Greetings people. I am Lauren Wishon, the volunteer Volunteer Corrdinator this summer with DurhamCares. For most of my life I have lived with my family of Mom, Dad, older brother and sister, in North Raleigh. I went to Broughton High school and when it came time to chose a college I was determined to get out and spread my wings. Naturally I attended NC State University : ) I was not so happy about that decision at first, although it made sense, but God has challenged me and stretched me right here at home, and I have loved it! I have grown to love the triangle area and their ain't no shame in staying close to home (as long as you travel sometimes because the rest of the country...world, is pretty amazing too!)

I just graduated from NCSU in May with a BA in Political Science-International Politics and a minor in Middle Eastern Studies. Now I know this doesn't initially make sense considering I am currently a volunteer coordinator for a local Durham organization helping the community here. And to that I would have to say that focusing on international (especially Middle Eastern) issues during college has helped me understand that while I have a passion to serve the Middle East my community has many of the same issues, struggles, and needs. I was confused at first too: what would my purpose be in Durham? Being at DurhamCares and around the amazing people here I have come to love the simple commandment: Love Your Neighbor. And it isn't less gratifying, less interesting, or less important to serve the person in your back yard vs. the one over seas. They are all our neighbors!

I am grateful that I ended up at DurhamCares after seeking a job at a few places. Heather mentioned that I could volunteer and I thought why not- this place sounds pretty amazing. Needless to say, I plan on being here as long as possible! I grow more and more obsessed with what I do here every day. I work with the volunteer matching program that matches people's skills, passions, and interests to the communities needs in the form of long-term volunteer opportunities. That means there are two pieces to my job. First, I get to communicate with people that are willing and excited about volunteering in the community. They (you?) fill out the registration online and then we get to talk on the phone and I hear more about them. Then I go and search for a perfect match for their preferences, availability, passions, talents, etc. That leads me to the second part: networking with local not for profits to find out, and sometimes help them define, their needs. Many times they are used to talking about short-term opportunities that they are surprised when we ask: "If you had all the money in the world to hire staff members, what would those jobs look like". It is awesome to see a light go off when we say that and suddenly they give an eager description of volunteer opportunities that can strategically help them run and improve the organization! These jobs are SO varying for the many organizations we have built with relationships thus far. It has been difficult at times to meet and get to know all these amazing organizations and not be able to help them then and there myself, or find them all the volunteers they need, right away! So I say all this to hopefully help you blog readers to see that this isn't your typical volunteering and you have a chance to make a huge difference for your neighbor and see your impact : ) Do it! Love your neighbor! Volunteer!

I've come across an article from the New York Times that I think is of great importance to the world of helping people.   For to truly help lots of people, you need to first HELP lots of people HELP lots of people.

Here's what I mean:  people in Durham will continue to give less than 1% of their income to local charities until they are engaged in real personal stories.  The best way to do this, is of course, to get them engaged with real people.  Ideally this happens during an committed, sustained volunteering relationship.......one in which the volunteer finds that it's been THEIR life that's been transformed by the experience.  That is, of course, what we at DurhamCares are committed to helping people discover with placements with great local and international organizations.  Just short of these real world experiences are the individual stories that can be told via multi-media.

You see, people are moved by stories about other people.....not statistics.   Durham's (and the world's) charities need to fully appreciate and embrace that fact and have it evident in their communication strategy if they want to play the role that they can in dramatically moving the needle (up to 2,3 or even 4%).

I've probably gone on about this already too much, particularly when this author nails it.....please read on, and then help the organizations that you are involved with to apply what is in this article.  Durham and it's donors and donees will both be transformed by it:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/09/opinion/09kristof.html?_r=2

Editor's Note: Thomas (we call him TPayne) wrote it.  Heather posted it.

Greetings fans of DurhamCares!

My name is Thomas Payne and I hail from the great state of Utah in a small ski town called Park City. Where is Park City you may ask? Well, head West and stop when you find a beautiful little valley up in the Rockies with ski slopes streaming along the faces and ridges of the surrounding mountains and hills. Even though I love the mountains, I have spent the past 5 years on the East Coast at school. Most of it was spent in New York and just this last year Maryland.

