It’s All About Our Volunteers!

….From the Desk of Volunteer Coordinator, Dee Mascari!

We Appreciate our Volunteers!

Do you ever wonder how RAA gets the incredible amount of work accomplished that we do with a very small staff team? Our wonderful volunteers, of course! 

From the 26 founding members and our first few volunteers, we have grown to an active team of 75 volunteers who provided over 1,000 service hours in 2024 and have dedicated 61 hours to training. Our volunteers range from professionals to students, families to caring community members – from teens and up — who share a passion for our mission. 

Two RAA volunteers at one of RAA’s very first Extravaganza events in Fairport, NY!

What do RAA Volunteers do?

There are many tasks that RAA volunteers are engaged in that help us increase our impact and push forward the RAA mission. Last year alone, volunteers helped us create more than 10,560 touchpoints with the community. Most of our volunteers work in multiple roles and will take on whatever support we need at the time. Here are some of those roles:

• Event Volunteer- registration, event logistics, photographer, 
• CanalPal / Community Pal- support an individual in pursuing recreation one-on-one
• Community Outreach- tabling, presenting, media, 
• Sports- coaching, coaching support, team organization
• Board Members- take active roles in volunteering and to help guide the organization
• Fundraising- raffle prize solicitation, event planning and support
• Support Volunteer- trail assessors, data input, advocacy, maintaining equipment

       RAA volunteers helped greet over 1,000 guests at the March 1 Festival of Inclusion

Who Benefits from Volunteering?

• The Community: The best answer is our community as a whole. When a community is more inclusive, accessible, and has more recreational options for all, we have healthier and happier community members. 
• Volunteers: Our volunteers benefit from being a part of our work! Being more involved and learning about our diverse community, meeting new friends and being a part of the RAA mission are all AMAZING ways to spend your time!
• Students: What is the best kind of learning? Hands-on experience! We work with professional students in such academic areas as PT, OT, Adapted PE, Sports Management, Parks and Recreation, and other courses of study and encourage them to volunteer. They learn how to visualize recreation through a lens of inclusion — one that expects people with and without disabilities to be participating TOGETHER.  We are excited that this new generation of professionals will be aware of a wide menu of choices so that when their client asks, “Okay so now I have this diagnosis, what’s next?” they will be able to plant these seeds of hope and expectation of a life filled with opportunity. What an incredible role these students will play in someone’s life!

An RAA volunteer assists with a blind fencing clinic at our Inclusion Partner, Ludus Fencing Studio

Ready to Join Our Team? 

Ten years ago (YES! RAA is 10 years old this year!), our process would have been a quick call to you to ask “Are you doing anything Saturday?” and we would have signed you up for a volunteer gig. Now, we have evolved to a more formalized system that allows you easy access to upcoming opportunities, and you can simply sign up for the ones you want!

• Go to our website under Volunteer Opportunities and check out the job descriptions of the opportunities available.
• Complete our Volunteer Application — find it at the link above or by emailing Dee Mascari at dmascari@rochesteraccessibleadventures.org. 
• Get started on the required RAA Volunteer training: the 3-hour, online Inclusion Ambassador Training offered through SUNY Cortland. You can sign up right on our website under “Inclusion Ambassadors” or this link: RAA website.
• You will receive a call from us to talk with you about your interests and find a position that is a good fit. Some positions will require additional training or screening. 
• We provide support to our volunteers with monthly newsletters and periodic check-ins. Our team approach makes the process easy, and we can’t wait to support you as you carry forth RAA’s mission.  
• Volunteer for what resonates with you from the options presented each month! We do ask volunteers to commit to volunteering an average of 6x/year. 

April is National Volunteer Appreciation Month — but we appreciate our fabulous volunteers year-round! 

Now is a great time to think about joining our team. We are always looking for people with the RAA vision to  #MakeInclusionHappen! 

Left to Right: Two women ride bikes, on a 2-wheeled tadpole-style cycle and one on a 2-wheeled cycle along a green shrub and tree-lined path of the Erie Canal. A group of cyclists on a variety of adaptive and standard cycles pause in shade at Perinton Park while on a group ride supported by RAA volunteers. An RAA volunteer demos her three-wheeled e-assist handcycle at a cycling clinic at Erie Canal Boat Company in Fairport.