29 Oct Volunteer in Profile: Cristina Acevedo
Note: this is a re-post from Youth Are Awesome, written by Mavis Li.
Cristina Acevedo is an avid Youth Central volunteer, most notably as a member of the TD Youth Earth Ambassadors. Cristina is consistently taking roles in special projects and sets a prime example for other youth volunteers in Calgary. I had the opportunity to ask her some questions about her life with volunteering.
What do you find most exciting about volunteering?
The thing I find most exciting about volunteering is the knowledge that I’m helping someone, whether they are a person I’m volunteering for, or whether they are someone who will benefit from the volunteer work. I love the feeling of accomplishment that I get when I think about how I am one person who is making a difference, it may not be a difference that will completely alter the course of life as we know it, but it is a difference to someone, and that makes me happy.
What makes you want to volunteer?
Have you faced any challenges or difficulties in your projects? How do you deal with them?
What is your favourite volunteering project so far? What were the highlights?
To date, I think my favourite volunteering project was painting the mural with TD Youth Earth Ambassadors. We painted a mural at West Hillhurst Community Centre, and although I’m not usually very into artistic things (with the exception of music and band) I had a lot of fun doing it! It took a while to finish, and was definitely quite a bit of work, but the finished product was so worth it. The highlights of that project would’ve been both seeing it when it was finished, and how great it turned out, and also painting with the other committee members. I got to know a lot of them better, making me love that committee even more than I did at first!
What was your initiative for beginning an environmental club in your school? Do you think the club is effective in its goals?
What is the most significant thing that you have learned from volunteering? Has it changed your life?
The most significant thing I have learned from volunteering is that I can always help someone, and it has become important to me that I do just that. It is a special experience, volunteering, and it has taught me that it doesn’t matter the place I am in in my life, I can always make time to help people, and that will not only help others, but it will also benefit me. Volunteering has definitely transformed my life! I find that in time that I would have previously spent trying to find an activity to pass the time, I am doing things that will help someone. I feel like volunteering has made me a better person, because now, in my free time, I am always looking for a way to do help out, this makes me feel way better than whatever I did in the past ever did. I am definitely contributing more positively to society this way!
Where do you plan to take your volunteering path in the future?