Another one of my Boston-based clients is the New England School of Acupuncture, the oldest acupuncture college in the US. They did something really amazing to give back after the bombings, so I asked their president Sue Gorman (pictured below) to fill us all in.

Where were you on April 15 when you heard the news? What was your reaction?

Traditionally Marathon Monday, as we refer to it in Boston, is a major holiday with schools and offices closed.  However due to NESA’s academic schedule, we have always remained open and so I was working on April 15th.  Sometime in the early afternoon of that day I was told of bombings by the marathon finish line.  The boyfriend of one of our staff members was working at the finish line as an EMT; so he began texting us updates regularly.  Within minutes we knew something terrible had happened in Boston, just a few miles away from our campus.

Within two hours after the bombings and knowing that acupuncture can be a tremendous source for stress relief we posted on our Facebook page that we would offer free acupuncture in our student teaching clinic to anyone affected by the  bombings.  Over 8,000 visitors saw this post.

How is NESA responding to the tragedy?

By the end of Monday we knew we had to extend the time offered for free treatments and knew we needed help.  Alumna Janette Reber began mobilizing alumni and other practitioners in the Boston area to provide treatments.  Our initial idea was that we would have a variety of locations available to patients – in and around the Boston area and that NESA could be a suburban location for treatments.  However given that many NESA students were on break for the week, I called Rebecca Schirber president of the Acupuncture & Oriental Medicine Society of Massachusetts for help.  Simultaneously Diana Fried, the president of Acupuncturists Without Borders, reached out to me.  Both offered to help mobilize acupuncturist volunteers to serve. Within a few more days NESA staffers Phuong Nguyen, Sheila Carroll and clinical faculty director Val Smith built a website traumarelief.nesa.edu to provide a mechanism for practitioners to volunteer their services and for patients to find access to free acupuncture treatments.

Why did you and the NESA team feel a need to get involved?

The marathon bombings and subsequent dramatic capture of one of the bombing suspects impacted a very wide spread part of the greater Boston area.  Some of our own students, staff and faculty unfortunately witnessed many of these tragedies playing out in their own neighborhoods.  Given the widespread ripple effect of the traumas, we felt the need to respond in the one manner that we could – to provide comfort and care to anyone affected by these tragedies.  Within days we treated runners, first responders, bombing survivors, neighbors who witnessed gun battles, in our clinic.

How can acupuncture help trauma survivors?

PTSD protocol

Acupuncture has been very effective in treating a number of various ailments and pain.  Among the many benefits is an acupuncture treatment protocol for relieving stress, specifically PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder).  The protocol uses five thin sterilized, disposable needles applied gently to five points on each ear (see attached photo).  This treatment protocol has been used by Acupuncturists Without Borders (AWB) in past disasters like the earthquake in Haiti and more recently during hurricane Sandy with great success and providing much-needed relief for those in immediate distress.  These treatments are fast, safe, effective and used by the United States military to treat PTSD.

What have been the results of the clinic so far?

During the ten days following the bombings nineteen NESA alumni volunteered their time in our student teaching clinic and provided care to sixty-two patients.  On Monday April 29th students returned to school after their break; we continued to offer our free trauma clinic to anyone affected by the bombings.  Students along with their clinical faculty advisors treated thirty-five patients in total last week. Over the course of our thirty-eight year history, NESA lived by a three-tiered mission to provide academic excellence, demonstrate a commitment to acupuncture research, and expand the use of acupuncture as a health benefit to the greater public health community. Therefore NESA has continued to offer free treatments to those affected by the bombings.

Thank you Sue and NESA for sharing this important information with the Communicationist blog and your volunteer services with Boston!

What you do today is important.

I’ve learned a lot about trauma since I left Boston almost a year ago. While it has mostly been focused on the impact of sexual violence, I have heard presentations from enough trauma experts now to understand that bombings, rapes, and car crashes are all trauma and the brain reacts to trauma in the same way. What you do today matters because what you do within 24 hours of the trauma occurring has an enourmous effect on your brain long-term.

I’m not an expert or a doctor. My BU degree is in Spanish and I never took a psych class. But I want to share with you what I’ve learned in case it can help you.

Walk, move, exercise. Release the toxins, don’t let them stay in your body.

Drink water. Same reason as above.

