal of working in the public health field. I have enjoyed my months of service, although they have not been the easiest, and am considering continuing being a VISTA in the future. I have enjoyed meeting and spending time with all of you and wish you all the best with the rest of your terms.

winter clothes

Last week the North Olympic Youth Corps (NOYC) started the final phase of the Clallam County Winter Clothing drive. We met in the rec-room at the AmeriCorps house with several community members to sort and inventory donations. We spent several hours (music blasting) organizing community donations including: coats, hats, gloves, snow pants, and baby clothes. It was amazing how many donations there were! Despite the touch economy the Port Angeles community came together to help their neighbors in need. A big thank you to the NOYC members for all their hard work and everyone who donated!


Taylor Schraudner
North Olympic Volunteer Center

Season of Caring

For the past month, the Volunteer Center at UWP has been taken over my Season of Caring. SOC, as it is referred to in the office, is a seasonal program where companies, families, and individuals can “adopt” a family for the holiday season by providing them Thanksgiving dinner, Christmas presents and dinner, or both. Community members can also participate in Giving Trees to give presents to kids that might not get much otherwise.

My task within SOC is entering families’ information and then matching them with sponsors. This has been an eye-opening and rewarding experience. Having to read about each families situation and why they can’t provide for their families is depressing, but knowing that they are going to be taken care of by their sponsor and knowing that they will be taken care of this holiday season is heartening. Many of the families we see are immigrants, disabled or have special needs children, or teen pregnancy. This economy has not helped anyone’s situation, but luckily sponsors and ready and willing to help out for those with little to no resources.

Real Heroes

On Veteran's Day, our AmeriCorps Vista team had the privilege of helping the Olympic Peninsula Red Cross present its Real Heroes Awards. Ordinary people from around the Peninsula were honored for extraordinary acts of heroism as the community gathered to hear of their exploits in saving lives and saving communities. The team had a wonderful time and a great deal of satisfaction for helping out.

PEACE AND JUSTICE FOR ALL

Peace and Justice shouts to be heard. Amidst the constant confusion and noise, the message of understanding and fairness must be given voice. This voice, large or small, soft or loud, I feel needs to be listened to with all the temperance we can manage. Partnering with PeaceJam and the Peace and Justice Fair, this year was a privilege and blessing. I breathed in the hopeful air and laid out all our student designed t-shirts, posters and stationary to celebrate peace and support PeaceJam participants.


We even hung a poster on a nearby tree to add to the three dimensionality of our meaningful and beautiful products. With all our student designs displayed for the public in all their glory, I was thrilled to be able to introduce our new on-line Project Service Leadership Store! Although there were about half the population that we had last year, I was able to absorb invaluable feedback on the products and store forum from a varied demographic. My volunteers graciously greeted our guests and welcomed them to learn about PeaceJam, AmeriCorps VISTA, Volunteer Connections and Project Service Leadership. Reciprocally, we listened to their stories and showed our appreciation for the future.

On the other side of the stage from where music emanated and filled the entire no-boundaries of Esther Short Park, my "soldiers for a day" were able to successfully represent an Israeli Check Point for those passers-by who had never had that experience. This unique opportunity generated buzz to say the least! What were these people doing in uniforms and faces ready and willing to stop me from moving forward? The director of the event praised their performance and wants to continue with similar possibilities! I was so grateful that the introductions and instructions were orchestrated so well and that the effort was worthwhile! The highest compliment cam from a Veteran who reported back to me that these simulated soldiers were very convincing! He further thanked me, which I immediatly returned the gratitude. I felt the peace penetrate the pores of even the passers by. With eyes opening one at a time, justice can't be far behind!

Adventures in ResourceSpace

Introduction to ResourceSpace

One disadvantage non-profits have, other than a huge battle for funds, is that they have fallen behind the times.

We live in a time where the not-so random numbers of 1 and 0, can save nearly countless hours, and costs on paper: however, I’ve seen few people in the non-profit world using this theory to their advantage. Take databases for example. Nearly every organization wants one, or has one, but few know that they could pull info such as names and emails out of them to use in a mass mailing with a few mouse clicks.

