It’s been three years since I volunteered for something and I’m getting fidgety. You would think turning 69 years old this month would signal slowing down, but you know how I like to join things.

How many people deciding on what to pack for Peace Corps service include their American Red Cross vest … just in case? Turned out, the Armenian Red Cross Society had just opened a soup kitchen in the very city I would volunteer as a high school English teacher.

I originally signed up with the American Red Cross during Hurricane Katrina. I then volunteered for my local chapter and short term national assignments, like the 2013 tornado outbreak in Tennessee. In Armenia, during the summer, I began serving lunch, to senior citizens, at the Red Cross Soup Kitchen. When two volunteers (from the UK) were assigned there, over the summer, I worked with them to create a summer youth camp.

I served in the Peace Corps three times, Kenya 1986/88, Armenia 2017/19, and Ethiopia 2019/20. I had a feeling that Ethiopia would be cut short. First off, my cohort arrived in country with only 22 volunteers. Secondly, there were only four regions in the entire country where we could serve: Amhara, Oromia, Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People’s Regions (SNNPR) and Tigray.

The COVID-19 pandemic closed down Peace Corps worldwide. By the time the Tigray war began in Ethiopia, I was living Alaska and volunteering with AmeriCorp. I was assigned to the Sitka School District and placed in their Homeschool Program. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, parents couldn’t enter our office and checkout resources. I said, “There’s an app for that!” I used the LibraryThing app and cataloged all 2,000 items. The items were linked to our website. We checked them out and delivered them to parents, waiting outside the building.

Along with my primary assignment, I, (of course), volunteered as House Manager for the Sitka Performing Arts Center and the Odess Theater. Back in the 1980s, I worked in the Box Office at Folger Shakespeare Theatre, in WDC. The house manager there was amazing. So, I copied his style, while volunteering in Sitka. I made sure to announce the opening of the theater using his same words and tone! “Ladies and gentlemen! The house is now open!”

I volunteered for a second year in Sitka. It was impossible to leave a place that beautiful, after just one year. That being said, my favorite volunteer experience was with the Sundance Film Festival, in Park City, Utah. I volunteered four times, taking vacation time from my Academic Librarian job at Duke University. During the festival, I worked the shorter three day volunteer shift. I paid for my own housing and always purchased a Sundance film pass for the second half of the festival.

My volunteering began in 1974, when I had my mother sign me into the United States Air Force. I was seventeen years old. The recruiter gave me two tasks. I had to turn eighteen and gain weight. My birthday was the following month. The weight took longer. I weighed eighty-three pounds, when I graduated from high school.

It took me from July 1974 until February 1975 to clear the weight requirement. In March 1975, I was given a two pound waiver and arrived in basic training weighing ninety-five pounds. I’ve been volunteering ever since! XOXO— GGT