Say something nice to someone. A bystander helping out a trauma victim will decrease the effects of trauma on that person.

Talk to someone. If you felt scared at all yesterday, tell someone. Don’t hold it inside because you think everyone else is feeling the same or has a closer connection to an injured person, or was closer to the bombing than you were at your home. Start getting it out there now.

Validate your trauma for yourself. You do not need to have been in Copley Square to have experienced trauma. My grandparents who were evacuated from their home on Boylston Street, my friend who was having lunch near Suffolk after celebrating her brother’s finish in the top 100 runners, the Boston Pride Committee members who are scared about what this means for their event, my aunt who was freaking out just wondering if maybe her husband and son had gone down to watch the runners, anyone who is living in Boston (OK, really Somerville/Cambridge/JP/Dorchester…) who felt afraid because they didn’t know if more explosions were coming in other parts of the city, anyone was hesitant to get on the T this morning — This is scary. Yes, others may have had their lives turned upside down more than you yesterday, but that does not take away from the fact that you lived through a traumatic event, too.  Like many of you I also jump to the thought about how many people around the world live in this fear of bombings every single day, but that doesn’t change what you experienced yesterday either. As my great-grandmother who lived on Boston’s North Shore for 100 years would say, “When you cut your finger, it hurts you.”

Be safe and well. Take a walk on your lunch break if you can.

Love,
Sarah

I know not everyone is interested in history and wouldn’t actively seek out websites about this information or proactively search for places that tweet about it. That’s why I want to create an engaging mobile app that will bring this rich history to the world in a new way.

The LGBToday app will feature a story from “today in history.” For example, if today were January 13, when you open the app you will see that on January 13, 1958, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on its first decision on a gay issue. For each event there would be a one-sentence description of the event, an image or video if available, a link to more information about the story, a cited source, a map of where in the world it happened, and more. For days with more than one event, one would randomly to be chosen to show up, but you could click to read the other(s). You can learn all about it at the fundraising page and the website. Of course, you can give the project a like and a follow, too.

I truly believe this project can help make some gay youth out there feel a little less lonely. Please donate and share the link to make sure that happens.

If you are a blogger or other press, please download the press release.

I didn’t make a donation or volunteer my time to the Washington Animal Rescue League (WARL), but I helped them in their mission to rehome homeless animals. I adopted two cats (and paid their adoption fees) and am so happy to be giving them a home. I’m especially touched by Nemo’s story — WARL had a choice of either performing an expensive surgery to amputate his leg or give up on him and they chose to save him. When we visited the shelter for the first time he was recovering from his week-ago amputation and they were caring for him so well and we wanted to help. After a rough first month at home with many vet visits, he’s doing great with his little brother, Moo.

I attended Heartly House’s annual Walk A Mile in Her Shoes event. (Heartly House is a domestic violence and sexual assault center in Frederick, MD.) Men walk a mile in high heels to raise awareness and funds for violence against women issues. It was really one of the best events I’ve ever been to! I love seeing allies who don’t need to stick up for an underserved population doing it anyway. My pictures are here. They had a fun way to donate – Vote with your dollars for the best dressed man. I voted for a mustached man in red pumps.

I wrote about my January 29 speaking engagement in this blog post. I am so proud to have volunteered in this way and recommend it to anyone with a story to tell.

I had the opportunity to attend the National Sexual Assault Conference in Chicago during August. While I was there, I bought a T-shirt to support A Long Walk Home, an organization empowering girls who have survived violence.

I made a donation to support the Poplar Spring Animal Sanctuary when I attended their vegan potluck Thanksgiving event in Poolesville, MD. There was a feast for the turkeys! Cute pictures of rescued farm animals are here.

I had somehow never heard of Movember before this year. My friend Matt kept posting about it on his Facebook wall til I clicked and was convinced to donate. It was actually my very first time giving to a men’s cause. (The idea is that you grow a mustache for the month of November to raise awareness and funds for prostate cancer.) When I went home for Thanksgiving I found out that my dad was participating and I ended up posting it to my own Facebook and sparking several more donations from Facebook friends.

This was my Kickstarter sponsorship of the year — An interactive theatre piece by my amazing writer friend Danielle Staubitz. She got funded!

