An Elephant-Sized Thank You!

By Guest Blogger Jeremy Rhodes, Executive Director of Elephant Thoughts

Jeremy and Elephant Thoughts were also a two-time Getinvolved.ca feature in our series – watch the stories HERE and HERE.

On any given day at Elephant Thoughts I am both humbled and inspired by our volunteer team.  It seems almost trite to say that we would not be the organization we are without volunteers, but it is so very true.  Every day when I come to work, no matter in what part of the world that might I have the good fortune to work, I always find working with volunteers to be one of the most rewarding aspects of my job.  Their selfless drive to contribute and help others with absolutely no compensation for themselves inspires me to give more of myself to this job.  If others are giving so much of themselves without reward then I know the cause we are fighting for must be worth it. It validates our work to have people that I respect and admire so much, give of themselves to help us.  If people like our incredible team of volunteers believe in us, we must be doing something right.

From the very beginning of Elephant Thoughts it has been one of our founding principles to try and create an environment that attracts people from all walks of life to come and use their passion and expertise to benefit others.  There is an incredible diversity in the people who come to volunteer at Elephant Thoughts and that diversity is part of our strength.  In our volunteer pool we have high school students, teachers, university students, lawyers, engineers, business people, trades people, village elders, artists and filmmakers and so many others.  They all have a unique perspective and arsenal of expertise to bring to the table and as such help make us a strong and well-rounded organization.  Watching and interacting with such a unique gathering of individuals all working together contributing to a greater good, always leaves me with a feeling that I am very lucky to learn from such wonderful people.

There is not a single component of our organization that is not bettered by the selfless work of volunteers.  On any day at Elephant Thoughts you can find volunteers in the developing world helping us build a school, or volunteers taking their precious weeks of vacation to travel to the far north with us to help teach, or people working around the office keeping it efficient, clean and working smoothly.  Like any charity, we struggle day-to-day to meet our bottom line financially.  Any organization set up specifically to give money away to others is always going to be in need.  Yet the volunteers have so much greater value than just the many thousands of dollars a year they save us in manpower.  They bring passion, drive, creativity, ideas, networking, inspiration and so much more to the table.

To name but a few of the amazing volunteers we have at Elephant Thoughts, there is Mandy Clarke-Bridson, a full time teacher in the Simcoe County District School Board who single handedly organizes and fundraises for our entire child sponsorship program.  Because of her more than 100 of the world’s poorest children all go to good schools, have all their medical needs taken care of, and their families are beginning small revenue generation projects which will provide an income for them for years to come.

There is young Chris Patterson, a high school student who you can find operating our store 3-4 days a week after school and Saturdays ,and taking care of our precious endangered reptiles.

There is a team of lawyers Susan Morley, Vic Vandergust, Greg Farano, who have selflessly saved our bottom line by providing us with free legal work over the years.

There is Dale Campsall, Jim Rhodes, and Lorne Kenney: Jim and Dale retired teachers, Lorne a very busy local businessman, who volunteer their time and go north for weeks on end to teach.

There is an army of amazing people who spend their weekends representing us well at our special events and functions. That is just to name a few.  Over the years dozens of working teachers have helped us train other teachers in the developing world, elementary school children have fundraised passionately for kids they have never nor will never meet, Rotarians have pitched in not just financial resources but thousands of hours of time as well.  Wow, what a difference in the lives of others all of these people have made.

To every one of our volunteers, I sincerely thank you.  You are the heart and soul of Elephant Thoughts.  We recognize your contributions wholeheartedly.  We so appreciate you and your accomplishments and so appreciate the honour of knowing and working alongside you all.  Congratulations for all the good you do.

Sincerely,

Jeremy Rhodes

Executive Director, Elephant Thoughts