In high school, I spent part of a summer interning at Bandwidth.com. I learned a great deal working in the customer service department and from the great people who worked around me. My main task was answering phones and helping work with customers to provide a variety of solutions for them. Overall I enjoyed the experience and North Carolina itself.

When it came time for colleges, I ended up applying to the three Military Academies and colleges with the ROTC scholarship. I decided that I wanted to serve my country directly out of college. In the end, I chose to attend the United States Naval Academy.

As of now, I am studying both Political Science and Chinese. I plan to serve in the Marine Corps but don't have to decide for another 2 years. Upon graduation from the Academy I must serve a minimum of 5 years in the Navy or Marine Corps. I have not decided at this point what I want to do with the rest of my life. I hope I will know in time but am not worried about what God has in store for me. After finishing my first year, I can honestly say I am very pleased with how things worked out even though life, plainly put, stunk for a while.

Since becoming part of the Navy, I have learned that I must be flexible. Thus, when my orders changed this summer, I decided to call my uncle, David Morken, to talk about interning at Bandwidth again. I hadn't heard much about DurhamCares yet, but when he mentioned the idea of interning there I became interested. I have wanted to do more work for the community after experiencing the work done every day by volunteers in New York City. And, in short, I love America and want to give back to the people. Thus I decided to give DurhamCares a shot. A few days later, I was greeted by Mr. Kaestner, Heather, Mike, and the other great interns

already at work loving their neighbor and I soon felt at home.

My job at DurhamCares primarily consists of video editing. I compile clips into an editing program and attempt to produce a video that gives others a good idea of what we are about and what we are doing. The program itself is just beginning, and I can't wait to see how it will grow and perhaps even move out West to a small ski town in the mountains - ParkCityCares anyone?

I have come to love the South, Durham, and the great people who I work with and meet every day.

Very Respectfully,

T.M. Payne
MIDN 3/C USN

Thomas between his Uncle Dan and Uncle David

Editor's Note: Blog entry is written by Jessica and only posted by Heather.

Hey guys! My name is Jessica Metcalf and I'm from Maiden, NC, a tiny town about two and a half hours west of Durham. I am a rising junior at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where I'm studying Public Relations. Growing up, I always wanted to be a doctor with a desire to help people. Then I realized that the medical field was about so much more than a typical Grey's Anatomy episode, and I decided it wasn't for me. I went into my freshman year of UNC having no idea what my future held. It was overwhelming, yet incredibly humbling to walk blind and fully trust the Lord's plan for my life. Before registering for classes at the end of my freshman year, I was forced to sit down and declare a major. Eventually, I settled with Journalism and Mass Communication. I say settled because I wasn't quite sure if that was in my future.

This past year, the Lord has just solidified my decision to work in Public Relations and has shown me over and over again that He has a future planned for me in this field. It's a relief to finally be able to answer someone when they ask the dreaded question, "So what do you want to do with your life?"

My summer at DurhamCares was literally dropped into my lap in the form of a church bulletin at The Summit Church. These past few weeks at DurhamCares have been exciting and incredibly encouraging. I'm working on planning the Durham tours, which will introduce Durham residents to new parts of the city and offer opportunities to engage with their neighbors in a new way.
I'm often so absorbed in the UNC bubble during the school year, focusing on school and other activities, I forget that there's so much going on in my community around me. I've been at UNC for two years now, yet I'd never bothered learning more about such an amazing city a few miles down the road from me. As I learn more about this city from people I meet and talk to, I'm beginning to see why Durham is so amazing.

It's refreshing to work with a group of people who truly have a heart for Durham and for engaging residents with their communities. I'm looking forward to the learning more from DurhamCares the rest of the summer and truly living out the phrase, "love your neighbor."

Editor's Note: posted by Heather but written by Maria!

