By Amy Schill

originally posted August 12, 2009

In early 2007, the president of CAP asked me how we were looking on long-term volunteers for our September orientation. We have rolling admissions and three orienations per year, but the September class is always the largest. I predicted we would have around 20...a number I pulled completely out of thin air. We only had 12 in 2006, and had not had an orientation class of 20 since my own orientation. So, now I had some work to do.
We ended up having 25 volunteers at that orientation, which was amazing. Many of the people I had been counting on to come when I made that outrageous prediction ended up changing their plans, but God blessed us with volunteers from some unexpected places. As the person in charge of finding these volunteers, I was feeling pretty good about myself. In September 2008, we kept the ball rolling and had 26 volunteers. Right now, we have 27 confirmed for September orientation, and we have a few others who may potentially join us. Our total number of long-term volunteers has doubled since i began this job. Time to relax, right?
Not so much. Despite exceeding our volunteer admissions from last year, we are still in need of volunteers in several critical positions. The selfish part of me thinks this is quite unfair: last year having 26 volunteers was fantastic news; we were able to better that number this year, so where's my prize? Of course, the better part of me realizes that the needs of our particpants are always changing, and with that change and expansion comes a need for more and different kinds of volunteers than we had in the past.
A lot has changed since September 2007. We now have a home repair program that focuses exclusively on the elderly, meaning our Elderly Services program needs construction volunteers as well as caseworkers. We have many more church groups volunteering for a week, so we need volunteers to host and cook for these groups. We have started a food pantry and a seconhand store that need volunteers. Our Disaster Relief program needs volunteers to provide full-time administrative support. Our in-home respite program and afterschool tutoring programs have expanded. We also have programs that have not traditionally used volunteers requesting them because they have seen the enthusiasm, skills and dedication volunteers bring to their service. As we try to keep the supply of volunteers consistent with the demand, we are definitely experiencing some growing pains.
So, we are absolutely thrilled to have so many outstanding volunteers for September 2009 orientation, but we would be even more thrilled to have a few more so that we can fully meet the needs of our participants. If you think God may be calling you to serve in Appalachia, please consider submitting an application or telling your friends, family and school or church community about CAP. And please pray for our incoming long-term volunteers as they begin what's certain to be an incredible journey.
Amy Schill is the Volunteer Recruitment Coordinator for CAP.