Please do your best

[WDmommyof4]

Something has been nagging at me since last weekend and I wanted to get it off my chest somehow. I am not claiming that anyone on the DIS has done this, but it is being done none the less.

On Saturday, three of my children, my mom and I all went to volunteer for the Give a Day Get a Day program at a local trash pickup day in a not so great part of town. There were tons and tons of people there and the ladies heading the thing were not very organized. They told everyone to sign their name on a paper and go pick up trash and then they would check our names off when we were done. This wasn't too great because there was a possibility that your name was not on there at all, which actually was the case with one of my children, but that wasn't the problem.

The assignment was to pick up trash in the community for two hours. The problem is that there were people who obviously were just walking around wasting time. I saw no less than four young couples with not even a fourth of a garbage bag full the entire time. They just kept walking in circles while the guy held the bag and the girls put one little piece in every five minutes or so.

When my one son had to go to the bathroom shortly after we started there was a family sitting in the cafeteria of the school. When my second son had to use the restroom an hour in to the cleanup, the same family was still sitting there with an empty bag. I can honestly say that my children and I worked our butts off on this project and I feel everyone should have done the same. The idea is to volunteer and truly give our time, not slack off and be rewarded. Because of the lack of organization in the beginning everyone got started about 30 minutes late and many people left a half hour early, but still had their names checked off.

Did anyone else notice this when they did their volunteering? Sorry for the long post, but I needed to get that off my chest.

 

[LovableGluttons]

Something has been nagging at me since last weekend and I wanted to get it off my chest somehow. I am not claiming that anyone on the DIS has done this, but it is being done none the less.

On Saturday, three of my children, my mom and I all went to volunteer for the Give a Day Get a Day program at a local trash pickup day in a not so great part of town. There were tons and tons of people there and the ladies heading the thing were not very organized. They told everyone to sign their name on a paper and go pick up trash and then they would check our names off when we were done. This wasn't too great because there was a possibility that your name was not on there at all, which actually was the case with one of my children, but that wasn't the problem.

The assignment was to pick up trash in the community for two hours. The problem is that there were people who obviously were just walking around wasting time. I saw no less than four young couples with not even a fourth of a garbage bag full the entire time. They just kept walking in circles while the guy held the bag and the girls put one little piece in every five minutes or so.

When my one son had to go to the bathroom shortly after we started there was a family sitting in the cafeteria of the school. When my second son had to use the restroom an hour in to the cleanup, the same family was still sitting there with an empty bag. I can honestly say that my children and I worked our butts off on this project and I feel everyone should have done the same. The idea is to volunteer and truly give our time, not slack off and be rewarded. Because of the lack of organization in the beginning everyone got started about 30 minutes late and many people left a half hour early, but still had their names checked off.

Did anyone else notice this when they did their volunteering? Sorry for the long post, but I needed to get that off my chest.

Oh yes! We saw a family coerce the coordinatyor into signing their form without actually doing the activity.

My 13 year old son looked at me and said "Mom, how do you go to Disney knowing you cheated someone to do it?"

 

[eeyorethegreat]

That is sad. i am sorry to hear that people ould do this. I hope that there are more checks and balances that these organizations are using to ensure the work is being done. Its too bad they didn't have someone making sure that all volunteer work was done as expected. At least you can feel good knowing that you did a good thing for your community. Maybe you could write Disney of the experience. Don't know that they would do anything about how the program is run but they would probably appreciate knowing that some of the organizations involved in this are just signing off for people who are not doing the volunteer work.

 

[WDmommyof4]

Oh yes! We saw a family coerce the coordinatyor into signing their form without actually doing the activity.

My 13 year old son looked at me and said "Mom, how do you go to Disney knowing you cheated someone to do it?"

Luckily none of that happened here, they at least had to appear to be doing something, but is should not be that hard to give a few hours of time to help others.

That is sad. i am sorry to hear that people ould do this. I hope that there are more checks and balances that these organizations are using to ensure the work is being done. Its too bad they didn't have someone making sure that all volunteer work was done as expected. At least you can feel good knowing that you did a good thing for your community. Maybe you could write Disney of the experience. Don't know that they would do anything about how the program is run but they would probably appreciate knowing that some of the organizations involved in this are just signing off for people who are not doing the volunteer work.

This is a good idea. I don't think it was the organizations fault, I think they just assumed that everyone was off picking up the trash. I suppose they could have asked us to bring them our trash bags before throwing them away, to verify that we really did the work.

What is sad is that this school was the starting point, but you were supposed to pick up in the community. However, we went down a road right in front of the school towards the end of our time and there was loads of trash so obviously no one had been down there. With the amount of people that were there, the immediate community should have been spotless, but sadly it wasn't when we left.

