for quite some time my family have been encouraging me to volunteer at The Leaf…

I considered it and eventually decided to apply… the application process begins in March and starts with an online form… I still find it difficult to talk about my qualities…

after a few weeks I was invited to register for an in-person meeting, which I did… I got a message two days before the actual meeting time saying they were expecting me that morning, about 40 minutes from when the email arrived… yikes… thankfully I called and was told the email was an error and my appointment was when I expected… took a few moments for my heart to settle down, lol…

I arrived for the meeting right on time and had a lovely half hour with a volunteer who shared information and also asked a few questions… it was interesting to learn about some of the opportunities that are available…

next was an email with four modules to review and then register for an in-person orientation…

the four online modules were informative and straightforward and once they were completed, I signed up for a three-hour orientation to take place somewhere at APC…

the first one was cancelled due to illness, so I ended up at one a few weeks later… we met in one of the zoo camp classrooms…

there were twenty of us in the class and we learned together in small and large groups… it was a great opportunity to meet with others who wanted to help out as volunteers…

after nine more hours of training, I will be an APC volunteer…

part 2 to come;-)…