Hey! I'm Maria. Although I'm originally from Cincinnati, once summer ends, I'll be returning to finish my Bachelor's degree at the University of Dallas - all the way down in Texas. What drew me to DurhamCares was its warm and wholehearted spirit. It is an organization that is prepared to make deliberate steps for positive change. The everyday fervor I find at the workplace is absolutely contagious. As a philanthropic organization, it stands out. DurhamCares is an organization that seeks to enrich Durham with the tools it already has: well-established charities and an enthusiastic, colorful community.

I'm still unsure of what my future entails after this summer, but I hope my experience as an intern gives me insight into the individuals of this unique and robust community, a community that is fervent in its wanting to improve. From what I've seen, Durham is far from being apathetic, and I look forward to using my talents this summer to help DurhamCares engage this diverse community. I hope to help Durham serve as a paradigm of involvement and pride that other communities around the world will later embrace and emulate.

Currently, I'm creating an informational DurhamCares video with Thomas. I am also co-organizing community interviews with Jonathan, editing, and eventually compiling our videotaped work onto the web.

So we want you to meet the interns working at DurhamCares this summer.  It's a great team with diverse skills and interests and we're having a great time together.   Tune in every day for the next five days and meet an intern!

Left to Right: Lauren Wishon, Jessica Metcalf, Thomas Payne, Jonathan Clarke, Maria Murdock

As you may recall, I promised to write a series of blogs about entrepreneurship. As an entrepreneur, I am remarkably biased about entrepreneurship, but I do think that the creativity, innovation and hard work that it requires can be a big part of Durham's economic development and resurgence. As entrepreneurs develop plans to engage in the community through volunteerism programs for their companies and employees (see bandwidthcares.org for an example), I think that entrepreneurship will bring much more to Durham than just the creation of wealth and jobs (though those are good goals as well, of course....particularly when that new found wealth is reinvested back in the community).

I firmly believe that the seeds for entrepreneurship can be sown very early in life. LemonadeDay (please see the blog on this from last week) hits on this concept, and so do video games. Video Games? Yes, video games. The folks from the Acton Foundation for Entrepreneurship have created a series of compelling video games to engage youth in learning the basics of entrepreneurship. http://www.actonsims.com/

If your kids are like my kids, video games are a huge draw. Kimberley and I don't have video games at the house but do allow our boys (we have 3, ages 3,5,7) to play games on my iphone when we are travelling. This has worked great for us, as it takes away some of the tedium of long wait in the airport, even if we just limit it to 30 minutes. The draw, though, of video games is so great that it's enough to tell them that they can play them later in the trip to keep them well behaved and excited. I'm not sure if video games had the same control over me while growing up, but the games (pong, then space invaders and pacman) weren't nearly as good as the ones that are out now. Ok, so far I'm not telling you anything that you didn't already know. So here goes:
You'll see from the actonsims website that there are several different games to play.

There are single player games like Galactic Zappers that teach kids how to overcome operations bottlenecks, and multiplayer games like Price Point. One of Acton's games that has been reviewed by gamesforchange.org that seems to have gotten some traction:
From: http://www.gamesforchange.org/main/gameprof/731

RoboRush! is meant to teach students how to build a business from the ground up. Students will start a small robot-manufacturing business through grassroots methods: pursuing sales, running efficient operations, and learning to say ‘no' to less-profitable customer requests. As the student progresses they will have the opportunity to scale up the business by making sound decisions and taking risks. In growing the business the student has the opportunity to hire staff, open a storefront, and even open a factory. As they do, they will find that the game play becomes more challenging as they find that managing staff, monitoring demand, and balancing profitability are not as easy as they may have originally imagined.

Another game associated with helping youth get interested in entrepreneurship is from the NFIB Young Entrepreneur Foundation is Johnny Money: www.NFIB.com/jmog. This looks to be worth checking out as well. Undoubtedly there are more online games as well, and I hope that folks add to this list in the comment section.

I still think that the best way to teach kids about entrepreneurship is through LemonadeDay.org, but as that program is designed to run once a year (though there's nothing holding kids back, of course, from doing it more frequently), these video games may present part of the solution for planting the seeds of entrepreneurship in Durham's kids from an early age...seeds that will hopefully sprout, grow and flourish to Durham's benefit for many years to come.