21 days and counting…
June 24th, 2008
Mitali C.
About 2 ½ months ago I was running around Turner Field in Atlanta, GA gearing up for Opening Day of the 2008 Braves season. I was the Entertainment Manager in charge of all the “hoopla” at home games and special events (i.e. flyovers, fireworks, in game promotions, drum line performances, concerts, interactive games, celebrity & mascot appearances and more). Although I had the pleasure of creating smiles at baseball games there was some sort of disconnect between me, my audience and my job. After my most recent volunteer trip to Siem Reap, Cambodia (personal vacation) working with the Life & Hope Association I realized the skills I used in the entertainment industry can be utilized for an even greater purpose in the nonprofit sector. Fast forward a few months later, after many hours googling the “next greatest job in the whole wide world,” and I was ready to walk away from everything that I knew that was normal to pursue my next great adventure at First Book.
On June 2, I stepped foot into First Book headquarters as a full time employee in a mere 21 days I’ve already helped get over 238,000 books into the hands of children from low-income families! One of my first tasks was to venture to Oklahoma City with some of my colleagues for a First Book National Book Bank distribution. You would think I would have had my fill of moving boxes considering I just moved my home, but the heavy lifting was diluted by the purpose. All the work in the warehouse is one aspect of how our organization gets the books out to the kids and I had a hand in that. And although it did a get a little tiring, a mental chant of “books to kids, books to kids,” fueled me to help get that last shipment onto the truck.
It’s a bit of an adjustment going from reading MLB.com, Braves.com and watching Baseball Tonight everyday to researching nonprofit organizations that serve children, but so far it’s been fantastic. I can now go to the ballpark and enjoy a baseball game and by day I will be working on reaching out across the country to get more groups engaged, registered and excited about First Book and all of our outlets to help kids.
It’s only been 21 days I can’t even imagine how much more I can help this organization 21 days from now.
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