Today I am writing about a particular way non-profits can catch up in the category of media sharing. I’ve heard many times about the holy grail that non-profits seek-- a huge internet sharing of resources such as: volunteer opportunities, forms, names, solutions, videos, pictures, and more. It’s also been mentioned that it would be great to have this holy grail integrate with other systems or software such as office programs. Yet when it comes down to it no one has really made it. Sure there are sites out there that accomplish part of the tasks, such as 1-800-volunteer.org, but they cost money and many senior volunteers and non-profits find them confusing to use. (Personally I dislike 1-800 volunteer for several reasons, but chief among them, that their goal is to promote themselves more than the opportunities. The entire design of their web page seems based on that. Wholly they also broke the rule on keeping it simple for the users.) To actually build one though would take a lot of time and energy, luckily there is such a thing as open source software.

Many people have direct or indirectly heard of Open Source Software before, for those who haven’t essentially the software is free, some might have a few more strings attached to it than that, but not really. The normal conclusion to jump to when people hear of free software is that the software is a scam, fake, or not as good as something you could purchase. I am inclined to agree that lots of software on the internet can be bad, fake, and not as good as something someone can purchase, but there are some beautiful gems in this weird software world that rivals or conquers software that costs big bucks. A good example of some of the best open source software on the web is PHP and MYSQL. These two programs/languages can literally make the holy grail come true if someone took enough time to play with them (1-800 volunteer is built with PHP and MySQL). These two pieces of software are used by professional businesses all around the internet to create dynamic websites. Much of the internet runs on Linux servers, and Linux is an Open Source Software! Without diving into too may Open Source Software programs that are really great, the one I will be discussing is a Data Access Management System (DAM) called ResourceSpace.

A DAM is often confused with a Content Management System (CMS). A CMS is normally a database that controls the content of something such as a website. A website CMS through database tables controls users, pages, who sees what, forms, saving information. Most CMS’s have a relatively simple Graphical User Interface GUI. A GUI is a series of pictures or texts that a user can click on to accomplish a task, much like the wizards in Windows. The GUI of most web-based CMS’s use their GUI to give people managing the CMS website the ability to manage: the site pages, its users, and content without, knowing any of the web programming languages that make up that website (however knowing a few definitely helps—A lot). A DAM is like the super hero of Content Management Systems. DAMs are advanced CMS’s focused on controlling data with a particular purpose, and sharing that data.

ResourceSpace is a DAM focused on cataloging and sharing media data such as pictures, PSD files, PDF’s, Office Documents, Videos, 3d Files, and more. It allows selected users to upload content, download content, edit content, sort content, and categorize content. The software itself has been used in the production capacity, or more specifically as a pipeline to share parts of a project. Simply this piece of software can be one part of the holy grail of sharing. The software is free, but finding the right place to put it on the internet, is not so free.

Sure there are free hosts out there such as byethost.com, that offer a basic free hosting package, but with most hosts there are bandwidth, space, and some security restrictions to consider. Having a website where people upload videos can take up all a websites normal allotted bandwidth and disk-space. It’s best to consider finding a webhost that offers unlimited bandwidth, and diskspace, or at least a large enough amount for the materials you may have.

Where to Get ResourceSpace, and what are its requirements?

The Resource Space software itself can be obtained freely from their website(http://www.resroucespace.org/) , but the software is not what most people expect, especially for computers running. The software itself is essentially a prebuilt website that requires third party software normally located on web servers in order to operate properly. When you initially download ResourceSpace it will be a zipped folder.

The zipped folder itself is composed of additional folders, sub folders, and text files that have the ending extension.php. Trying to open these individual files in your web browser will only result in confusing it. As mentioned before ResourceSpace normally requires software normally installed on a server (which most personal computers, regardless of where they are windows, linux, or an apple do not have). To practice with ResourceSpace on a personal computer instead of the internet another free Open Source Software called Xampp is needed that essentially gives your computer the ability to be a webserver.

How to Install ResourceSpace on a Personal Computer with Windows

Before ResourceSpace can be installed on Xampp needs to be installed. Xampp can be downloaded at http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-windows.html#641, make sure to choose the Zip installer in order to follow along with this document (the .Zip, not the .EXE). This may take a bit of time to download.

