VOLUNTEER & STAFF INFO
Year-round Volunteers
Volunteers are needed year-round to assist with general office work, including mailings, filing, data entry, telephones and more. Get to know the staff and be part of the inner workings of camp. Set your own daytime hours. Contact Suzie at 415.382.9083 or email her at suzie@okizu.org
Summer Camp Volunteers
Okizu relies on volunteers to make camp a reality each summer. Each year volunteers contribute over 50,000 hours to make our camp programs happen. The Oncology and Siblings Camp staff is a carefully selected team of qualified adults, selected for their maturity, experience and enthusiasm for their work with children. Staff members are required to participate in an orientation and training program. Many of the counselors are university students who are interested in working with children. Others are teachers, nurses, travel agents and the like who have made it a priority to spend at least one week of their vacation time volunteering at camp.
Family Camp Volunteers
In addition to our week-long programs, we have family camp weekends, and are always looking for volunteers to staff these programs. Volunteering at a family camp is a great idea for people who don’t have the time to volunteer for a week, but could spend a weekend up at camp. It’s also a great way for people who are new to Okizu to get to know our program, our site, and the kids and families we serve. Family camp is a time where patients, their siblings and their parents can enjoy a relaxing weekend away from home stresses and hospitals. It’s a chance to spend time as a family, and also an opportunity to get to know other families dealing with having a child with cancer. Volunteers are needed from Friday evenings until Sunday 3pm for family camp (with the exception of the 3-day holidays, where volunteers are needed until Mondays at noon. These are Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends).
To download applications to volunteer at our 2010 camping programs, click here.
Medical Staff
Medical supervision at camp is overseen by the pediatric oncology departments, social workers and recreation therapists from the participating hospitals. These professionals volunteer their time because they enjoy being with the children when they are not in the hospital setting. Dr. Michael Amylon, Director of Bone Marrow Transplant Services at Lucile Salter Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford, supervises the medical staff.
Art Inspiring Hope Gala Committee
As with camp, we depend on a volunteer committee to band together to make this event come to life. Meeting once a month, and communicating via email the rest of the time, the gala committee’s responsibilities are varied and many, allowing volunteers and friends to participate in areas of their choosing. Those include sub-committees of Auction, PR, Production, Raffle, Signage, and Corporate, In-kind, and Honorary Sponsors.
For more information on Art Inspiring Hope, please contact Sarah Uldricks at 415.382.1503 or sarah@okizu.org. For information and to join the Gala Committee, please click here.
If you have questions about any of our other volunteer positions, please call 415.382.9083 or write to Okizu, 16 Digital Drive, Suite 130, Novato, CA 94949.