 

[Darsa]

Wow, it is so sad that people are truly THAT pathetic. Disgusting.

 

[delmar411]

I'm not surprised at all honestly. Many of those types of activities draw in those who are simply slackers. Even the Project Linus one that my family did had a ton of no shows for the drop off.
I heard them discussing what to do about it and they were just going to let Disney know who didn't show up and let them deal with it.

I really hope no one here would take advantage of this and not do their best but the reality is that some people look to take the easiest way out.

 

[dhdozier]

No matter where you go or what the cause, there will ALWAYS be slackers!

 

[bumbershoot]

No matter where you go or what the cause, there will ALWAYS be slackers!

Absolutely.

I took part in a highway cleanup. We got nothing out of signing up except feeling proud that we'd helped clean a highway that woulds tay clean for about 2 hours, LOL.

So there was no coercing at all. And still there were slackers who were more interested in the Krispy Kremes someone bought (warm donuts on an already broiling SC day? gag!) than in picking up more than a few pieces of garbage that day.

 

[weewuvvdisney]

There will always be people like that.

We have contacted two organizations about volunteering (there aren't too many options in our area). The first one only needs people in April/May. We are going to DW end Feb/beg March.

The second one has yet to answer us. I looked back at the listings and realized that the second group wants people to volunteer on entire projects/fundraisers. I wonder if they will get the people they want.

We will volunteer for sure to the first one and donate our tickets to a charity that was recommended. It will feel good to know that sick children will benefit from our volunteering.

 

[mrebuck]

I've been coordinating a volunteer program for the homeless shelter on which I serve as a board member. I am happy to report that people have been going above and beyond when it comes to completing our projects. So while it doesn't surprise me that some people trying to take advantage of the program, there are many, many people, like yourselves, who are really giving in the spirit of the program and treating it as a teaching opportunity for our children. Unfortunately it sounds as though your experience was a teaching moment for your son - he learned that everyone's hearts are not always in the right place.

 

[hello kitty]

There were MANY slackers at our event, but I feel the organization was partly to blame.

Copied from another thread....

We volunteered to clean 6 parks. I have to admit, it was a less than satisfying experience. I don't feel like the organization really needed our help.

We were scheduled for 8:30am to 1:00pm. The place was packed when we showed up because they had several different projects going on.... Park Beautification (us), Mural Painting, Flower/Tree Planting, Crafting, Haitian Relief and American Redcross. Super!

We were the first group out for our project and we were sent to a park (slab of concrete, two hoops and some grass) that was maybe the size of a gas station. It took us about 20 minutes because the park was already fairly clean. The team leader then told us to fill out an evaluation form and take it back to the school to checkout. She had called ahead to the other groups and was told that the other parks weren't dirty enough to bother with.

We got back to the school and were in line to checkout when one of the organizers got uppity and declared, after already checking out quite a few people, that if we left we would not get anything because we had not done enough and were not there long enough. Okay. I agreed with that. I was disappointed that we hadn't done more.

She threw us off on the Red Cross, who told her that they didn't have any work for us, and stomped off with a major attitude. The organizer for the Red Cross was extremely apologetic and nice. She got us some gloves and trash bags and told us we could just pick up trash around the campus. Great! The only problem was that the campus was fairly clean also.

To sum it up, they had way too many volunteers come and nowhere near enough work. We spent an additional 2 hours "cleaning" something that didn't really need cleaning when we could have been making a difference somewhere else. And when I say we, I mean my kids and me along with a few others. Quite a few volunteers hung out by or in their cars just waiting for the time to pass. I even overheard a few that went for a late breakfast then came back. I can't say that I blame them, but it left a bad taste in my mouth.

It's not what I expected and I wouldn't work with this particular group again. I will, however, continue to volunteer because I believe it is important to give back and this has made me realize that we just don't do enough.

 

[Princess Disney Mom]

Well I guess people will use the same work ethic they have when they volunteer. I am a type A get it done person so I worked the full time and did not break for the snacks they offered. That is just me.

I would imagine these slackers will approach WDW just that way and won't make it to rope drop, won't have ADR's and won't do much. Also they don't have the pride of work well done and that is most important.

 

[sweetpeakaris]

This is truely sad, and these people who slack are bad role models for the children that come help out.

 

[DawnM]

That is too bad.

I am very excited about our volunteer activity this Friday. we will be helping with the Special Olympics bowling tournament. My kids will be able to use this experience towards their scout badges too, so it will do double duty. We are scouts and fully believe in doing our best.

Dawn

 

[ckdsnynt]

I'm wondering if some of these organizations were surprised by the turnout or simply poorly organized to begin with?

