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Volunteer Experiences at the AIDS Conference
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| mercure |
Well,
Day 1 of my week-long volunteering was yesterday. I was in the Global Village, which was pretty impressive with hundreds of booths and exhibits from people all over the world. The volunteer work was pretty boring, though.
My first task was to move chairs around the main stage, which annoyed the other volunteer I was working with because then he had nothing to do. Then it was 2 hours of standing around and occasionally helping people find their way somewhere (or not find their way since the staff didn't really tell us about the layout or where everything was at the conference centre). And some of the people there were little piggies - there was trash everywhere around the stage, empty bottles, crushed up coffee cups, candy bar wrappers, big puddles of spilled coffee and water. Ugh.
Highlights:
- a spoken word/rap performance by this group called the 411 Inititiative which was pretty cool - http://www.whatsthe411.ca/index.asp?pageID=1
- talking to a lot of the delegates and exhibitors between my very important tasks of standing around doing nothing
In the end I was let go early. I guess they realized, after moving me to an empty lounge that already had 4 bored volunteers standing around not doing anything, that they had too many people.
Off to catch Clinton's speech before beginning Round 2. |
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| *~LiSa-LoO~* |
| quote: | Originally posted by mercure
there was trash everywhere around the stage, empty bottles, crushed up coffee cups, candy bar wrappers, big puddles of spilled coffee and water. Ugh.
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I hope you helped to throw away some of the empty bottles and such.
Signed,
Ms. Environment
Good for you for volunteering at the conference though. |
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| Misanthrope |
| nice! thanks for the thread - i've always wondered what it's like to volunteer at these things. I've always wanted to, but i don't. |
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| dallastar |
good for you for volunteering ydour time!
I would too, if I had the time
let us know if you meet or even see anyone famous!
xxoo |
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| mercure |
| quote: | Originally posted by *~LiSa-LoO~*
I hope you helped to throw away some of the empty bottles and such.
Signed,
Ms. Environment
Good for you for volunteering at the conference though. |
I did, and I even looked for recycling bins for them. However, annoyingly, all I could find were regular trash bins.
So, today was round 2 of volunteering. A lot more time spent doing fairly little. Or at least, little officially. There was nothing for me to do in my sections, so I wandered around the whole Global Village complex.
I chatted with a cool anti-war Israeli chick who's studying in Toronto for the summer, and another woman who's running in the Municipal election this year. I talked to a lot of activists and NGO workers trying to deal with a whole range of issues in Africa. Saw a cool Kenyan dance performance, and heard a west african percussion band. Also caught part of Stephen Lewis and Bill Clinton's talks and Q&A session.
Didn't do much in the way of productive volunteer work, though. Too many volunteers, not enough to do. |
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| *~LiSa-LoO~* |
| quote: | Originally posted by mercure
I did, and I even looked for recycling bins for them. However, annoyingly, all I could find were regular trash bins.
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That's my boy!
I'm also a stickler for recyclying. I make a point of recylcing at the bookstore I work at. I notice a lot of the time people throw paper in the trash, so I'll take it out and put it in the recycle bin. I noticed something I didn't like the other day...the janitor (who I might add is lazy as ), was emptying out all the little recycle bins into the trash can! I was completely appauled by this. I didn't want to say anything...but I wish I had spoken up. |
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| 2famous4u |
| awesome to hear you are helping out!! I am a firm believer in the fight against Aids.. anything is possible.. and one of the first steps is awareness... and thats what this convention is all about... good stuff! |
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| VERTiG0 |
| So is this conference thingy going to suddenly change millions of peoples' views on contraception, or is it yet another thing to make North Americans feel like they're doing something to fix a huge issue elsewhere in the world? |
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| mercure |
| quote: | Originally posted by VERTiG0
So is this conference thingy going to suddenly change millions of peoples' views on contraception, or is it yet another thing to make North Americans feel like they're doing something to fix a huge issue elsewhere in the world? |
It's rare that anything big suddenly changes.
And the conference is largely Non-North Americans, talking about their own issues and what they've been doing in their own countries to try to deal with them. |
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| mercure |
Day 3
No official Conference volunteer shifts today. But in a non-official capacity I went to help out with a panel discussion and networking session that NextAid - www.nextaid.org - was involved with. NextAid is the organization I'm doing this fundraiser for, on Thursday: Sustainable Groove. Besides setup, I shot a video of the whole session, and my girlfriend Sally (aka Allegory) took photos.
Afterwards we circulated, handing out flyers for the party and promoting it with the delegates and conference volunteers. Then we went to another session about how youth leaders in Africa and Asia are helping to address the AIDS crisis in their own countries. The first speaker was good, the second was clearly a future bureaucrat in the making so we bailed before falling asleep.
Then we went to Harbourfront to hear an incredibly inspiring talk from Stephen Lewis on what we need to do to deal with some of the most urgent issues right now. Then home for dinner, then off to Beba.
ps: for Dallas - after leaving Harbourfront when Stephen Lewis was finished we ran into him crossing the street, and I had the chance to compliment him on his talk and shake his hand. There's one famous encounter for you. :) |
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| Halycon |
this week has been HELL....
since sunday i've put in 65 hours... and i still have more to go.when will it end < cries> |
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| dEsidEL |
| quote: | Originally posted by Halycon
this week has been HELL....
since sunday i've put in 65 hours... and i still have more to go.when will it end < cries> |
still probably not as bad as the hell going on in Africa .. i guess it could always be worse
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