Congrats to Ray and Karen, Mano a Mano Volunteers of the Year!
On Saturday afternoon, Mano a Mano hosted our Volunteer Appreciation Picnic, as thanks to everyone that makes what we do possible. Every year we recognize a volunteer that stood out in the past year, which is always a hard task; we are a small staff in Minnesota, and we rely heavily on the hundreds of amazing volunteers that help out in many different ways.
But this year it was an easy choice for us. Husband and wife Ray Wiedmeyer and Karen Abraham have been Mano a Mano volunteers for many years, but this year they stepped in and have essentially been full-time staff at our St. Paul office/warehouse. If you have been in our warehouse this year, you have no doubt seen Ray working: organizing supplies, making pickups of donated items, palletizing boxes; if you’ve been part of a volunteer group at our office, more than likely it was Karen leading the group – she’s also been a fixture in the office, helping out with a lot of the daily tasks of data entry, sending thank-you letters, etc..
They have been a huge part of the Mano a Mano team, and we are extremely grateful to have their support!
Loading 4 containers with 80,000+ pounds of surplus supplies last Friday at Mano a Mano. Of course Ray and Karen are there! (Karen is second from left in the black jacket, next to Mano a Mano co-founder Segundo Velasquez in the orange hat, and Ray is to the right of Segundo in the back.)
197,370 Volunteer Hours in Minnesota Since 1994
Since Mano a Mano began in 1994, volunteers have contributed 197,370 hours – which is valued at well over $4 million! (And this is counting volunteers only in our Minnesota office; volunteers in Bolivia and the communities we work with have contributed hundreds of thousands of hours as well. Learn more about our partnership model HERE.)
Thanks Darrold Glanville for the Pizza!
And a huge thank you to Darrold Glanville from Sunrise Flour Mill for providing his delicious wood-fired pizza for the volunteer picnic on Saturday!
Darrold setting up his mobile wood-fired pizza oven on Saturday.