Opportunity abounds at volunteer fair Saturday
For everyone frustrated that the world is spinning out of control, Saturday offers an opportunity to step up and make changes at the local level. That’s right. We might not be able to stop the president from attempting to buy Greenland against its wishes. We likely can’t help children escape from cruel detention on the border. We aren’t able, all the way from Santa Fe, to stop the rainforests in the Amazon from burning. So much is out of our hands.
But at home, we can do this. We can teach a child to read. We can collect food for the hungry. We can coach young people in sports. We can make a difference, and on Saturday, area nonprofits are gathering in one place to make it easy to match volunteer and need.
The third annual Volunteer Fair — a collaboration of Santa Fe Public Schools and Opportunity Santa Fe — takes place from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Mandela International Magnet School, 1604 Agua Fría St. (the old Larragoite Elementary School). For three hours, potential volunteers can find out more about the different organizations and what they do for our community.
Such stalwarts as The Food Depot, Communities in Schools, Big Brothers Big Sisters Mountain Region and others will be attending to share what they do and what sorts of volunteers they need. For example, Andel Trujillo will be back looking for people interested in coaching cheerleading or sports teams. Teenagers can apply — it’s a wonderful way for young people to help the community, whether for school requirements, to fulfill confirmation hours for church or simply to share their talents.
Santa Fe Public Schools is all in. Imagine all the ways neighbors can help children in our schools. We’ll bet math tutors and reading helpers will be appreciated. But that’s not the only way to help out at schools. Through the SFPS Adelante program, volunteers can tutor children or help distribute food to families who lack shelter.
At the Opportunity Santa Fe website, there are 15 pages of other volunteer organizations — everything from helping new babies to teaching science, to assisting people who are homeless, serving as a docent at an area museum, working with animals or advocating for peace or biking. It’s likely that not all of these groups will be at the event, but it’s easy to go to opportunitysantafe.org and look for a group that could use your talents.
For those unfamiliar with it, Opportunity Santa Fe is a joint effort of the city of Santa Fe Mayor’s Children, Youth and Families Community Cabinet, the Mayor’s Youth Advisory Board and the Santa Fe Birth to Career Collaboration. The idea is to bring smart, community-minded people together in ways that support families and young people.
The goal in 2019 is to reach 1 million hours of service — that’s not just a worthy ambition, but one that gives people a semblance of control again. We can’t fix the world, but we can make our small corner of it better. We do that, together, by volunteering.