What’s a Virtual Volunteer?

A positive effect of the COVID pandemic is the proliferation of Webinars nowadays.  Because of the recommendations for social distancing and avoiding large gatherings I imagine.   Zoom, Facebook Live, or any of a dozen other platforms make it possible to sit at home and hear experts discuss any of a vast range of topics from finances, emergency management, church leadership; just about anything.  This is how my wife routinely attends meetings of her group of crafters.  She loves rubber stamping, and can sit at home with a tablet in her lap talking about the latest stamps or ink colors.  Now I’ve come to appreciate that usually these events are amazingly brief, with a large amount of content compressed into a short time.

My most recent webinar immediately peaked my interest.  It was sponsored by Thrivent Financial, and was on the topic of Virtual Volunteering.  I’ve done some volunteer work but never thought about volunteering “online.”  Seemed a bit far-fetched, based on the kinds of things that I’d done in the past.  How do you “Virtually Volunteer” anyhow?

The opportunities were amazing.  Everything from The Gutenberg Project to the American Red Cross, to The Smithsonian Institute.  You can volunteer for the United Nations or the United Way or your local hospital.  I’m getting a full list of the possibilities that were discussed, with web pages if you want to look into any of these by the way.

But one of the simplest ways that was discussed was just this, go to your favorite charity’s webpage and write a comment.  Or go to a search engine (I.E. Google) and write a recommendation for that charity.  How about doing this for Trinity LC?  Today the great majority of first time visitors to any church visit their webpage before setting foot in the front door.  Seeing comments about a church by it’s members gives a great insight into the congregation.  Want to give it a try?  Go to churchfinder.com, church.org or yellowpages.com, and search for churches in Trinity, FL. Find Trinity LC and leave a comment.  It’s a great way to invite someone you haven’t even met yet to join us in worshiping our risen Savior.