How do you
serve your community? Volunteer and community service groups in the Richmond
area offer a variety of meaningful ways to get involved and help make a
difference. But you may not know that many of your fellow Reynolds employees
are involved in these noteworthy volunteer efforts. In an effort to encourage more
Reynolds employees to get involved in volunteering and to highlight some of the
valuable community service efforts that our employees are already engaged in,
the Reynolds LEADS team has interviewed several Reynolds employees about their
experience as volunteers in the local community. Over the next four Reynolds
Wrap-Up publications we hope that hearing the stories of these colleagues and
the tremendous joy each one gets from their volunteer efforts will inspire
others to get involved in one of the many community service opportunities in
Richmond!
You may know
other Reynolds employees who are involved in noteworthy volunteer projects! Consider
nominating a deserving Reynolds team member for the Community Impact award.
Nominations are due by March 4th.
Reynolds Volunteer Spotlight: An
Interview with Karen Layou, Professor of Geology
Q: Describe your volunteer efforts. What groups do you serve and
what are their missions?
KL: I sit on the WCVE
Community Idea Stations Science Matters Leadership Team. The mission of this
group is to use the communication tools of Central Virginia’s PBS and NPR
stations to inspire viewers and listeners to value science. I am part of
the Leadership Team, along with WCVE representatives, math and science college
professors, K-12 educators, and other science professionals from the region. We
offer perspectives and opinions on how best to reach our diverse audience, and
provide suggestions for general Science Matters content.
I am also the Pack Secretary for my
sons’ Cub Scout group, and my duties include taking minutes for monthly
meetings, completing administrative paperwork for new scouts, and writing
letters and thank you notes. There are 70 scouts in this pack!
Q: How did you get involved in volunteering?
KL: I was first
approached by the Science Matters Project Manager in 2014 to participate in the
Science Matters Explore the Outdoors program. This is a one-day event held
in the spring during which over 40 local vendors and organizations set up
exhibits on the WCVE campus to encourage families to get outside and see what
our region has to offer. I loved the idea of it and created an exhibit of
the Geology of Virginia, with a display of rocks, fossils, and maps from around
the state. Attendance at the event topped 4000 individuals in the last
year.
Scouting is a family activity—my
husband is Den Leader and my two sons are scouts; everybody participates. We
enjoy fun activities like museum sleep-overs.
Q: How long have you been involved? How much time do you
devote to volunteering?
KL: I represented
Reynolds at the Explore the Outdoors event in spring of 2014, and soon after I
was invited to join the Science Matters Leadership Team. We [filmed] a
video piece for fossil hunting in Virginia in summer of 2015, [which also
showed up on] PBS kids cartoons and on NPR! The audience for this video was
families with children, so my boys were involved too. The time involved is
variable…the bi-annual meetings are about 2 hours, the Explore the Outdoors day
is a full-day commitment, but otherwise, it’s not too much time.
Q: Do your volunteer efforts impact your job at Reynolds?
KL: Participation in the
Explore the Outdoors day has allowed me to make contacts in the Marketing
Department here at Reynolds. I have also gotten lots of great
feedback—“hey, I heard you on the radio/saw you on TV!”—which I hope has been
helping to advertise the geology program at Reynolds.
Q: Do you have any tips for others who want to get involved?
KL: I could always use
a hand on Explore the Outdoors event—if anyone is interested in setting up
other outdoor/science related exhibits at the Reynolds table with me - that
would be great! The Science Matters program also has a Science Calendar
of Events, on their website, so you can simply get involved by attending and
supporting Science Matters events and general science-related activities around
town. Science Matters website: http://ideastations.org/sciencematters