This year I saw many individuals fundraising for their medical bills. I’m happy to see this trend of crowdfunding expanding in this way and wish I could have given to everyone. I made one small donation via GiveForward to the relative of a colleague undergoing cancer treatment.

A highlight of 2012 was my friend from Germany coming to visit the Americas. We toured Maryland, DC, Virginia, and West Virginia together, and then also a few days in Mexico! It was such a treat. We spent one night at Hotel Istirincha, which preserves land and wildlife. The state of Veracruz works with the hotel to help wild green sea turtles survive. My friend and I got to take part in releasing 100 baby turtles into the sea, an experience I will never forget.

I continued to re-loan my Kiva funds to individuals and groups on the site. I made a loan in January to the San Blas group from an organization I spent the summer of 2005 with, Fundacion Paraguaya. I also loaned to a women’s collaborative in Tanzania in September.

The organization I gave the most to this year was Marylanders for Marriage Equality, a coalition working to pass Question 6  in Maryland. I volunteered several hours during early voting days and Election Day in Bowie, MD and created a fundraising page that raised $270 from seven of my friends and family members. The emotional hours on the line and phone-banking were absolutely worth it.

Severna Park Community Center

The SPCC is one of the most active centers I’ve ever seen. They have dozens of events every week! They provide so much for their area in Maryland from dance classes for kids to a haunted house this weekend to warm water therapy pools. Everyone in their town loves them and is eager to interact with them online, so it makes my job of managing their Facebook page easy.

MilCrowd

This startup from Texas is really going to make a difference in supporting military families. Their social media is so active and informative already and cannot wait to see what they have on their website once it launches.

Turning Point Institute

Carole Sacino has an inspirational story. After surgery as a child, she was left with a soft and raspy voice. 50 years later, she found a way to fix it after being told it was impossible. She is now a professional speaker! I love being able to help her find new speaking engagements in the New England area by managing her Twitter account.

There’s a trend to use birthdays as fundraisers for your cause. Razoo is leading the way in this. For many adults like me, birthdays have become the day when your Facebook timeline is getting new messages every few minutes. Most of those people wouldn’t be giving you a gift at all, but as I learned today, they would be willing to make a small donation to a non-profit in your name.

Since my wife and I recently moved to Maryland, a cause dear to my heart this year is marriage equality in Maryland. So I decided to donate my birthday to Marylanders for Marriage Equality. They saw that I had linked to their donation page and contacted me through Facebook asking if I’d like an individual fundraising page. I wrote some quick copy and it was live less than an hour later.

I’ve gotten 3 contributions so far and each one of those donors shared the page on their Facebook too. Birthday fundraising pages are a quick and easy way to make the ask so start thinking about where you want to donate your birthday.

Note: This post was co-written with the cat I adopted from the Washington Animal Rescue League last week. All credit is shared with Nemo Prager.

How does a communicationist stay organized? We’ve all got different methods but the important thing is to remember to have a way, any way. My communications calendar is a simple Google spreadsheet and once I created it, my brain was so much happier.

Let’s break it down. First, the medium of a Google spreadsheet. I like it because I can open it anywhere, there’s no risk of outdated versions floating around when I re-save, and I can share it with my multiple email addresses. The downside is that it isn’t a mobile app. I just couldn’t find the right one. I do have task list apps that could remind me of all of the different content to publish, but I haven’t found it to be worth my time to type it all out if I can’t sort and view the long-term calendar and other features I haven’t found all in one app.

The colors on the spreadsheet represent the type of medium: Red in Pinterest, blue is Facebook, and so on. That way I can look at groupings of clients sorted alphabetically (i.e. all of the RR are together) and then visually scan for blue for what else I should do while I’m on Facebook or another medium while I’m there.

Most of the cells are empty, but that doesn’t mean that nothing is happening on them. By default, each account is checked daily and updated if there is something newsworthy, something to reply to, etc. If there hasn’t been something requiring action, then I find something in my Google Alerts or news feed/home stream to share. In the case of MC PIN above, I wrote “repin” every day because it is a newly-created account and it is especially important to get it active and for me to prioritize it.

You may notice that no row has more than two “promos” in a week. The majority of your content should be interesting news from the topic area, not blatantly marketing yourself non-stop. Sneak in the links to your services and products every once in a while.

