Who Is Involved

"Building Inclusive Communities in Seattle"

Anne and Christina: Friends Hanging Out and Helping Out

Anne and Christina have known each other since preschool days. Although Anne is finishing her degree at Seattle University and Christina is working at the Little Anchor Childcare, they see each other almost every Saturday because they volunteer together at Children's Hospital. Anne calls it "a good way to hang out with each other every weekend. We hang out and help out at the same time."

Anne and Christina got the idea to volunteer at Children's Hospital when they took part in a Get Involved in Your Neighborhood workshop put on by Involving All Neighbors. The workshop was for persons with developmental disabilities who wanted to get involved in their neighborhood but didn't know how. Each participant came to the workshop with a friend to make the first steps of neighborhood involvement more comfortable and fun -the buddy system.

Anne and Christina identified their common interests as children and books. They explored their neighborhood to find out what goes on there. Christina lives near Children's Hospital. From that realization it was a short jump to the idea of volunteering to read to children who were patients at the hospital.

Christina and Anne called Children's Volunteer Office. They provided personal recommendations, interviewed with the volunteer coordinator, were tested for TB, went through a State Patrol check, and attended a two-hour orientation session. Anne and Christina were then ready to volunteer and were assigned messenger duty. For two hours every Saturday afternoon, they delivered specimens from the hospital wings to the lab, flowers and balloons to children, and wheelchairs to the greeter's desk. There were also special projects like making infant bracelets and labeling envelopes. They soon learned their way around the enormous hospital.

Anne knew she would not be available to volunteer with Christina the following summer and wanted to find a replacement so Christina could continue to volunteer. One person she asked was leaving town for the summer, another was too busy. Anne happened to mention her disappointment to her friend Scott and out of the blue he said he would take her place. He began while Anne was still in town, and the two took turns volunteering with Christina. Christina was able to continue at Children's and made a new friend at the same time.

When they showed up at the Get Involved in Your Neighborhood workshop, Anne and Christina had no idea what they were getting into. They couldn't see themselves working to restore streams or growing vegetables in community gardens like some other participants wanted to do. They stuck to activities they were interested in and they stuck close to home, and that made it possible to begin and keep going.

Learn more about the strategies Anne and Christina used.