After xampp is downloaded, normally its supposed to placed in the root of a drive. For example your C:\ drive has many folders in it including My Documents, My Pictures, etc. These folder are all on the C drive inside other folders. The "term root of the drive" normally means that its one of the first folders in a drive, and not in a sub folder. The My Documents folder is not in the root of the C drive in Windows Vista but rather in its in the Users Folder Inside the Name(name of the user) folder, then finally the My Document folder can be found. The path of this folder is C:\Users\User Name\My Documents--so to properly install xampp you would normally extract the file by unzipping it first by right clicking on the folder and selecting the extract all option that appears.

After the folder is extracted (which may take a while unless you have 7-zip), the xampp folder would be copied to the root of a drive. Luckily, since we downloaded the zip, we do not need to follow the rules (except for the unzipping part).

Once the folder is unzipped inside the xampp folder locate the a file called xampp-control.exe, and double click on it to activate it.

Once this file is activated a small dialogue box will show up on the right side of the screen.

Click on the setup option located in the right hand corner of the dialogue box. This will open up a window, that looks very similar to the DOS Command line. This is essentially a wizard for installing xampp.

The first question the setup asks is if you'd like to create shortcuts at the start menu and desktop. Personally I like my xampp portable so i normally choose. If you choose Yes type in "y" on the keyboard and hit enter on the keyboard, if no type "n" on the keyboard and hit enter.

After you hit enter another question will appear saying: "Current directory does not match configured directory. I must relocate the xampp paths correctly." Type in "y" then hit enter on the keyboard.

The next question will ask: "Should I make a portable version of Xampp without drive letters?" Type in "y" and hit enter on the keyboard. After Enter is hit the wizard will start initializing xampp. After that xampp is ready to use.

Return to the Xampp Control Dialogue box, and click on the start buttons to the right of Apache, and Mysql (the rest can be left as they are).

This may may trigger windows firewall to prompt a block, however select the unblock option, it's doing this since the actual apache and mysql are not installed.

After this is startet you can click on the big red X of the dialogue box to close the control panel (do not click the exit button though), it may appear as a small icon on windows taskbar (the icons on the right of the start bar next to the clock).

then open your web browser and type in http://localhost/ (note if you have a 64bit version of windows you'll actually need to type in http://127.0.0.1/) in the address bar.

This will open up a Xampp Splash page to indicate that you installed xampp correctly (Note this page is not on the internet it's running off your computer). There is still a few things we need to do before we can install ResourceSpace. On the splash page select English as your default language. This will take you to the main xampp control page. From the option on the left choose phpmyadmin.

This will open a page call phpmyadmin. Essentially this internet based page is a GUI to control the Open Source Database Engine called MySql. We need to create a Database for Resource space.

In the center of the PHPMyAdmin page there is an option to create a new database. Type in a name (I used res_space" that has no spaces in it then hit the create button. All Done! (At least for what this tutorial is trying to accomplish). You can close the web browser for now.

Navigate to the Xampp folder (wherever you have it installed) and in that folder there is another folder called htdocs. This folder is the new home for Resource Space. Right click to make a new folder inside htdocs, and name this folder rs_space. Extract Resource Space and place all of its files inside the rs_space folder that was recently created.

Next re-open the web-browser and type in http://localhost/rs_space/ And you'll be directed to the Resource Space setup page. You'll more than likely see a warning that say there is an error with your php.ini file, namely the memory limit is set to 128M. PHP is the software used along with Java to upload file in Resource Space. Some files can go over 128M or 128 Megabytes. Video files can easily go into the hundreds of Megabytes. By not changing this to a higher amount you've restricted ResourceSpace's upload capacity. For testing purposes though this will work, and thus this tutorial will not discuss how to modify the php.ini (for people that do know how to do not use notepad, use notepad++, or wordpad otherwise you will get errors).

Next Choose American English as the language.

The next section of fields to fill in are called the database fields of these two fields on two need to be changed. Change the database name to res_space (its the name we gave the database earlier), and delete the "user/bin/" text in the MySQL Binary Path field

In the General Settings fields change the Application Name to whatever the website or part of the website would be. Fill in the From Email and the Support email (please note that we did not setup Xampp to do email, this is just to play with resource space by itself). Then copy the spider and scramble key, save them somewhere safe.

You'll a whole section of blank fields under the General Settings. These are third party (also free) software that ResourceSpace uses to automatically create:

• Thumbnail for Pictures with Image Magick
• GhostScript for PDF previews and tear aparts
• FFmpeg for creating video thumbnails and compressing them (similar to what youtube does)

These bits of software are not going to have their installation discussed in this tutorial, so leave the fields blank and click the Begin installation button. You'll then be directed to a Congratulations page.

