Nationwide Volunteer Week 2024 – Chief Canine for the Blind

How Fortunate Am I?

As a volunteer administration skilled for greater than 20 years, I’ve had the pleasure of being concerned in a number of skilled networking teams. At present, I’m facilitating two teams. Regionally, I facilitate the Volunteer Coordinator’s Community of SE Michigan. This group of over 175 proficient people is comprised {of professional} volunteer managers from the non-profit and revenue sector in Southeast Michigan. A lot of you’ll acknowledge the group names. We meet a number of instances per yr to debate subjects of mutual curiosity. We share challenges and victories as we speak about our personal particular person applications. We get to listen to lots about how different volunteer applications work or don’t work. No two applications are precisely the identical. We be taught a lot from one another and assist one another when one in every of us is struggling. It’s a terrific group of individuals representing some spectacular applications.

I’m so proud to symbolize Chief Canine for the Blind and our volunteer program.  I get to brag concerning the nice issues Chief Dog volunteers do and the numerous lives they’ve helped change. It’s spectacular once I say we’ve 400 on-campus and 400 off-campus puppy raisers, counselors, breeding host and mentors. Final yr we had over 35,500 on-campus service hours and hundreds of thousands of off-campus hours donated.  Typically, on the finish of a really lengthy week, I mirror on simply how fortunate I’m to be a part of the Chief Dog household. It’s my sincerest want that each Chief Dog volunteer feels seen, heard, appreciated, fulfilled . . . and maybe even fortunate like I do.

Try all our social channels this week to be taught extra about how volunteers at Chief Dog are making a distinction.

Melissa Pletcher, Supervisor of Volunteer Engagement