I love lending a helping hand! At family holiday gatherings, where can you find me? In the kitchen, helping the host/hostess prepare, serve and clean up after meals. Every 56 days, where can you find me? At a LifeBlood blood drive donating blood. You’ll also find me at the Memphis International Airport at 6:00 weekend mornings meeting Make-A-Wish families helping them check-in, navigate through security and board the plane for their “amazing wish adventure.”

My path to Volunteer Odyssey began a few short weeks ago while attending a Career Transition meeting when the meeting facilitator mentioned Volunteer Odyssey to another attendee.

Well, thinking back a bit further, my path to Volunteer Odyssey began earlier.

At the end of 2014, after 18 years working with a Fortune 500 manufacturing company headquartered in Memphis, I was laid off. I was devastated. Not to mention, terrified about looking for and finding my next career opportunity. After a week or two, I decided to look at this as a great chance to do something new and different. With my enthusiasm for providing world-class customer service while using my strengths in process improvement and problem solving, I was on my way to landing a job with a company I’d work with for the next half of my career. Or, so I thought.

Sure, my job search list included local non-profit organizations, but I continued to mostly apply for corporate positions. And, naturally, that’s where I landed, twice, over the past 2 years. In 2015, I worked as a purchasing manager. Over the summer of 2016, I worked as a client services manager.

I resigned from both positions. Something was missing. But what? Did the responsibilities of the roles not play to my skills? Do I want more daily interaction with external “customers” than the positions provided?

After hearing about Volunteer Odyssey and looking through their website, I contacted Sarah, the Founder and Executive Director. Shortly after, I met with Sarah and Caroline. I shared with them my passion for animal welfare and as a native Memphian, my love for all-things-Memphis! We talked about my previous volunteer work with the Germantown Animal shelter (where I adopted my current four-legged baby 12 years ago) and my board member experience with Lamplighter Montessori School (where I graduated from….a bit more than 12 years ago).

Participating in Volunteer Odyssey’s Job Seekers program is a wonderful opportunity to make a meaningful difference to those in our community; learn more about organizations that provide valuable, often life changing support; and meet amazing people! And who knows…..maybe this will help me find the aspects of a career opportunity that have been missing.

I hope you will follow me on my Volunteer Odyssey journey by reading my blogs here and following me on Facebook!