National Make a Difference Day

Some of my fellow corpsmembers and I volunteered at an equestrian therapy

ranch for National Make a Difference Day

What an excellent Saturday! I hope yours has been just as good. If you didn't already know today is National Make a Difference Day, and people all across this great nation are volunteering in their communities. It is estimated over 3 million people will be volunteering. I'm am so glad that I got a chance to be a part of this wonderful tradition. 

Every weekend our California Conservation Corps corpsemembers (cms for short) go out on volunteer projects. They are required to get 48 hours of volunteer service (community and the environment component) to receive their scholarship. I decided it would be fun if I joined them. I am an avid believer in volunteering - I volunteered quite a bit in college and I have wanted to do more since I've been back in San Luis Obispo. And what an opportunity this was! 

Me and about 10 other cms first headed to Cal Poly Technic University at 8:30 am to get our assignment and some breakfast. We found out we were assigned to a therapeutic equestrian ranch. We grabbed some bagels and fruit they were serving and then headed out around 10:00 am. after getting lost for a bit, we finally arrived at the ranch. The program that they have going on at the ranch is a noble one - they offer therapeutic horse rides to children and others with disabilities. So we were more than willing to help out. Our group split up, about three or four of us got to wash down the horse, while the rest of us (including me) got to scoop up the horse poop. After a while we came together for lunch (pizza), and then had the opportunity to switch roles. However it turned out scooping up the horse poop was much more entertaining than washing (at least for the others and me who had been doing that), so we continued. We finished the poop scooping in no time, which was no small feat mind you, and the ranch owner/volunteer coordinator, impressed by our work ethic, had to find more work for us. There was a group of Cal Poly students volunteering as well, but we clearly out-worked them (yes I am bragging about my Cs). 

Yes, that is horse doo doo that I am hauling away 

We rebuilt a stone path for them, and did some sweeping. At about 1:30 pm we all came together for group photo (see above). The owner was very impressed, and we might return again to do more volunteer work in the future. I had a lot of fun and the cms really enjoyed it too, and some even made loving bonds with the equine. It feels so amazing to volunteer. I would really like to do it again. I suggest that everyone should volunteer their time as much as they can. You can really make a difference. 

-Cheers