My First Time Volunteering!

            My first time volunteering at the RMH Family Room was a very busy three-hour shift. My volunteer manager came to show me the ropes on how the RMH Family Room is run, and I learned everything that a volunteer does in a normal shift. The family room is set up like a normal waiting room; however there are couches and comfy chairs since the families are in desperate need of a comfortable place to stay for the families since most of them have been at the hospital for many days, some for weeks. It also has a counter top with coffee and complimentary snacks. This is where the volunteers come in. My manager showed me how to set up the counter top, with baskets for different types of snacks, how to make the coffee, and how to clean up the room once my shift was over. I was also told to check people in and out of the room as they came and went.

            The duties that I have listed above do not seem too hard, right? Well that is because I have only mentioned the easy part. The heart of the Family Room is the people that are in it, not the coffee, or the snacks. I was trained how to make someone’s day better by talking to them or just keeping them company while they cry and express their emotions about their children in the hospital. After the first day, I could tell it was not going to be an easy volunteer position. I was very lucky that my volunteer manager prepared me for every kind of situation possible because if he hadn’t I would not have been capable of helping the people in the room.

            My first day went very well, and I was pleased with the conversations I had with some of the parents and enjoyed the stories they shared about their situations and explanations of why they were there. I learned many things that day, such as how to run the Family Room all by myself, and that stressed parents drink an enormous amount of coffee!