By Amanda Schwartz
This morning, I woke up to news of another cancelled event in my future. The 4-H camp I volunteer at every year in June will not be happening. I knew this was a likely possibility, and in this landscape of physical distance and overtaxed healthcare systems, I know it’s the right call, but that doesn’t make it any easier to swallow.
As a long-time community volunteer and nonprofit employee, I know the secret to this work – you get back more than you give. The joy of the children I serve yearly at this camp recharges and restores me so I can keep giving myself to the cause.
In my case, my day job is all about literacy. My work helps motivate children to read for fun and build foundational skills that will serve them their entire lives. But Read Aloud WV is just a thread in a vast array of nonprofits that interweave across our state and our nation to serve a collective goal: a better educated, healthier, happier society.
I am in good company, among thousands of people who have also devoted their lives to helping.
So now, I’m speaking to you, my fellow volunteers and nonprofit workers. Because surely some of you are also feeling sad, lost, and/or overwhelmed during this COVID crisis. Surely some of you are also wondering why there’s suddenly a deficit in your work, why you feel like you’re giving more than you’re getting back, when the work once gave your life so much purpose.
I have no elevated wisdom to give nor easy fixes. There is no easy solution for grief, which expert David Kessler says we’re experiencing. He says it helps to name it, so I thought we could do that together, since “together” is feeling like such a foreign sensation nowadays.
On a large scale, we’re grieving the loss of the world as we know it, but on a more individual level, we’re grieving for all the events and programs where we were going to do work we love. We’re grieving for conferences where we were going to connect with fellow changemakers and the fundraisers that were going to sustain our work and potentially our paychecks. We’re grieving for the children who are stuck at home – the ones so many of us are still trying to serve with food, books, education, and other necessities.
Maybe we tell ourselves we’re lucky, when so many have already lost loved ones to the coronavirus, that we don’t have more to grieve for, and yes, those of us who haven’t lost someone are fortunate. Yet all of us are still likely experiencing what Kessler calls “anticipatory grief,” fearing for the safety of our families and communities, and that too is valid grief.
We’re grieving in our separate little circles of physical distancing, and sometimes it feels like we’re all alone carrying this weight. But I’m here too, struggling and taking steps forward anyway with you. Read Aloud WV is here, working alongside you to improve lives through literacy.
You are not alone.
When I get overwhelmed, it helps me to remember that you’re out there, fighting the good fight. Hopefully, thinking of me will do the same for you.
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Amanda Schwartz is the Communications and Development Director for Read Aloud West Virginia, as well as a long-time volunteer with Putnam County 4-H Camp.
Photo by Kristina Tripkovic on Unsplash