Nevada Volunteers, Author at Nevada Volunteers

University of Nevada Las Vegas Students Make A Difference

UNLV’s Make a Difference Day efforts on Saturday, October 22, 2011 were a GREAT Success! Over 120 UNLV students, faculty, and staff volunteered almost 400 hours at Make a Difference Day projects with Goodie Two Shoes, Spread the Word Nevada, Project Green: Friends of Pittman Wash, Tonopah Community Garden, and United Way/Albertson’s Food Drives. These volunteers helped give away 1,543 pairs of shoes with Goodie Two Shoes Foundation’s Annual Giveaway, cleaned thousands of books with Spread the Word Nevada to be distributed to underprivileged children, engaged in a community clean-up projects at Pittman Wash with Project Green: Friends of Pittman Wash to help preserve and protect the wildlife and wildlife habitat of Pittman Wash, which is a rare Mojave Desert riparian ecosystem. Students also assisted Tonopah Community Garden with regular cleaning and maintenance while decorating a wall, painting the playground, and preparing a portion of the land for future planting. Other students assisted with the collection over 10,000 lbs of food, 10,000 lbs of household items and clothes and about 3,000 toothbrushes for the United Way of Southern Nevada. (more…)

Join Governor Sandoval in Signing a 9/11 Pledge to Serve

On Thursday, September 8, 2011, Nevada’s Governor Brian Sandoval came to visit us at the Nevada Volunteers office in Reno to make his pledge to serve. In tribute to the spirit of service that followed 9/11/2001, he encouraged all Nevadans to sign our pledge to volunteer in the upcoming year from 9/11/2011 to 9/11/2012.

Alex Ellison, Project Coordinator, believes that pledging to serve will inspire Nevadans to volunteer in new and interesting ways. “Volunteering is not just cleaning up trash on the side of the street or pulling weeds at a park. Although those are fine ways to lend a helping hand, there are so many more ways people can use their skills and interests to benefit their communities. The 10^th anniversary of 9-11 is a great time to encourage people to volunteer because we remember the heightened sense of giving that immediately followed 9-11-01.”

Help us reach our goal of 500 pledges across Nevada. Go to blue.nevadavolunteers.org or bit.ly/911pledge to make your pledge today! (more…)

Expressions of Homelessness

Nevada Volunteers’ higher-education initiative has worked on Nevada’s campuses for the past 2 ½ years to promote volunteering among college youth. One of the highlights of this effort has been the Expressions of Homelessness poetry project organized through the University of Nevada Reno’s Honors Program by our VISTA, Alexandra Ellison.

Guest Post #5: The Most Rewarding Paths by Alexandra Ellison

Alexandra Ellison waits to speak at a UNR Campus Breakfast about student service and service-learning.

Our guest blogger, Alexandra Ellison, has been one of two Nevada Volunteers’ AmeriCorps VISTAs this past year. She has been a passionate advocate of service on the UNR campus in Reno, working through the Honors Program to promote service and service-learning. Her many high-powered initiatives, including a student-faculty poetry project at the local homeless shelter, earned her the distinction of being the Nevada AmeriCorps VISTA of the year. Here is her reflection on what her VISTA service has meant to her:

The past year as a VISTA, working on the UNR campus and promoting service initiatives, has truly taught me more than I could have ever expected.

Convinced that I would go right to graduate school after graduating from Northwestern, I was nervous about taking a year off. But the “year off” has proven to be a year in full speed, filled with opportunities that graduate school would not have presented to me. So fast-paced was this year, that I fear, even now, I am not quite ready to hit the books again. Rather, I am hooked to community engagement, conversations with faculty and students, and working in the belly of what has become the education beast. (more…)

The Sustainability Question

Lyndsey Bohall (center) and Alexandra Ellison, VISTA (left), speak with Kristin Pickard, Volunteer Coordinator for Northern Nevada Hopes (right), about the nonprofit's volunteer needs. Northern Nevada Hopes is Northern Nevada's premier center for HIV/AIDS treatment and care.

How do you keep a volunteer initiative going once it gets off the ground? That is the major question facing Lyndsey Bohall, our Reno 2011 Summer Associate VISTA (Volunteers In Service To America) for the Nevada Volunteers higher education initiative this summer.

Lyndsey is just beginning her sophomore year at the University of Nevada, Reno, and she already has a solid head on her shoulders as well as a tech-savvy perspective on this sustainability question. As part of the Honors Service Council and the UNR Alternative Break Club, she has become familiar with the challenges of connecting college students to service opportunities. Collecting current, in-depth information on who needs help is crucial to matching students to appropriate nonprofits according to areas of interest and skill level. (more…)

Guest Post #4: Networking in Vegas by Rae Lathrop

Our guest blogger, Rae Lathrop, has been one of two Nevada Volunteers’ AmeriCorps VISTAs this past year. She has promoted service and service-learning for the UNLV campus in Las Vegas. One of her passions as a VISTA has been to start up a networking group for young nonprofit professionals in the Southern Nevada region. Since this is her last week with us, before moving on to become Volunteer Coordinator for the Outside Las Vegas Foundation, we invited her to share her excitement for this new, much needed, group.

