No more excuses: Why I’m volunteering in Nicaragua

I’m a little nervous you guys. I’m trying something new and outside my comfort zone. Tomorrow morning I’ll be boarding a plane to Nicaragua to volunteer with an Non-Governmental Organization called Glasswing International.

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But before I get ahead of myself, let me back up for a minute. The company that owns the radio station has a really cool perk — we get 40 hours a year of paid leave time if we use it for volunteering. In the 12-plus years we’ve worked here, I’ve taken advantage of this super cool perk exactly zero times.

In other words, I’ve left over 450 hours of paid volunteer work on the table. I’m not very proud of myself for that. We like to ask the Ron & Don Nation to be a part of something bigger than yourself, and I have always felt like a bit of a hypocrite for never using these volunteer hours.

I’ve always had really good excuses why I didn’t use my time: “The show can’t go on without me;” or  “we already give back a ton through the show;” “My job is different.” I’d say, “It’s harder for me to take time off because…” fill in the blank.

Volunteering with Glasswing International

But I’ve always carried around the idea that this volunteer time was available to me. When I saw an article about a new trend of working with NGO’s in countries that desperately need it, a little light bulb went off over my head.

So I’m off to a country where 30-50 percent of the rural people live on $2 a day or less. I don’t know exactly what we will be doing, and that makes me a bit nervous. But I’m glad I finally pushed myself to get out there.

I hope I am a net positive in the lives of the people I meet. I have a feeling that I’m going to get just as much as I give.

See you in a week. Hopefully, with some amazing stories to tell.

You can hear “What are we talking about here?” everyday at 4:45 p.m. on 97.3 FM.

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