The Backstory
I wasn’t sure if I had anything to offer, but I wanted to help. I inquired about getting involved with the Alzheimer’s Association of SC last year after I did a walk to raise money. It was a simple walk and we raised around $1,500 as a team (Shout out to Katie, Ross, Trent, & Krystin for joining!) in the final 2 weeks leading up to the event.
But it wasn’t quite enough, for me at least. I had an itch to give more, but I wasn’t sure how. Today I went to my first committee meeting to start making a dent in the universe. I didn’t know what to expect and I wasn’t sure if I could offer much besides my presence, but I went anyway.
Lessons Learned
I won’t bore you with the details of the meeting, but I will share a few things that struck me during my time there. First off, it was amazing to see people willing to donate their time and efforts to this cause. The Alzheimer’s Association is amazing and this is what I choose to support, but there are countless other charities and organizations that are run my volunteers as well. Granted, Alz is a non-profit but 6 of the 8 attendees were volunteers! We hear so much about how terrible things are happening across the country in the news, and it was a wonderful breath of fresh air to see these people willing to give their time to this cause.
Second, I realized that so many of our past experiences will come in handy to us at some point or another. As I sat there wondering what I could offer, the head of the meeting spoke about the need for a marketing chair person that would help market The Walk in the city of Charleston via billboard, radio promos, social media, etc. I knew exactly why I was supposed to be there, and I’m looking forward to serving on the committee.
Bond, James Bond
For those of you that don’t know what I’m talking about, think about a James Bond film. At the beginning of every Bond movie, 007 gets a bag of toys and a cool car that has all sorts of gadgets. You have no clue what he’ll use them for, or why he would ever need a watch that shoots a steel cutting laser out of it, but they always look fun. Then at some point in the movie, Bond is about to be killed off and he suddenly remembers that he has that bag of tricks. He begins to creatively use them to fight the bad guys and always seems to come out on top.
We all have a bag of tricks that we can use, we just need to be creative enough to know when and where they come in handy. I wasn’t sure how my marketing and sales background would be useful to these people that already seemed to be doing a great job of promoting The Walk. But after listening to their needs and thinking about my past experiences, I was able to find a match for my skills.
Questions – Where can this be done in the workplace? How can you use your skills to help another co-worker or another division of your company? How can you use your past experiences to help you solve current day problems?
Your Turn
I wrote this for 3 reasons:
- I am excited about this and I wanted to tell the world
- I wanted to share that anecdote about past experiences
- I want you to get involved
I’m not pressuring you to join me, but if you would like to donate or hop on my team, you can follow this link to Alz.org and get involved. You can also read a brief story about why I’m getting involved and how to do so with me.
If you don’t want to get involved with this, I encourage you to get involved in something! Imagine if we all donated 1 hour of our week to a charity or to someone in need. How much better would if we were all just a little more self-less and a little less selfish?
Have a great day!