Here is what she had to say:

Despite all the economic reports and educational cuts, I feel like Las Vegas is a great place to be. Maybe I’m only talking to the most positive of community members, but I truly feel that great things are happening here. In the past year, I’ve only met people–busy with work and personal commitments—who attempt to bring positivity to everyone they meet and everything they do. I was talking to a woman at a networking event recently and explained my theory that the people who are here are the ones who didn’t flee when times got tough, and they are ready to put in the effort to bring this community back to life. She actually agreed, which surprised me because she doesn’t even work with nonprofits. I didn’t know that others felt this way. (more…)

A Place Where Smiles Really Count

: Karen, the Volunteer Coordinator for the Tom Vetica Resource Center in Reno, Nevada, knows the importance of a smile to those she serves.

: Helen, an AARP volunteer, sorts mail for the homeless clients of the Tom Vetica Resource Center in Reno.

The Tom Vetica Resource Center is like a bee hive, always humming with people coming and going. A total of 15 volunteers assist a diverse population of people who need help because they are currently without a home and have no address to apply for jobs or receive services. The Resource Center gets them registered, gives them access to a computer to search for work, provides a phone to make important calls, and operates a mail service for over 500 individuals who need an address. There are also computer training and money management classes at the Community Assistance Center campus, which includes the Family, Men’s, and Women’s Shelters, and the Center coordinates with numerous other service agencies to conduct weekly outreach sessions. (more…)

Nevada AmeriCorps Week Highlights in Video

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PputeaHi2ZM]

WHO ARE THESE OUTSTANDING NEVADANS?

Left to Right: Vanessa Nesbitt, Julie McKnight, Don Edwards, Cindy Ringer, Jessica Perlick, Alexandra Ellison

All the AmeriCorps National Service Programs in Nevada are being saluted, by proclamation of Governor Brian Sandoval, during AmeriCorps Week, May 14 through 21, 2011. In conjunction with AmeriCorps Week, Nevada Volunteers, the state commission on national and community service, is recognizing five national service participants and a program director for their exemplary service to Nevada. Read more about these 2010-2011 NEVADA NATIONAL SERVICE AWARDS HONOREES:

VANESSA NESBITT—2011 Northern Nevada AmeriCorps Member of the Year, AmeriCorps Member, AmeriCorps State, Tahoe’s Connection for Families, Incline Village, NV

“Vanessa defines commitment,” explains her supervisor at Tahoe’s Connection for Families, which provides parent education and programs for infants and toddlers. “She never does anything part way!” Without any funding, she created a six week music exploration program for the center’s families, developed an accurate evaluation system to track statistics that would help the center receive grants, and forged a media/awareness campaign that brought a 28% increase in new families participating in the program, all while serving the day-to-day needs of the families that she serves. It is her ability to create trust, though, that sets her apart. People confide in Vanessa, which allows her to touch people’s lives in a special way, from her fellow AmeriCorps team members to the little boy who is getting speech therapy right now because of her intervention. (more…)

Guest Post #3: Valley Hospital Volunteer Celebrates Silver “Volunteer Anniversary” by Beth Bartel, CVA

Geri at work

: Geri Grant

Guest blogger, Beth Bartel, is a Nevada Volunteers Commissioner and a Human Resources Generalist at Valley Hospital in Las Vegas where she combines duties in Human Resources with management of their volunteer program. She is a Certified Volunteer Administrator and Treasurer of the Las Vegas Chapter of the Directors of Volunteers in Agencies (DOVIA). We are so pleased to have her share an amazing story about a lifetime volunteer at Valley Hospital.

When Geraldine (Geri) Grant began volunteering at Valley Hospital in 1986, Ronald Reagan was president of the United States; the Oprah Winfrey Show debuted; and “Top Gun” was the number one movie.

At Valley Hospital, plenty of patients needed surgery. That’s where Geri found her niche – and never left!

“I’ve volunteered in Outpatient Surgery for my entire 25 years,” said Geri, who is 83 years old. Her volunteer “career” started when her youngest daughter wanted to be a candy striper. Valley was also seeking adult volunteers, so Geri signed up as well. Now, on Wednesdays, she can be found in the Outpatient Surgery department helping the nurses with whatever they need – making beds, compiling charts, or chatting with patients and family members.
(more…)