How To Volunteer by Dennis Otoshi
Dennis Otoshi is a Registered Nurse with the American Red Cross Northern California Coastal Region. His chapter is located in San Francisco at 1663 Market Street. In 2019, Dennis decided to explore the possibility of volunteering with the staff at Solferino as part of the medical team. His application was accepted and he became an invaluable source of information to our team as well as a beloved member of the Solferino staff! If you're interested in volunteering for the annual festivities in Solferino, please see below. Any questions can be directed to Dennis at [email protected]! *Please note there is no guarantee that your request to volunteer will be fulfilled by the CRI and the CRI contacts/email addresses may be subject to change!
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For purposes of brevity, I will use the acronym CRI (Croce Rossa Italiana) when I mention the Italian Red Cross. Likewise, ARC for American Red Cross. BIG DISCLAIMER: the CRI will not pay for international travel, but will pay for train fare from Rome/Milan/Venice/Verona to Solferino. You have to pay for your own airfare.
Go to the website: https://www.cri.it/solferino2019-staff for the application form. Obviously next year there will be a form for Solferino 2023, but the 2019 form is still online as of 6/29/19 so you can preview. It can be translated into English, but when you hit the submit button, nothing happens. Sooo…I tried filling it out in Italian, hit submit and VOILA! The form asks for the phone number and e-mail of your ARC superior, so I contacted Mary Lockyer, RN who is the Health Services Lead at HQ in Washington D.C. to let her know that the CRI will be contacting her to confirm my membership in the American Red Cross. I also sent a copy of my Nursing License to the CRI. The application also required that you be fluent in Italian, Spanish or English.
Listed below were the staff positions available:
Healthcare staff (medical license required) (this was my position)
Secretarial staff / reception / information Staff safety and security
Green staff (recycling, etc…) Kitchen / canteen staff
Communication Recreation
Technical / logistic staff Transportation
Staff merchandising IT staff
International Red Cross Museum Staff
World Youth Meeting staff (International Youth Meeting). This will not be held next year in 2020 as the gathering occurs every ten years.
It asks for you to list your top three choices and for the dates that you can work and the dates of your free room and board.
I received an e-mail from my Italian contact, Samuele Macri ([email protected]) who kept me updated on my application. A week later, I received an e-mail from Andrea Pinardi ([email protected]) from the CRI headquarters in Rome welcoming me to the staff. Houston, we are ready for liftoff!
The Verona airport was closest, so I flew there and rented a car. Then I drove to the CRI chapter in Castiglione delle Stiviere, Via Ghisola, 64 and reported to the administration building on June 13th. I was there too early for the CRI shuttles to be running and that is why I rented a car. Questions can be sent to me at [email protected]. Ciao!
Go to the website: https://www.cri.it/solferino2019-staff for the application form. Obviously next year there will be a form for Solferino 2023, but the 2019 form is still online as of 6/29/19 so you can preview. It can be translated into English, but when you hit the submit button, nothing happens. Sooo…I tried filling it out in Italian, hit submit and VOILA! The form asks for the phone number and e-mail of your ARC superior, so I contacted Mary Lockyer, RN who is the Health Services Lead at HQ in Washington D.C. to let her know that the CRI will be contacting her to confirm my membership in the American Red Cross. I also sent a copy of my Nursing License to the CRI. The application also required that you be fluent in Italian, Spanish or English.
Listed below were the staff positions available:
Healthcare staff (medical license required) (this was my position)
Secretarial staff / reception / information Staff safety and security
Green staff (recycling, etc…) Kitchen / canteen staff
Communication Recreation
Technical / logistic staff Transportation
Staff merchandising IT staff
International Red Cross Museum Staff
World Youth Meeting staff (International Youth Meeting). This will not be held next year in 2020 as the gathering occurs every ten years.
It asks for you to list your top three choices and for the dates that you can work and the dates of your free room and board.
I received an e-mail from my Italian contact, Samuele Macri ([email protected]) who kept me updated on my application. A week later, I received an e-mail from Andrea Pinardi ([email protected]) from the CRI headquarters in Rome welcoming me to the staff. Houston, we are ready for liftoff!
The Verona airport was closest, so I flew there and rented a car. Then I drove to the CRI chapter in Castiglione delle Stiviere, Via Ghisola, 64 and reported to the administration building on June 13th. I was there too early for the CRI shuttles to be running and that is why I rented a car. Questions can be sent to me at [email protected]. Ciao!