b'Ivan is the executive director of Los Angeles Mission Foundation and has worked at the Los Angeles Mission since 2007. He received his M.Div from Haggard School of Theology at Azusa Pacific University. He and his wife, Joanna, live in Costa Mesa, California. Contact him at IKlassen@lamission.net.Photos courtesy of Los Angeles Mission equipping them with DIY videosWe sent out a few e-mail blasts andpable power of virtual volunteers and ideas. Various types of maskssocial media messages, and then weduring these stormy, uncertain times.continue to come inhomemade,waited. Not only did people giveWe have a 67-year-old orthopedic regular medical masks, and N95cookies, but let me assure you thatsurgeon who deeply desired to con-CDC-approved versions. no one here is getting too thin! We re- tinue volunteering. With his age in Another powerful method is usingceived all sorts of delectable delights.mind, and because we had no volun-our volunteers who work for largerThis activity not only gave virtualteers coming to the mission, we put companies to get those companies tovolunteers a purpose, but it also gavehim to work in our virtual gifts-in-help. One of our volunteers who worksencouragement and love to thekind department. He made phone for a large corporation saw that westudents, guests, and frontline workers.calls and procured all kinds of dona-needed masks. Within a few days,The cookies were irreplaceable intions for the missionwhich is what several thousand masks arrived. many more ways than just the tangible.he usually does for us! I could tell you story after story ofWe took pictures as these itemsBe encouraged that people want to our volunteer team coming togetherwere dropped off, and we also askedhelp, so dont assume you know who for the cause. Many are long-time vol- volunteers for pictures of them inwants to serve. One of our big needs unteers; just the few examples aboveaction at home. They sent pictures ofhas been for snack foods. With a bit of have 29 years combined of volunteer- themselves making cookies, masks,ingenuity, one of our board members ing with us. And its exciting to see anand other things for us.raised nearly $1,000, bought the influx of new volunteers come onOne thing weve all heard about issnacks we needed, and delivered boardor in this case, onlineto help. handwashing and cleaning. We sentthem within a couple of days.out messages asking for hand sanitizerDont forget to celebrate your New ways of servingand other items, and our virtualvirtual volunteers, whether through T his is a difficult, life-changingvolunteers gave and continue to giveyour volunteer management tool, a time, so we wanted to dohighly sought-after hygiene products.personal phone call, a handwritten something fun and engaging.As nonprofit organizations, we cantnote, or your social media channels. We realized that our virtual volun- for a moment think that the COVID- Yes, this has been an incredibly teers could bake cookies for the19 virus deems our valued volunteersstormy time, but were seeing beauti-students and guests in our program.useless. We need to release the unstop- ful rainbows on the horizon. \x04 50 WWW.CITYGATENETWORK.ORG SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020'