The page also asks you to remove write protection from the "include" folder, but since we are just testing we won't (on the internet normally this is done through ftp programs such as Filezilla, another free Open Source Program).

At the bottom of the congratulations page there is a link to the site with a standard user name and password which are both set to admin.

When the link is clicked on the user name and password are prompted immediately. After entering them you are directed to the main page.

At the bottom of the page is a small gray bar, this is where your collection of uploaded files will appear, you can also minimize this bar by click on the hide thumbnails option.

The best way to really learn this program is to play with it, but to assist Next Time I will write about a little bit more of of its operations instead of simply its install But I would recommend checking out the Team Center button on the top left hand corner.

Have Fun!

Zombie Invasions

Over the years, I've watched major disasters unfold in the news. While I was glued to the TV, radio, and internet waiting for updates and trying to figure out what I could do to help those who lived so far away; in the back of my mind I was always grateful. Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, I was grateful that I didn't live in a place that has regular incidents of hurricanes, tornado's, or earthquakes. Part of me just couldn't fathom why people would live in a place that was so dangerous.

At a recent disaster preparedness training put on by the Red Cross at an AmeriCorps event, I was reminded how wrong my thinking really was. Flooding, earthquakes, wildfires, earthquakes, volcanoes, drought, avalanches, severe storms, tsunamis, flu outbreaks, dam failures, nuclear plant failures- as for disasters, Washington is one of the few states that is pretty much susceptible to them all.

Once the reality that we actually live in a very dangerous place sunk in, the training reminded me that there are some very simple (and inexpensive) steps we can take to prepare ourselves. While there was a lot of really useful information at the training (and I highly encourage you to visit Red Cross Washington http://www.redcrosswashington.org/index.htm for more information), here are the top 10 CHEAP things I learned that you can do to prepare yourself for a disaster.

1. Disasters can, will, and do happen in Washington. Obviously some areas of Washington are more susceptible to certain disasters than others. Take some time to learn what disasters could potentially happen in your area.

2. Meet your neighbors. Such an easy thing to do and yet for many people such an easy thing not to do. Like many of my friends, I rely on Metro to get around- which means none of us have cars. In an emergency, is their a neighbor that has a car that would be willing to let you ride along? Is there someone to knock on your door if you live alone? Is there someone in your neighborhood that might need some extra assistance in the event of an emergency? Get out and meet the people, now.

3. Do you stand in a doorway or get under a table in an earthquake? (hint: drop/cover/hold)

4. A pillowcase can be very handy in an emergency. To carry that photo album, ferret, kitten, small dog, bird, snake, that you just can't leave behind. Often times people don't want to leave their homes because they don't want to leave behind something- often their pets. If you have a pet, think about how you can safely take your animal with you.

5. Most things you would need for a disaster preparedness kit are already in your home. Don't be discouraged by the long list of suggested items to be included, instead decided which items make the most sense for you.

6. That drinking water stored in my laundry room has got to go. Don't get me wrong, saving drinking water is a key part of disaster preparedness, but you should change it every six months. (Just add it to your list of things to do for daylight savings.)

7. Know where the elusive pay phones are in your area. Chances are that in an emergency you may not be able to use your cell phone. Know where the alternative options are.

8. Have an out of area contact. Designate one person you can call to let know you are OK in the event of a disaster. This person then can be the one that the rest of your family can call incessantly to make sure you are OK. This helps keep local phone lines open, and allows you to get on with the business of surviving or helping others to survive.

9. Make copies of important documents such as your passport or driver's license, your social security card, or legal documents you might need in a disaster- add them to your kit.

10. Make sure you have some comfort items in your disaster kit. A picture of a loved one, a chocolate bar, some granola, a role of quarters, a pair of SmartWool, sunscreen, there must be some seemingly frivolous item that will make all the difference to YOU in the event of a disaster.

Bonus! 11. Zombie Squad is not only protecting our neighborhoods against the next zombie invasion (a very important deed), but they are working to help educate themselves and their communities about disaster preparedness. http://zombiehunters.org

I'm to the point in my VISTA year with the United Way of King County where I'm no longer overwhelmed by the sheer size of the program and am able instead to have fun with it. My favorite aspect of the program is getting to meet and train new volunteers. They're all great people who are excited to work with little kids, and working with them gives me a lot to look forward to.

