So, since we were chosen to be the next Habitat for Humanity family, Dan and I get to do 250 volunteer hours each. Part of my hours have been spent registering Monterey County's H4H for Disney's "Give a Day. Get a Day." program. Shortly after getting this set up, I noticed a critical problem.
We didn't have control over what volunteer opportunities were posted.
Why? Because at some point, someone registered our local H4H with 1-800-volunteer, a service that hooks volunteers up with organizations who need them. The Disney program pulls automatically pulls volunteer information from this site. Sadly, no one at the local H4H knew anything about 1-800-volunteer.org Thus began my mission, to find out how to log into our account, so we could edit our volunteer opportuities....
It began by calling the H4H support center for affiliates. Last Friday I left a message. I called back today and talked to 4 people. Nobody knew anything about 1-800-volunteer. "Two phone calls?" you say. "That's it?" Ah, but let me tell you about those phone calls. Problem #1-- I really don't know what I'm talking about. I don't know the vocabulary I need to turn this 15 minute drama into a1 minute explanation about what's going on. The support center asks, "What's 1-800-volunteer?" and, quite frankly, I don't know what it is myself. But I do know it's what's getting in my way. Problem #2-- It's raining. Which mean Normandy and Zerin are running around the house playing, loudly. And every 5 minutes I need to fix Zerin's lego truck 'cause breaks. And they're hungry. And I can't get through a 10 minute phone conversation on the best of days. I can barely think about laundry, let alone how to talk to a stranger about something I know nothing about when they act like this.
At some point, I realize that I'm better off contacting 1-800-volunteer directly. And this is the gold mine I was hoping for. At 4:03pm, some very nice guy answers the phone. He knows exactly what I'm talking about before the I finish my convoluted sentence. He transfers me to the all powerful Gilda. She can fix it. Without batting a mascaraed eyelash or breaking a manicured nail. And that's it. I have a user name. And a password.
And hungry kids who demand dinner. And legos to clean up. And laundry to fold. And dishes to wash. They all threaten to destroy the success I feel from accomplishing one thing in my 18 hour day. The one thing that can not be undone by 4 busy, smart, beautiful children. No matter how hard they try, they can't take my username and password.
Lysa
Our house:
The stairs... they don't go anywhere yet.
wow! This is amazing! I'm so happy that you were chosen and that Gilda was able to help you!
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