 

[WDmommyof4]

There will always be people like that.

We have contacted two organizations about volunteering (there aren't too many options in our area). The first one only needs people in April/May. We are going to DW end Feb/beg March.

The second one has yet to answer us.

Keep looking. New opportunities would pop up in our area. It took me a while to find one that would answer me and that would accept children as young as six.

I've been coordinating a volunteer program for the homeless shelter on which I serve as a board member. I am happy to report that people have been going above and beyond when it comes to completing our projects. So while it doesn't surprise me that some people trying to take advantage of the program, there are many, many people, like yourselves, who are really giving in the spirit of the program and treating it as a teaching opportunity for our children. Unfortunately it sounds as though your experience was a teaching moment for your son - he learned that everyone's hearts are not always in the right place.

I am so glad to hear that some are giving it there all! I wonder if it has anything to do with the type of project it is?

There were MANY slackers at our event, but I feel the organization was partly to blame.

Copied from another thread....

We volunteered to clean 6 parks. I have to admit, it was a less than satisfying experience. I don't feel like the organization really needed our help.

We were scheduled for 8:30am to 1:00pm. The place was packed when we showed up because they had several different projects going on.... Park Beautification (us), Mural Painting, Flower/Tree Planting, Crafting, Haitian Relief and American Redcross. Super!

We were the first group out for our project and we were sent to a park (slab of concrete, two hoops and some grass) that was maybe the size of a gas station. It took us about 20 minutes because the park was already fairly clean. The team leader then told us to fill out an evaluation form and take it back to the school to checkout. She had called ahead to the other groups and was told that the other parks weren't dirty enough to bother with.

We got back to the school and were in line to checkout when one of the organizers got uppity and declared, after already checking out quite a few people, that if we left we would not get anything because we had not done enough and were not there long enough. Okay. I agreed with that. I was disappointed that we hadn't done more.

She threw us off on the Red Cross, who told her that they didn't have any work for us, and stomped off with a major attitude. The organizer for the Red Cross was extremely apologetic and nice. She got us some gloves and trash bags and told us we could just pick up trash around the campus. Great! The only problem was that the campus was fairly clean also.

To sum it up, they had way too many volunteers come and nowhere near enough work. We spent an additional 2 hours "cleaning" something that didn't really need cleaning when we could have been making a difference somewhere else. And when I say we, I mean my kids and me along with a few others. Quite a few volunteers hung out by or in their cars just waiting for the time to pass. I even overheard a few that went for a late breakfast then came back. I can't say that I blame them, but it left a bad taste in my mouth.

It's not what I expected and I wouldn't work with this particular group again. I will, however, continue to volunteer because I believe it is important to give back and this has made me realize that we just don't do enough.

It does seem as though the project was not well thought out. I really couldn't fault the volunteers in that case.

This is truely sad, and these people who slack are bad role models for the children that come help out.

This is exactly what I was thinking too. The family that was hiding out near the bathrooms had a young girl on stage who was just putting on her own little concert lol.

 

[cats mom]

I'm wondering if some of these organizations were surprised by the turnout or simply poorly organized to begin with?

Could be yes to both parts of your question.

I was talking with a Project Linus coordinator this week and she said getting 200+ messages in just one day in the inbox she set up specifically for the Disney program has not been uncommon. She also said that while she has received some very nice blankets, she has also received some that she considered un-useable. Some were clearly not new, and some folks tried to cut corners on the fabric purchase so much that the blankets they ended up with were so small she couldn't use them. She has also had people yell at her because they didn't get their tickets in time for their Disney trip. Sheesh, she's a volunteer too, and is doing the best she can.

As I understand it the Disney promo was originally pitched as way for organizations to reward loyal volunteers they already had and maybe pick up a few more. I don't think they were prepared for the huge response. And sadly some of that response has been from folks like the ones mentioned in this thread.

 

[littlbugmom]

My 13 year old son looked at me and said "Mom, how do you go to Disney knowing you cheated someone to do it?"

He's awesome.

 

[littlbugmom]

There will always be lazy people at these things. It's too bad, really.


I'm going to admit that I'm too lazy to sign up for the Give-A-Day options I see listed for my area. My family does a little volunteer work during the year but it's not hard labor. I've searched our area's options and there is nothing I could do that wouldn't take 6hrs of my time and some good muscles.

Now, I'm not happy to admit that I'm too lazy to do these jobs but at the same time, I'm proud that I'm honest enough to NOT sign up for something I don't intend to do my best at.

 

[DisneyShannon]

I am a department manager for work. Are you sure those slackers didn't come from my job. Lord knows I have a crap load of people who are lazy.