June Volunteers of the Month! - Alex Kain and Julie Sperry

For only the second time in a row we have co-winners for the Volunteer of the Month award! Our winners for June are Alex Kain and Julie Sperry. Both Alex and Julie have been wonderful volunteers on New Beginnings 24 Hour Help Line and co-facilitate a support group for our Spanish speaking participants. Here's what our staff had to say about both of these great volunteers:

Alex has a great sense of humor and is incredibly funny! In addition to her sense of humor, she takes volunteering very seriously and she does a great job of bringing outside skills and trainings to the support group. Alex is responsible, caring, respectful, happy, and is a great cook to boot! On the Help Line, she really takes time to support our callers. She has a caring and calm voice even in the most stressful moments.

Julie is always in a good mood, she's positive and everytime she comes for her shift she's ready to learn. She is always doing internet research for victim advocacy related issues and she goes above and beyond by participating in extra trainings with WSCADV. Julie is very caring, respectful and is super responsible. On the Help Line, she is calm with callers and asks thoughtful questions. Even on a snow day, she was here!

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We had a chance to sit down with Alex and Julie to get to know them better. Here's what they had to say:

Alex Kain
Q: Who are you and what do you do when you’re not volunteering?
A: I just finished undergrad and am looking at law schools now. I'm hoping to eventually be a legal advocate for crime victims. When I'm not volunteering I work at the YWCA DV shelter, camp, cook, and pet my cat.

New Beginnings at H.Y.P.E. Teen Health Fair!

Today we hosted an information booth at the first ever "Teen Health Fair" organized by a group called the Healthy Youth Peer Educators (HYPE). This was a pretty small community event but what was really interesting was that some of the health booths were created by students themselves. If you needed some brushing up on Sexually Transmitted Diseases, birth control and healthy eating, this was the event for you.

The shindig was held at the International Community Health Center in the International District. It's always a great time talking with the youth and we gave away a bunch of New Beginnings' brochures, posters, pens and birdseed*.

Big shout out to New Beginnings volunteer Leslie for helping us host the information booth!

It's like Jeopardy, except about STIs.