The November Project this year is again different than any previous year! What makes it so different you ask? Well, for one thing, each day I made a short video instead of a photograph. Another way that NP 2018 is different is that each day's video is based on the volunteer work that I did that day.
My plan for this year was to make my practice more socially engaging. To do this I thought that I would volunteer at a different organization each day of the month and make a short video to go with it. I know that many businesses and organizations are always in need of volunteers to work for them and I thought it would not be difficult to work at a different place each day of the month.
Au contraire, mon Ami, I was correct that many organizations like to have volunteers, but what I did not figure was how much time it takes to set yourself up as a volunteer and as has been the usual procedure with the NP I let November arrive without much worry. I did in fact schedule several days of volunteering in advance and did make a list of various organizations with whom I'd like to volunteer and a few that I figured wouldn't turn me down.
Below is my calendar of the month's activities combined with some family items which I always have to consider.
As you can see on the calendar I ended up returning to several of the same organizations more than once and because on some days, I couldn't find an organization to volunteer for in some cases I invented my own service such as cleaning up Mother Earth.
One thing that I did not expect, which was a little naive of me, was that most organizations want their volunteers to keep returning and that after you volunteer somewhere you meet people and sort of build a bond. If you don't come back you are in a way commenting on the organization. That is the reason why I changed my plan of volunteering at 30 different places and returned to certain organizations more than once.
Because identifying more worthy organizations to volunteer with was an ongoing task I ended up learning about new organizations that I'd never heard of before as the month progressed. In more than one case, I could not be added as a volunteer to each business that I contacted before the end of November. I do plan to return to a couple of these organizations when I can, but one that I will be volunteering with starting in January 2019 is Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center. I'm not sure what I will do next November, but volunteering as art was a great experience and even though some situations were strange I had fun too. In all but one case I did not even bring up the topic that I considered the volunteering art. Usually, everyone was so busy to get their work done that they did not want to go into detail about why I was volunteering. Please watch the video.
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