Profile of a Volunteer

The person that I am choosing to profile here is my daughter Jordan.  She was fortunate enough to learn at a young age the true meaning of volunteerism.  She was selected as a Junior Rotarian her senior year of high school and they were required to participate in a service project.  The service project she selected was "Rebuild Oklahoma".  This particular projects mission is to go into a poverty stricken neighborhood and remodel a persons house to make their daily life better.  When we received the address of the location for her rebuilding project my husband chose to drive her and drop her off for her safety.  This was a high poverty and high crime area close to downtown Oklahoma City.

One hour into the project she called her dad to come get her because there were so many roaches and rats in the crumbling home they were remodeling.  Her dad told her that he would return at 5:00 pm when the day was supposed to be finished because she started this and she needed to finish it.  When he picked her up at 5:00 pm she was a different person.  It changed her life because they were able do so much to improve the home when the 70 year old women returned home with her 2 young grandchildren that she was raising she fell to the ground and sobbed because her house was beautiful.  Jordan has never been the same person as she was before she made a difference in the life of the woman and her grandchildren. 

Jordan has continued to volunteer in different ways since that time, but that particular event was the one that made the most dramatic impact on others.  She has been a "Big Brother/Big Sister" volunteer, Legal Aid volunteer, Rise School volunteer and is currently volunteering at Cleveland County courthouse reading legal documents for people that cannot afford to have legal representation prior to entering the court room as a part of her Law School training.  Her goal in life is to help make a difference in the lives of women, children and families in poverty by creating family friendly policies that will make a difference in our country.  I am proud to be her mom and excited to see the woman and volunteer she will become when she graduates from Law School.  I know she will be something great and we will all benefit from her work in the future.

I would like to think that Jordan learned her love of volunteering and advocating for the less fortunate from me.  I have dedicated my life to working on behalf of children and families.  Currently in the capacity of ensuring that they have highly trained teachers working in high quality child care programs.  I think to be an effective advocate you have to be passionate and have some experience that shows you that this work is important and you will make a difference.  To me the vital "take-away" is you don't have to do something big to make a big difference.  All Jordan did that day with Rebuild Oklahoma was tear down old wall paper, wash walls and hang new wall paper; however, it was transformational for the family and her.  You get out two fold what you put into something.  Go out and spread the good work.