Alan's Volunteering Story

I started volunteering with shmuFM as a way of connecting with the LGBT+ community, bringing together people for whom mine might be the only supportive voice they hear, a cheerful voice of hope, a companion in their darkness.

It's one of the reasons I volunteer on Christmas Day. Historically live radio programmes have offered comfort and reassurance to those alone over the festive period; for me it is a privilege to be able to accompany them.
In many ways these uncharted times have been an educational experience; personally, I discovered how to use a briefcase of equipment as a radio studio, gaining experience for a potential community radio project in Cambodia, recording shows intended to recreate the personal feel of live radio and aimed at easing isolation experienced by the listener.

As a volunteer this has been a genuinely cohesive experience for me, watching and participating as the community of shmuFM volunteers guided each other towards the goal of creating radio in unusual and exciting ways. I'm chalking up continuing to produce radio for our communities, in darkness at a time when our mothership is quarantined, as another proud achievement in my life. I hope other volunteers will use chalk in a likewise manner!