I am on the board of CINE (Council for Non-Theatrical Events), and have volunteered with them for about 20 years. They were formed during the Cold War to foster relationships with other countries by sharing our film and video with them and vice-versa, and getting award-winning films out to international festivals.
I am also on the board of the Atlanta chapter of Fight SMA (Spimal Muscular Atrophy).
I rarely volunteered for anything until I married Mr. Linton, who is an über-activist. Since we knew we wanted to stay in Marietta, most of our free time was taken up with trying to make the city a better place, since it was facing issues that challenged our quality of life dailiy.
We are founding members of:
The Loop Group, which succeed in combating crime and uniting the various ethnic/cultural groups in our neighborhood (which has now been virtually obliterated by developers.)
We do quarterly cleanups, and May Day and Christmas events and are now developing a community garden with those who are left in the neighborhood.
IMPACT: (Involved Mariettans Planning Actively for the City of Tomorrow) and Greg also served 3 terms as president and VP.
Cobb Preservation Foundation, which we formed with other members out of frustration because the local preservation group, Cobb Landmarks, was a social group that would not take an active role in preserving anything. We buy, fix up and resell historic properties and have been tremendously successful for such a small (@30) group. Cobb Landmarks has about 10 times as many members and we all belong to that group and volunteer with them as well.
Riverkeepers: we monitor streams for water quality monthly. Greg won the state's data colleciton award last year. He also helps another woman with her stream data collection. She is 80 years old!
Greg is on the board of the Cobb Land Trust, and we do clearing and maintain properties on work days.
Greg is President of Friends of Nesbitt Chapel, the ruins of a historic church that we have been trying to protect from development and convert into a learning center.
We also volunteer for
Taste of Marietta, and clean up after the ravenous hordes every year
Marietta Tree Keepers, planting trees about every other month.
Marietta Christmas Tour of Historic Homes
We also work behind the scenes to coach other neighborhoods in organizing and working productively to try to get their needs met when faced with development challenges.
Greg almost singlehandedly saved a local community theatre from going under, and volunteered his time with tech support on many of their productions.
Since we're moving, we are slowly trying to pull away from most of these groups and for the last year we've been volunteering with our new neighborhood group. But once we move, we are going to keep our activist side "in the closet" for awhile and spend our time living our lives. After being repeated stomped on by the city, we're pretty jaded and will be happy just doing basic volunteering---clean-ups, etc.
Once we move and I have a plce to edit, my volunteerism will mainly consist of editing projects for others ---labors of love which have been piling up for some time now.
Whew! I'm tired just thinking about how much of that time was wasted by a city that didn't care about its residents.