Another thing that I am looking forward to this month is getting the chance to volunteer in my own program. I really want to be able to tell the volunteers exactly what it's like, and to show them that I'm not just some recent college grad that had trouble finding a job and decided to hide out in americorps for a year instead. I can't say that preschoolers are my forte (I've only worked with junior high and high school kids), but I love picture books, so I think we'll get along just fine.

I've also gotten the chance to visit a few of the preschools and child care sites that we work with. The relationships that we're building with the people on the other side of the program are invaluable, and I have tons of useful information for the volunteers, having seen where they will be reading first hand.

One thing that I have really been working is conveying to the volunteers how pumped and excited I am about the program. I've found that even through an email volunteers can tell whether you really care or not. I've compltely gotten rid of the list of form emails I was given when I started this position, and have found that a lot more of my inquiries turn into registrations when I take on a more informal tone. One of the things I hadn't expected in this job is the sheer emotion you get from some people. I have a lot of volunteers that have reached a low in their lives, and want to work with kids to brighten their days a little. In many cases these volunteers will take the time to tell you their whole life story. Right now I am especially moved by a cancer patient my own age who has a very grimm diagnosis but is taking the time to volunteer while she is going through Chemo.

My biggest issue is still keeping the lines of communication running between myself and the volunteers, but I've calmed down about that a little. I don't want this to be a numbers game, and I'd rather concentrate on finding really dedicated volunteers that are really excited about reading to children every week and will take the time to tell their equally passionate friends about the program.

Halloween party!

We had our great Halloween party that the the Olympia Center was invited to. Thanks to Sharon (RSVP) for dressing as the “evil volunteer” decorated in all red with black lipstick and nail polish! Blake (VCW Team Supervisor) got down with his gangsta’ self in the pin striped suite and fedora. Overall, the team pulled off a great potluck party and we have plenty of food left over to keep us on a sugar high until Christmas.

Jumping ahead a bit, I am starting to think about interesting MLK day projects on Jan. 17^th. I want to meet a need in the community. I think the challenge will be engaging people after Christmas, which is when most people are spent on their money and time. I think we can really pull together as a team and find something useful and engaging that will make a difference in our communities.

Thanks for all of you who participated in the conference call. It sounds like people are looking forward to IST, and I think you will get a lot out of it! I look forward to talking will all of you soon.

Alena Swanson, VCW VISTA Leader

One fall signature day down, one more to go

Our Make A Difference Day project "Write to Smile" went well Saturday. We made cards with uplifting quotes and messages to cheer people up during our famous gray fall and winter days. The cards will be sent out this week to random people through out our community.

One thing that is interesting about the area we serve is how it does not fit the stereotypical tight knit rural community. Port Angeles is the largest city in 2 counties with only 18,000 people yet there seems to be no cohesion. Sure some people will do anything for a person they know, but if they don't know you they will not even think about helping you. Often the split occurs along religious lines with many helping their church, but nothing outside of it.

I think this may be one of the reasons the community has not been able to grow. That is where the volunteer center comes in to play. We've been trying to get people to reach out to someone they have not before. "Write to Smile" benefits random people so those who made the cards can think about the difference between doing a favor for s0meone and just giving to someone. It will also, hopefully, have recipients thinking about how a strong community cares about everyone, not just their best friend.

Now, I'm planning our first recongition ceremony on November 5th and Family Volunteering Day projects for November 21st.

Transormations

It has been a great fall as a Vista here with Seattle Works. Oh wait, Kym already wrote that. So having another Vista at your site has it's advantages and maybe now some disadvantages. While I participated with our Swank fundraiser and helped out a bit with Team Works, I have been working on some different projects from Kym to give an update on.

Seattle Works is great at getting volunteers out into the community so now it's time to look inward. We are currently looking at how we can more effectively use volunteers within our organization. I have been working the details for what Seattle Works wants that process to look like. This has meant spending countless hours on creating organizational charts, talking to our staff to identify where there are opportunities for using more volunteers, creating procedures, etc.

In addition, I have also had the opportunity to help organize two corporate volunteer projects at two public schools in south Seattle, Concord Internatial School and Brighton Elementary. These projects turned the playgrounds from drab to dramatic in 4 short (but busy) hours. Check it out!