Friday night I had the priviledge to volunteer with Oxfam America at the Coldplay concert in Des Moines. This was, without a doubt, one of the best volunteering experiences I've had.
I was especially excited to volunteer because I was aware of what Oxfam America does through organizing a Skip-A-Meal at Iowa State University and attending a hunger banquet.
Oxfam is an international non-profit devoted to creating lasting solutions for hunger, poverty and injustice. They work in over 26 countries and their campaigns help raise awareness and funds for issues such as Fair Trade, Climate Change, Workers Rights and more.
As volunteers for the Coldplay concert, we talked to fans before the show to tell them more about Oxfam and to ask them to sign a petition urging President Obama and other world leaders to help those in underdeveloped areas affected by Climate Change.
Sure, there were rude peope or people only interested in the raffle for free stuff but what I'll remember are the people who wanted to learn more and have a conversation with me.
Not all of them agreed with the petition or just didn't want to sign for one reason or another but an impact was still made. The impact that said,
"Hey, this is an issue that we care about and that Oxfam and Coldplay care about. We care about it so much that we're volunteering our time and going out to talk to random strangers to help spread the word."
P.S. Volunteering does have its perks--we scored tenth row center seats, ground level, at the concert! <3>
