volunteermcpherson.com offers a chance to help

I’ve often marveled after a big meal, how much quicker things get cleaned up when everyone pitches in and helps. It reminds me of that saying “Many hands make light work.”

One of the biggest challenges of putting on any event whether it be Sunday dinner or a two-day festival is finding enough volunteers to help with all that needs to be done.

Local organizers of sports tournaments have told me finding volunteers is always a hurdle to putting on a tournament.

When I worked at the Sentinel, I would hear from readers that were looking for volunteer opportunities. At the CVB we look for volunteers for different activities all year and rely on the goodwill of the local newspaper and radio station to help get the word out.

It’s a struggle on both ends and I’ve kept my eye out for a way to bring the two groups together. Finally the solution came to me a few months ago. As a member of the Optimist Club I was introduced to a wonderful online tool for organizing sign-ups – mysignup.com. It’s free and anyone can use it, they just need access to a computer.

The catch is it’s not always easy to search out opportunities in your community so my office has created a Web site that is meant to act as a clearinghouse for organizations needing volunteer help. That site, called volunteermcpherson.com, simply lists and links to different sign-ups.

If your organization is in need of volunteers from the general public, I encourage you to use the Web sites.

Here’s how it works

· Go to mysignup.com and create an account

· Create as many volunteer sign-ups as you like.

· Then e-mail me the links for your sign-ups and I’ll add it to volunteermcpherson.com. My e-mail is cvb@mcphersonks.org.

Have questions? Contact me at the CVB, 241-3340, and remember, April is National Volunteer month.