Sometimes as volunteers we get caught up in the day to day stuff that we do, and can possibly lose sight of the impact our Association is having on members and non- members alike.
On May 6th we were getting ready to attend a friend’s 60th Birthday Party. We met Gary when we had only just arrived in Australia as migrants from the UK back in 2002, and we have many happy memories of time spent together.
The venue was also hosting a karaoke event, and I had been fixating on whether the additional noise was going to be too much for Patrick. How he was going to cope with talking to people we hadn’t recently seen? and how the late night was going to effect him the next day? I am sure this routine will be very familiar to many of our members.
Our son was dropping us off at the venue and while he drove I noticed a couple of orders for our Emergency Department Card, pop up on the notification screen of my phone. No worries I thought to myself, I will deal with those tomorrow.
I am delighted to report we had a great evening, Patrick talked, joked and laughed, ate drank and caught up without too much pain and sensibly rested up the next day.
I turned to process those couple of orders and ended up whooping around our living room when I discovered we had 19 orders for our Emergency Department Card, four orders for membership and donations. I have no idea what happened on the 6th of May which led so many people to our website to place orders. If I knew I would replicate every week. This month we have so far had 8 new members join our Association. Many have asked for support and our compassionate president Kim has contacted them all to offer hope.
We plug away adding articles to our website every month, reaching out for volunteers, creating newsletters and managing support group meetings. Knowing we are making a small difference in so many people’s lives is quite frankly humbling.
So a huge thank you to all those who found us in May. We hope you bookmark us and check in often. But most of all, if we have given a lift to just one person, then sometimes that’s enough.
“You are never alone”
May 15 to May 21 is also National Volunteer Week where those who volunteer their time in all walks of life are shown some appreciation. A big shout out to all of our associations volunteers, you do an amazing job.
