Mariana Vasconcelos said he originally moved to the United States from Brazil 10 years ago to learn English. She brought with her a part of the Brazilian culture that endears itself to helping others.
“In Brazil we always want to help people whenever it is needed,” the Pacific Beach resident said. “I love to do volunteer work.”
The San Diego Chapter of the American Red Cross recently honored Vasconcelos and other Red Cross volunteers for their volunteer work.
“I was so surprised when I won the award,” Vasconcelos said. “I have only done volunteer work for the Red Cross for about a year and there are people who have served 15, 20 and 30 years. Maybe they deserve the award more than I do.”
Specifically Vasconcelos was given the prestigious Spirit of Volunteerism Award, which recognized her efforts as a Human Resources intern, “CPR Saturday” and countless hours during last year’s wildfires.
“About the middle of last year as part of my college school work I was supposed to do a one- to two-month internship in human resources,” she said. “When I began the internship with the American Red Cross, I was not sure how long I would be there.”
The internship ended as scheduled but Vasconcelos kept on volunteering and assisting with chapter events, which made her part of the help efforts during the wildfires in October.
“During the wildfires I went to the shelters to be with people,” she said. “Even after I had finished my hours I still wanted to stay and help. Just being there was comforting to people. You learn so much from those you help and they learn from you too.”
Vasconcelos, who is majoring in hotel management with an emphasis on human resources, presently works at a local hotel. However her longterm desire, borne out of her Brazilian culture and volunteer experiences in the United States, is to work for a nonprofit organization.
“For some people, volunteer work is a hobby, but for me, I want to dedicate my life to it,” she said. “I figure by getting more work experience in a business environment like a hotel, it will help me better in the future for my volunteer and nonprofit employment goals.”
The nomination papers submitted by her supervisor at the San Diego Chapter of the American Red Cross, Florence Gray, give testimony to why Vasconcelos won the award.
“A common utterance from Mariana’s lips is ‘I am here to learn.’ There is no need to convince Mariana to go the extra mile when her stellar attitude and open mind does the trick,” Gray wrote. “She is always looking for opportunities for growth, she listens carefully to instructions, asks for insight and dives into projects with a hunger to achieve experience. She sees all of her tasks to completion and often takes convincing to leave projects for the next day. It is not uncommon for Mariana to be the last out of the building on a Friday evening.”
Furthermore, according to ARC records, Vasconcelos has averaged 32-40 hours per month of volunteer work, and during the wildfires she helped every day in the first week.
Despite the perception of many, the American Red Cross is not a federal government agency. It depends on the support and generosity of the American people. Among many services there is life saving preparedness training; disaster relief services; 24-hour emergency services to deployed military personnel and their families and nutritional counseling through the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program.
For Vasconcelos the American Red Cross will probably always be a part of her life. “I still keep updated on what is going from their newsletter,” she said. “When they need me, I still volunteer. I do not even count the hours now. They just call me and I help.”
For more information on the San Diego Chapter of the American Red Cross, please call (858) 309-1200 or visit www.sdarc.org.