“He’s going to kill himself and I’m going to be held responsible.” That was my primary thought at least a dozen times while volunteering for Burton’s CHILL program at Mountain High Ski Resort. The CHILL program takes underprivileged teens to local mountains to learn to snowboard one day a week for six weeks. Equipment and lift tickets come care of Burton. Some of the kids have never seen the mountains before, though many times they live within an hour drive of a range. Because my life... [Read more]

One of the most head slapping-ly logical groups I helped last year was Food Forward. Their brilliant concept boils down to – You have fruit trees in your yard that need picking. We have hungry people in LA. We will come pick your tree for free, give you tax credit, and give the fruit to the hungry. Problems solved. I picked oranges with them in July and ever since then I have been halfway obsessed with unpicked fruit trees of any kind. I walk around my neighborhood in a twist over orange and... [Read more]

I’m sorry. Not just for the title of this project which was…mmm…lacking… but because it’s taken me so long to summarize my volunteering experience. I kind of got back handed by life about a week after I cut my hair and I’m still trying to stand up. The good news is I have almost found my footing and expect to be my old snarky self shortly. At this point I should say something profound about the 50 volunteer projects and how they changed my life. Of course they did - anything I type... [Read more]

I think this volunteer episode is better told with bad photography (see below). Disjointed thoughts on my final volunteer mission: It’s fortunate that I was doing this haircut for charity and for this blog or, honestly, it would not have happened. The morning of the scheduled chop I was face down in bed with my hands stretched beside me like a drowned Ophelia mumbling, “It’s for the children. I’m going to look like Peter Pan on Broadway. It’s for the children.” Days earlier I had... [Read more]

“Have fun being the person everyone avoids eye contact with.” – My brother, Austin, upon hearing that I was going to collect donations in front of Macy’s as a Salvation Army Red Kettle Volunteer. What are those stalwart Salvation Army employees or volunteers thinking as they stand in the cold collecting your donations to feed the hungry during the holidays? Not sure but here’s a cross section of my thoughts on the occasion. Upon arrival in front of Macy’s – Three and a half hours... [Read more]

Having cancer gave me membership in an elite club I’d rather not belong to. –Gilda Radner Every non-profit organization needs volunteers to do promotion work. If you work in marketing or media, can write a decent press release, know how to solicit donations, or throw a fundraiser then there is no charity you can’t help. I avoided promotion work so far because this blog is promotion work and I didn’t want to be redundant – that and writing about promotion work is BORING. However, during... [Read more]

Definition of “Work Day” from Raegan’s Definitions and Translations of Common Entertainment Industry Terms Part of speech – noun 1. A day, way too close to opening night, in which the cast and crew of a show descend upon the theatre or performance space to build the entire set, block the play, build the costumes, fix the wiring in the theatre, and learn their lines. 2. A theatrical right of passage identified by boxes of pizza, cups of coffee, power tools, and stage mothers. Used in... [Read more]