057 Fern Albertson—The Minnesota Landscape Arboretum
The Minnesota Landscape Arboretum—Feeding Body and Soul
Do you have an interest in plants, gardening, bees, butterflies, children, sharing your knowledge, working with like-minded people, having a meaningful and rewarding volunteer opportunity? Check any of the above, and this interview is for you! Fern Albertson volunteers with The Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, where she has found all of those interests fulfilled and her soul fed.
Have you eaten a Honey Crisp apple lately? Or perhaps you’ve tried the new First Kiss apple. Both of these, along with 28 others, were developed through the research at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. The history of today’s 1200-acre premier facility had its beginnings in the 1800’s with government assistance and insistence to develop apples hearty enough to grow despite the Minnesota winters. The push was to attract settlers to the area by providing a viable economic opportunity. Today’s Arboretum now attracts 500,000 visitors each year! Thirty-five thousand of those come specifically to the Learning Center, where Fern volunteers.
As a volunteer, she works most often with school children and children coming in the summer through the Y or Parks and Recreation day camps. Working with a curriculum that also meets state education standards, Fern, along with other volunteers has been teaching the children about bees and butterflies, as they observe the resident pollinators at work in the gardens of the Arboretum. She also takes children “shopping” at the Green Grocer. If their grocery list includes sugar or chocolate, for example, the young shoppers have to find the plant sources (sugar cane and cocoa plant) growing there. The lists are varied, but the lesson is pointed: Our food comes largely from plants! The Arboretum’s educational programs change regularly, inviting return visits and keeping the volunteers engaged as they too continue to learn.
Fern is one of 900 volunteers the Arboretum relies on. Some, like Fern, lead programs or give tours; others help maintain the gardens or drive the trams. Several assist the researchers—like the ones who developed Honey Crisp and gave us our First Kiss!
Arboretums and botanical gardens are scattered all across the nation. Click Here for a list of facilities around the country. You might find a garden or arboretum in your local area where you can check volunteer opportunities.
Website: arboretum.umn.edu
Facebook: facebook.com/MnArboretum
056 Marci McAdams—Special Olympics
Special Olympics—Smiles for Everyone
“I get to see their smiling faces—that’s my reward!” Marci McAdams enthusiastically declares with a big smile on her own face. One of her volunteer jobs for Special Olympics in Florida is to hand out the rewards to the participants. Those smiles keep her coming back and taking on more as a volunteer. She handles much of the administrative work that keeps the program running smoothly; and she also trains new coaches, who are also volunteers. When she runs a training session, she invites at least one of the special athletes to help her by showing the potential coaches the possibilities.
Special Olympics is so much more than “a competition here and there.” In the early 1960s Eunice Kennedy Shriver, moved by the lack of inclusion of children with intellectual disabilities (ID) in even basic opportunities for play, set up a summer camp in her own backyard to give them a chance to participate in physical activities, including sports. She set out to change society’s view of persons with ID. Now more than five million special athletes from ages eight through older adults in 172 countries participate year-round in Special Olympics trainings and events in county, state, area, and international levels in more than 30 different sports. Children, age two to seven, can begin developing skills through Special Olympics Young Athletes program.
Athletes benefit from the training and competitions as they develop physical fitness, skills, and friendships. They gain courage and self-confidence and experience joy. Society benefits from focusing on the abilities rather than the disabilities of persons with ID and discovering their gifts. Promoting understanding and social inclusion, Special Olympics is making a change for the better for everyone.
Volunteers make it all possible. Handing out awards, doing administrative tasks, training new volunteers, including coaches—all of which Marci does—are just a few of the opportunities available to volunteers. Encouraging athletes, setting up and tearing down for events, coaching for the various sports, recruiting other volunteers, and photographing events are a few more of the possibilities. Check the website for your state to find a specific place where your interests intersect with the needs: specialolympics.org.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/specialolympicsflorida/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/2168730/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/soflinfo
055 Barbara Winkler—Quilts of Valor
Touched by War, Receiving Comfort and Healing
Barbara Winkler is not alone in her desire to honor, thank, and comfort men and women who have experienced the horrors of war on behalf of our nation. Nationwide, in 47 states and the District of Columbia, are multiple small chapters of quilters creating beautiful and practical Quilts of Valor and presenting them to veterans and active service members. In Barbara’s chapter alone, the group has made 4,375 since Barbara created her first quilt! Last year they made 651!
Many chapters gather and benefit from the social aspect of creating a quilt, as well as from the joy of finding a purpose they find meaningful and appreciated by the recipients and their families. However, most chapters also have members who work at home. In Barbara’s Southern California chapter, the oldest member is 92, working at home and providing a one quilt-top each week for the other stitchers in the group to complete. Barbara’s group also partners with teens in local high schools to make the quilts. The students earn service-learning credits, find mentors and friends among the skilled quilters, and experience pride in their skill and creativity, as well as humility in knowing the stories of the ones who will receive their quilts.
Volunteers do not need to know how to quilt. Quilting is a group effort. There is a specific task for everyone, including designing, cutting the fabric, hand sewing, machine stitching, washing, ironing, presenting, and more. Anyone can start wherever comfortable and learn more from the others—and have a good time doing so!
To see the variety of beautiful quilts Barbara’s group has made and given, go to socalqov.org. To find a Quilts of Valor chapter near you, visit www.qovf.org. That site will also guide you in creating a new chapter, if need be.
URL: www.socalQOV.org
Facebook: So-Cal-Quilts-of-Valor
054 Daisy Jabas—Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance
Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance—Providing Hope and How-To
Daisy Jabas, Registered Nurse, Certified Peer Recovery Specialist, and State Director for Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance of Tennessee, surprises people—not with her credentials but with a statistic: Mental illness is more prevalent than cancer, lung disease, and heart disease combined!
Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance provides through their support groups a safe environment for individuals and for their families to share their stories and learn skills from the lived experience of others, as well as from medical professionals. Those who suffer discover they are not alone, there is hope, and life can and will get better.
Daisy also surprises people when she tells audiences that all of the people working in this Tennessee division of the Alliance are volunteers, including Daisy. The range of opportunities is wide, from helping get literature out about the program, speaking to groups, serving at events, calling back inquirers, transporting persons to support groups, working in the office, maintaining the website, to facilitating the support groups. Volunteers can choose short-term or long-term service options to fit their own interests, knowing that all contribute to greater well-being for those who suffer.
For more information visit www.dbsa-tn.org
Email: hopefordepressionandbipolar@gmail.com