Volunteer: Tami Crotinger
Tami Crotinger (right) works registration in the lobby of First National Bank on the morning of the 1998 AIDS Walk.
Photo by Anna C. Hansen |
When Tami Crotinger arrived in Santa Fe, she didn't know many people. Shortly after coming to town she volunteered for the AIDS Walk. Now she has many new friends and knows a great deal more about her new community. "I've always done purposeful work," Tami confesses. During the eight years she and her family lived in Livermore, California, she spent many hours volunteering for her church.
"I've lost friends to AIDS and really hate that," she said. "I always wanted to participate in the AIDS Walk in San Francisco but my sons were too small then." Her boys now are 12 and 10. Her husband works at Los Alamos National Laboratories.
"When we moved to Santa Fe, I was looking for a community of like-minded people. I walked into the Santa Fe Cares office and felt at home immediately. The folks working here are intelligent and passionate."
Tami began volunteering 10 hours a week, handling pre-registration and attending to the myriad of details necessary for such a large event to come off smoothly. The week of the walk she put in 25 hours, another eight hours on walk day.
"It's given me a lot more than I've put into it," she said. "I learned a lot about people who give in Santa Fe and the ways they give. I think it would be great for anybody new in town to volunteer for the AIDS Walk. You meet a lot of people because it takes a lot of people to put a walk on."
Anna C. Hansen, coordinator of the 1998 AIDS Walk, is all smiles when talking about the volunteers who get the job done year after year. She said, "The success of this year's walk is due to the work of volunteers like Tami who give ungrudgingly of their time and abilities."
Although she now has two part-time jobs, Tami plans to continue volunteering for the next AIDS Walk and encourages others to join her.
Board Member
Doug Houston
