Adult Volunteers

Station Maine is criticized, or maybe it's just me, for not using enough adult volunteers.  For not pressing the parents into service more ardently or reaching out to volunteer organizations in the community.

We do this primarily because the kids do all that sort of work.  That is the program.  Station Maine provides  boating opportunities at no cost to the rower, but that is only a small part of the program.  The kids, as a part of those boating opportunities, maintain the program that provides it.  They sand and paint the gigs.  They put up posters around town.  They recruit among their classmates.  They carry out and display the sales items for the auction or the yard sales.

The kids, unlike most of the adult volunteers, are trained.  They know how to sand with the grain and how to fold sandpaper so that none of the grit is wasted.  They know how to check the fluids in the van before a long trip.  They have the seamanship involved in moving boats to and from the mooring or, as was the case this week, moving auction boats from our facility to the Pearl restaurant.  Some of the work is monotonous, like stamping envelopes for the many mailings.  This is what it takes to run this organization.  Because it is naturally expected of them, they fall easily into the work.

This is the program.  It builds strong kids.