This past weekend, Melissa and I attended a going-away party for one of our volunteers, Apryl Davis. Apryl is joining the Navy in a little over a week. We are really going to miss her.
Apryl was a fantastic volunteer. Anything we needed her to do, she was available. She worked with Melissa on administrative and fundraising tasks. Apryl came in once a week like clock-work. She met briefly with Melissa to get her assignment and then went to work.
Most of her time was spent working on our case database. Not a glamorous job but it is essential for our operation. Last year, Melissa created a new database system for us that is more robust and much easier to use than our previous database. While all the basic case information was transferred, our new database captures additional information that we use for reports and for grant applications. Someone now has to go back through all the old cases to input the necessary data. In order to glean all the information, volunteers have to read the entire file and to review any cases we have closed to ensure that we haven’t missed anything. DNA technology has changed since GIP began reviewing letters, meaning that evidence that we couldn’t test 10 years ago, we might be able to test now.
In addition, Apryl has helped us with the Life Sentence (music) project and with fundraising. Not only has she come up with excellent ideas, she has executed them. That is a rare thing indeed. Lots of folks have lots of ideas but never do actually do anything. We really need folks who can make those ideas a reality which is why we were so luck to work with Apryl.
And did I mention that she is hilarious? Apryl also had something always pertinent to say. Occasionally though, during a conversation, she would say something so funny, in such a dry way, that it would take me a few minutes to stop laughing. I’m not sure the Navy is going to appreciate this quality but they should.
I feel a little safer knowing the Apryl will be using her intelligence and her dedication protecting our country. We are going to miss Apryl. And remember, we will hunt you down if you don’t stay in touch!
Want to take Apryl’s place? Want to be a volunteer with GIP? Do you have a particular skill you’d like to us to help us? We are looking for dedicated folks who are flexible enough to do whatever tasks need to be done. If you are interested, fill out our CONTACT FORM and we will put you on our list. Our needs fluctuate and when we have a volunteer need we will put word out to the folks on our list.