My experience as a volunteer

To celebrate Volunteers’ Week between 1-7 June, Mery, one of our wonderful Rose Vouchers volunteers, shares her story:

“My name is Mery Calderon and I’m a Rose Vouchers volunteer at 1st Place. My role is to give out Rose Vouchers to families with children under 5. I scan the vouchers, stamp them with the date and give them to the families (4 for each child over 1, and 6 for the 0 – 1 year olds).

I really like working with children and families, and decided to get involved with 1st Place when my child was one years old and we were using a nearby playground. Volunteering is really gratifying and in my opinion, very beautiful. Everyone is different though and I would say that volunteering really needs to come from the heart. I volunteer in a couple of places including taking care of an elderly person, keeping them company and helping whenever I can. I also distribute food in a church.

The thing I most enjoy about being a volunteer at 1st Place is working with the families and their children. I do also really like it when someone who speaks Spanish comes to me and asks me to translate - that’s great too! Honestly, volunteering at 1st Place is an indescribable experience, which makes me really happy. I’m so glad to be volunteering here.”

To find out how you can get involved including volunteering your time, please visit our Get Involved page.