We LOVE our Volunteers

Here at PEACE, we often rely on the love and hard work of our dedicated volunteers. Over the years, we have had teams of people who have helped us build parks, teach English, develop and carry out programs, help countless numbers of animals, design and create graphics and imagery that we use every day... and the list goes on and on. We love and appreciate the volunteers that pass through our doors every single day.

In January, we were lucky enough to have a team of amazing students come help us to reach our goals. The team from Northern Illinois University had specific work plans before they arrived at the PEACE office. In order to offer the best possible volunteer experience, PEACE team members work together with volunteers to predetermine what their work schedule will be.

Dina Bach, Barbara Bach, Anna Stopa, Molyka Rath and David Hansel helped with important PEACE projects and initiatives. Dennis Barsema, a professor of Social Entrepreneurship and Micro-finance at Northern Illinois University, got the wheels rolling on this connection, and for that, we are incredibly grateful.

Here is a list of a few of the things they accomplished while there were here: 1) Made huge steps towards the completion of our 2009 Annual Report; 2) Set the groundwork for our micro-financing initiative; 3) Wrote and finalized the curriculum for our fabulous "Celebrate The Beat" program; 4) Created the curriculum for our Financial Education workshops with Manos Unidas; and 5) The PEACE team received a series of much needed Excel classes!

We also had a few visitors from the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD). Students from UMD have been to the Bay before, and have worked with several different non-profit and community groups in the area. Ivy Berg chose to focus her volunteer time working on curriculum development for Casa Comunidad's educational programs. Ivy and her friend Stephanie helped the Casa Comunidad Directors with the English curriculum and visual aides for English teachers.

In addition, we had another visit from our returning volunteer, Peter Doering, who donated three brand new Compaq notebooks to PEACE. During his stay, he gave several computer workshops to the PEACE team, as well as computer skills classes to students and teachers in the community. He also took groups of children to the movies, played games with them, and much more. Peter is a dedicated PEACE volunteer who has helped us tremendously in furthering our mission and reaching our goals. We look forward to his visit again next year!

Currently, we are working with several other volunteers, both long- and short-term. We will have more to come on them soon, but just so they all know... THANK YOU for everything you are doing, and continue to do for us, we greatly appreciate all that you do!

Do YOU want to volunteer at PEACE?

If you are interested in volunteering at PEACE, contact Nicole Majewski at nicole@peacemexico.org.

If you would like to become part of our amazing summer internship program, email internship@peacemexico.org. You can read more about our internship program by clicking here.

If you want to make your volunteer time in Mexico a retreat/vacation, check out one of our PEACE Partners at Destination: PEACE.