Featured Volunteer – Erin B.

May 18, 2018

NC GreenPower is incredibly grateful for our volunteers!

Our “Featured Volunteer” series will recognize some of our do-gooders for their dedication and service.

 

Erin is an NC GreenPower volunteer from Charleston, SC who moved to Raleigh 3 years ago. Erin has been volunteering for NC GreenPower since October 2016. She is a stay-at-home mom of a 7-year-old boy, and owns an Etsy shop where she makes custom graphic art prints for home decor and kids/nursery walls. She found out about us when she took her son to the UNC Science Expo in Chapel Hill 2 years ago and stopped by our outreach table. Now she staffs the outreach table at various events around the Triangle herself.

Erin loves nature and believes that the planet we live on is very important to take care of. In her opinion, renewable energy is one of the most impactful ways that we can help the earth. “Getting kids interested in renewable energy so that the future population does a better job than we are doing right now is a very good cause to be supporting.”

Why does Erin volunteer? A few years ago, she was interested in finding an environmental cause to volunteer for, but was unable to commit because her son was still young and she didn’t have a lot of free time. “When he started kindergarten, I realized that I had a little extra time, and it gave me the opportunity to finally start volunteering. I thought that NC GreenPower would be a good choice since, after researching the company, I decided their efforts to improve the environment – especially the environment that I live in, since they work only in NC – are actually making a difference. I thought that by volunteering for them, I would be making a difference, too.”

 

 

What Erin enjoys most about volunteering is that NC GreenPower makes it easy to volunteer. “I have some extra time, but not a lot, so I need something that doesn’t require a lot of hours outside of the actual volunteering experience. They have short training sessions at their headquarters in Raleigh or a 15 minute video online that you can watch if you can’t make it to the training session. The video gives you all the information you need to be able to answer most of the questions that people will ask.”

She describes the process of signing up to volunteer as easy and appreciated that NC GreenPower keeps volunteers informed and gives clear directions about the event. “Attendees of the events seem to be interested in the NC GreenPower table. I feel like I am giving most of them information that is new and I hope they will decide to donate through their electric bill or help their kid’s school sign up for the solar schools program.”

When asked about the biggest personal benefit she receives as a volunteer with NC GreenPower, Erin states, “I feel like by helping this company that runs entirely on donations and does a lot of great work improving NC’s environment, I am doing something meaningful with my extra time. I wish I could do more than what I do, but at least I’m not doing nothing.”

Whenever she staffs events attended by children, Erin hands out our renewable energy activity books. She imagines that at least some of them will read the book and learn how important it is to help the earth. Erin hopes that they will develop a life-long desire to help because of what they learned.

We are very excited to have volunteers like Erin to help us achieve our mission. NC GreenPower operates using a small staff so to help us spread the word about the program so we depend on hundreds of volunteers to provide education and outreach to the public. If you’re interested in helping out, you can sign up here.