"If you wait, all that happens is that you get older." ~ Larry McMurtry

I'm at a conference talking about volunteering and something really touched me yesterday. There are two sides to volunteering, the way that this helps the program that the volunteer plugs into and the way that plugging in helps the volunteer. During Vic's first deployment, we reached out to the parents, siblings, families and children of all of the soldiers in the battalion. This was via email and letters and word of mouth, any way we could let them know how to reach us if they needed support or resources. The response was amazing. Especially from the parents of our soldiers. One family, the Hintzke's, emailed immediately and said they were on board with our family readiness group and that if there was anything they could do for us to let them know. Well, we wouldn't know then the power of those words. The Hintzkes had alot they could and would do for our FRG and Soldiers, not the smallest of which being the program Operation: Soldier to the Movies. The link to this program is www.soldiertomovies.org and you can find out more by going there.
 Here is what dawned on me yesterday, had I never replied to the Hintzke's offer for help, had I tried to manage all that we wanted to do during the deployment without their input and energy, we wouldn't have done what we did. Not only that, we could have potentially squashed a program that has done so much for so many. An offer for help, or to do anything that needs to be done should NEVER be left unnoticed. Look at the person offering to help, see where their strengths are and what their passion is and then let them at it. Step back and watch it all unfold....