Volunteer Opportunity

This was written by Martriana, one of our student interns. The opinions expressed herein do not reflect those of Civitas other than respect for the value of open dialogue.

Before this last Saturday, I’ve never been in a parade, nor was I really able to witness one. So I was really excited to jump straight into marching with one! After two weeks of cloudy weather and thunderstorms, volunteering with a parade for a good cause, as you are never too early or late to register to vote and Raise Your Voice, on a bright, sunny, hot day sounded like a nice way to spend a Saturday morning! 

And it was! It was, indeed, a really nice time! Everyone involved in the Churches Together for Justice was super nice and super fun and helpful. On the morning of July 3rd, 2021, I, and five other Civitas members, participated in the passing out of Voting Advocacy bracelets and business cards and holding up banners (well, as long as you’re tall enough) during a parade held in Webster Groves, where it was the first time I have ever been. It was actually a pretty, pretty neighborhood with nice buildings and decently sized houses and the like. 

The job set for me and three other volunteers was to pass out wristbands and business cards with instructions on how to register to vote. Once the parade started and all the floats got going, we all went up to the watching crowds and started to pass out the items. A lot of the children liked taking their choice of color of wristband, while adults were more likely to take both a band and card. Though it was kinda humorous when a child would run up to me and take just a card, though this only happened when I was all out of wristbands, which were taken faster than I thought. After that, it was significantly harder to give out the cards, despite my pleasant smile and cheery, “Do you want a card?! :D”

No, but really, you can’t imagine how awkward it is to ask that question to a family about to leave or a group of people who don’t want to say anything and instead resort to just staring until I leave. I mean, it’s a two second question and I still quickly sped off, but it still felt weird to not even get a “No, thank you.” 

Despite that, for a long while everything was going great! I diligently passed out the items during the parade with a constant, probably nervous smile on my face, as I’m not that used to approaching crowds like that. In fact, another volunteer and I were passing out the bands and cards SO diligently that the parade passed us by completely! To the point where after a while, we could barely or couldn’t even see the parade anymore! 

Whoops. I guess instead of completely leaving the float, you’re supposed to dip in and out of line, or else you get left behind. Therefore, once I was all out of items to give out, the last thirty minutes to an hour was spent playing catch-up with the parade line. Which wasn’t great, and it did a number on my legs and feet, but it did give me an excuse to look at the neighborhood and scenery some more and we both got a good workout for the month.

Despite the whole getting-left-behind-by-the-parade thing, the whole event was very enjoyable and a good excuse to leave the house, something I don’t do often enough, anyway. It was actually very nice to see large groups of people having a good time during the Fourth of July weekend and I hope to get more opportunities to get outside and do something enjoyable like this again in the future!

In the meantime, here are the resources provided by the Churches Together for Justice to help voting registration:

Register to vote:
bit.ly/registernowmo

St. Louis Area Voter Protection Coalition:
Stlvpc.org

To Join the Missouri Voter Protection Coalition:
Text MOVPC to 66866