This keeps my brain happy not only by getting things out of my brain and into somewhere else, but it keeps me focus. If I feel like spending an hour on Pinterest when I should be writing a blog post, seeing that I get to repin away tomorrow (and that the post needs to be published tomorrow) helps keep me on track.

How do you organize your communications calendar?

However, my new job is part-time, which means I have space for a few more social media consulting clients. Read the description of my social media services and my list of current clients. Of course, the best way to learn about what I can do for your brand online is to have a conversation with me about it. Let’s start over email: sarahprager [at] gmail [dot] com.

How could I write a blog post on volunteerism apps without mentioning the industry leader? VolunteerMatch is a quality resource that went mobile in 2010. They have facilitated over 6 million volunteer referrals since 1998 and continuing to grow with new technologies has certainly been a key to their success. While other websites’ reviews of this app I have seen say it has a boring design and some iPhone user reviews say it regularly crashes, I am a fan of this app. I love that it brings all of the details of their tens of thousands of online listings to the mobile crowd. VolunteerMatch is my go-to place both for finding my own personal volunteer tasks and for posting non-profit volunteer needs.

Catalista takes it to the next level. While VolunteerMatch does have a rating function, Catalista’s focus is to make volunteering more social and interactive online. The time before and after a volunteer engagement effect a volunteer’s experience, too, so it’s wonderful to see that this generation has a place to have the interaction continue in their own way. For each volunteer opportunity, you have the option to rate it, share it, map it, log your hours, add to your faves, and of course, sign up. The sharing is limited to Facebook and email. The rating is youthful in it’s language (Would you recommend this to your friends? 1 = No way, 5 = Totally!) I like the “add to faves” option where you can save an opportunity to “My Catalista” for later. The general overall design and tone is right on for the audience (and very appealing to me personally).

Bottom Line: Adding a modern twist to a time-tested model, and gets the job done beautifully.

Then we come to the most complex of the three. Cause.it takes Catalista and adds in some Groupon and Zynga. I love the creativity here. You search for an activity that will help the world in some way – It can be an in-person volunteer task or you can post a promo for an organization to your Facebook profile. Each activity is worth a certain number of points (for example, 30 points to be a patient care volunteer at a hospice). Now here’s the especially unique part — You can redeem those points for real-life items and deals (10 points for 20% off your order at a pizzeria). You sign in with your Facebook account and it can be pretty addictive. On top of the opportunities to win, there is the pride of showing up on the leaderboard (the “Indy”), which currently has Daniel S. at the top with 200 points. There is tremendous potential here, but there isn’t enough content (especially volunteer opportunities that aren’t just posting to Facebook) yet. I hope it continues to reach more non-profits, businesses, and volunteers. This is an impressive example of cause marketing.

Bottom Line: Inspired and inspiring framework, just lacking some fleshing out from the community.

On this day in 2009 I was leading a group of volunteers to a clinic to read to kids in the waiting room. This was for three organizations. By that I mean the activity was supporting the mission of the non-profit Reach Out and Read, it was facilitated by the volunteer organization Boston Cares, and it was hosted by the Mattapan Community Health Center. This kind of collaboration is what I love about the volunteerism world. Organizations coming together to find where their missions overlap and the synergy of their cooperation helping even more individuals and communities than they could on their own.

Boston Cares needs non-profits who need volunteers. Reach Out and Read is a non-profits that needs volunteers. Mattapan Community Health Center has kids who could benefit from volunteers reading to them. It seems like such an obvious fit but getting partnerships like this to happen isn’t always easy. Thankfully there are a lot of people out there who love to jump in and get involved.

My role was as a Boston Cares Project Leader. When volunteers signed up through Boston Cares for the waiting room reading project, I would be in contact with them about logistics and questions. I’d supervise them on-site so the health center staff didn’t need to take time away, and I’d follow-up with them afterwards to see how it went for them and if they’d like to do it again. When multiple organizations are involved, it’s important that the Volunteer Coordinator have a clear role. Mine was clearly defined as being from Boston Cares, not the other two organizations, and that helped in the organization of the process.

If you’re looking to volunteer, chances are your local city has an organization that can help you connect to the cause, timing, neighborhood, and role that you’re looking for. This Vintage Vignette focuses on Boston Cares, but there are others like Greater DC Cares. No matter where you are, websites like VolunteerMatch will have listings near you and allow you to search by the type of opportunity you want.