Become a Volunteer and Serve Your Community

Over the years, I have volunteered for various organizations. When I first started my career in the fire service, I began as a volunteer, and this experience taught me the importance of volunteerism. However, one of the most rewarding volunteer experiences was when I traveled to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, after the devastating earthquake in 2010. I will forever remember this humbling experience.

I had the unique opportunity to deploy to Haiti with a team of doctors, nurses, and firefighters from around the world. I spent ten days on the ground in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, assisting our team of healthcare professionals with the logistical needs of setting up mobile care clinics. Some of the remote locations of the mobile care clinics were orphanages and schools. Due to the devastation caused by the earthquake, our firefighters had to carry all the items needed for our team to conduct these clinics.

I was fortunate to have the opportunity to teach at several schools about earthquake safety. During these sessions, I emphasized the importance of having an emergency plan and a designated safe location for everyone to assemble in the event of an emergency. These teaching sessions wouldn't be possible without the excellent translators available to our team. Some of these translators would walk ten miles per day for the opportunity to translate for our team.

On the last day of my deployment, I had the opportunity to "scrub in" as an operating room technician at the Hopital Adventiste d'Haiti. This experience was also one of the most humbling moments of my entire life. I assisted a group of surgeons from Italy and Greece from the organization Doctors without Borders in the operating room. I was extremely exhausted on the last day of this deployment. I am not sure how I found the energy and the determination to keep going to serve the Haitian people.

You don't have to travel to a third-world country to become a volunteer. You can volunteer in your local community. Before my deployment to Haiti, I had the opportunity to volunteer in the emergency department at my local hospital for three years. I also had the opportunity to volunteer at my local community college as a skills coach for the Emergency Medical Technician program. There are many more organizations that need volunteers.

Do you want to make a real difference? Become a volunteer and give back to your community. Learn firsthand the importance of volunteerism. I will continue to volunteer throughout my public safety career. Please join me and seek opportunities to serve your local community as a volunteer.

Contact your local disaster relief agency through your county and or state if you are interested in becoming a disaster relief volunteer.

For more information on volunteer organizations, please visit the National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster website: National Voluntary Organizations Active In Disaster