Helping Hands

            It was September 2007, when I entered NAMI: CV (National Alliance on Mental Illness, Champlain Valley) for the first time. I had been in counseling for about three months. My anxiety attacks were extremely bad, and I made them worse by feeding them with negative thoughts (what if’s, should have’s, could have’s, etc) and behaviors (fleeing at the start of an anxiety attach). I was terrified as I walked through the doors, but I was kindly greeted by an older woman. Little did I know that this was going to be the beginning of a new life for me. I was encouraged at NAMI to talk during the groups, then to lead the groups (volunteer as a facilitator), to go back to school, and finally I was sent to training to do “In Our Own Voice Presentations.” So, when it came time to pick a place to volunteer,  for college, it was easy –I picked NAMI: CV.

            First I asked the Executive Director of NAMI: CV if there was any work I could volunteer to do. She was happy to have me offer volunteer to help. The fact that I was going to do any job that she wanted, or needed, done was even better. Because a few employees had started to work on the library and found it overwhelming, she asked me if I would mind doing it. Of course, I said, “I would be happy too.” The lending library is important, because provides the public an opportunity to borrow books on different mental health illnesses. They also have a few true stories that encourage people with a mental illness to stay well through the WRAP program (Wellness, Recovery, and Action Program). However, the books were unorganized and they had no database to keep track of them. It was my job to organize the books, and enter them into a database.

             I borrowed a flash drive from NAMI: CV to enter the information on. I created a database and started to enter in the information from the books. I typed into the database the author, the title of the book, number of copies of the book, and the category where the book could be found. As I entered in the information, I placed the books back on the shelf. Since the books were not in order, I had to place them on the shelves based on category (fiction, self-help, child, medical, spiritual, specific disorders, etc). I tried to save the database after every 15-20 books, so that if there was a problem with my laptop I would not lose the information I had typed in. I would also organize the database prior to saving it, so that it alphabetized the books. By the end of the first day, I had entered, into the database, over two hundred books. 

            I spent two days at NAMI: CV; however, they were not consecutive days. I worked five hours each day. The days were long, because I spent the majority of the time typing. I wish I was a faster typist, and I did not have to look at the keyboard so much. It probably would have helped things to move along faster.

 

In the end, NAMI: CV got a job done that no one really wanted to do. The book shelves looked

organized, and they are able to check what books they have by opening the library database. I

enjoyed volunteering at NAMI: CV, and I’m glad I was able to lend a helping hand