SUMMER VOLUNTEERS WANTED: Pad your resume with an Adventure

If you are interested in a career in communications or are currently pursuing a related degree in college, there are few opportunities better than the Fuller Center Bicycle Adventure for you to gain experience and pad your portfolio.

Particularly for people embarking upon futures in visual communications such as photography and video, the Bicycle Adventure’s summer ride this year offers an especially unique opportunity as it goes coast to coast across the United States. The ride begins June 7 in historic Savannah, Ga., and concludes Aug. 11 in Vancouver, British Columbia. Along the way, the ride will visit the historic Deep South, the vast Midwest, the towering Rocky Mountains and the scenic Pacific Northwest. (Click here to view the complete route.)

The Bicycle Adventure is looking for two volunteers for its summer ride — one to serve as a communications specialist and another to drive the support van, which also tows the support trailer.

“When I’ve seen the photos and videos that have come in from communications volunteers on the previous couple of Adventures, I must admit that I was a bit jealous,” Fuller Center Director of Communications Chris Johnson said. “Every day, these volunteers are sending me pictures of mountains and beaches and giant trees and happy folks in the sunshine — makes me want to put a communications volunteer in my office while I go out on the ride. I could certainly think of worse ways to spend the summer than seeing America like this while also gaining valuable experience — not to mention doing something that helps make the world a better place, one family at a time.”

Though these are unpaid volunteer positions, they offer more than just a great entry on a resume, work experience and an opportunity to bolster a portfolio. Along the way, volunteers will have free room and board. Also, communications and support volunteers do not have to pay the ride registration fee or raise funds — although it would be greatly appreciated if volunteers helped raise funds for The Fuller Center for Housing’s work around the world.

The Bicycle Adventure has raised more than $700,000 for The Fuller Center’s nonprofit, ecumenical Christian housing ministry’s work since 2009 with a goal of pushing that total past $900,000 this year.

If you have communications skills or are interested in driving the support vehicle and would like to know more about these volunteer positions, contact Bicycle Adventure leader Melissa Merrill at 229-924-2900 or melissa@fullercenter.org.

Click here to learn more about joining the ride as a communications or support volunteer.

This 3-minute overview video produced by communications volunteer Scott Umstattd after the 2011 Summer Ride offers visual insight into what the ride is like: