At the annual volunteer recognition event sponsored by the Orange County Chapter of the American Red Cross, the Shepherd of the Hills United Methodist Church received two awards: the county chapter Platinum award and the Southern California region GIVE award. Both of these awards were presented to the coordinator of the blood drives for exceeding the previous drive results by 176%.
In accepting the awards on behalf of all the blood drive volunteers at both the Mission Viejo church campus and the Santa Margarita church campus, Avis French,Toastmaster CTM/CL and Co-Chair of the Founders District Judges Bureau and blood drive co-coordinator, explained that the drives could not have been successful without the assistance of all the donors, the volunteers, and the organizations that partner with Shepherd of the Hills.
The drives were successful in 2012 because they required communication skills that I learned in Toastmasters! The drives covered two campuses with different demographics and available facilities and several partners with even more demographics. The 2-campus schedules were coordinated in such a way that the two campuses were able to conduct six blood drives during the year. There is no other organization in the Orange County chapter of the Red Cross that conducts that many drives every year. To organize that many drives with that many different partners means you must be able to communicate mutually-acceptable goals, the need for resources, information about the blood drives in a variety of media that reaches all possible donors. Alanda Dyer and I have met at several Red Cross recognition events over the years, and we often discuss how much the Toastmasters communication skills help us with drives.
Though I accepted the awards on behalf of all the volunteers, I did so understanding that, without the skills developed through membership in Toastmasters, the drives would not have been as successful as they were. Thank you, Toastmasters International!