Two months ago, if you had asked me what my feelings were on the Disney Give a Day get a Day promotion, I would have been less than enthusiastic. I had the whole thing sprung on me the day after I returned from my holiday vacation, and from what I could tell at the time, the hundreds of emails that I received were from self-interested people that cared about Disney first, the kids second. People would be so blunt as to tell me, "I want to get this reading thing done by [a specific date] because I'm going to Disney in March," or, "can I read twice? I want two tickets."
Our program requires a six month commitment and encourages volunteers to develop strong and lasting relationships with the kids they serve. There was no way I was going to go through an hour of paperwork just so that John Doe could use the kids in our program for a day and get into Disney Land for free.
My feelings on the whole Disney program have softened though ever since I've had the chance to watch some of the truly caring volunteers that Disney was able to send our way. These were the people that got so excited when they saw our program description that most of them forgot to register for the Disney Ticket. I'm not holding taking the ticket against people (I know how expensive they are), I just sometimes think that sometimes a few dedicated volunteers that are going to stick around and get to know the kids are more valuable than a lot of flaky volunteers that are going to do the minimum and then bail.
So I have to admit (somewhat grudgingly) that Disney did do me a service in getting the word about my program out there to people that might not otherwise have heard about it. February was our biggest month, and I probably have the Give a Day get a Day program to thank for that. I can't help thinking though, if I had spent the hours that disappeared while I answered emails actively recruiting instead, could I have started even more volunteers?
What do you guys think? Do programs like this cheapen the volunteer experience, or help make it more accessible?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment