Goodwillin'

Unexpected. That would describe the first challenge announcement experience. Not only the practically earth shaking revelation of our challenge, but the multifaceted involvement of Goodwill in communities and diverse business pursuits opened my eyes—I only knew Goodwill for their stores and didn’t realize the amount of personal development programs and empowering opportunities it gives to those faced with obstacles that inhibit total assimilation. When I heard that the challenge was going to be at Goodwill Columbus, I knew that the challenge was going to be philanthropic—maybe creating a platform to display some of the issues we were going to learn or developing a proposal for an organization with similar missions as Goodwill…but never a car/boat/trailer collection. Collecting these donations with success will rely on a ton of creativity. Getting people to donate these major investments is going to take a lot more persuasion than convincing people to give outdated clothing or preserved goods to a drive. The most exciting part is that even if we end up with one car that will still be hundreds of dollars worth of donations.

            This project will definitely help me to improve my skills in networking and outreaching. These cars and boats aren’t going to fall into my lap, so this challenge will really force me out of my comfort zone to extend myself to all kinds of people and resources to look for unwanted cars and boats. However, I think that I can use my strengths of being conscious of practical methods to pursue the most beneficial and realistic ideas. It can be easy to get carried away with idealistic and maybe unrealistic ideas on how to approach this challenge. This challenge will help me innovatively and tactfully complete this mammoth challenge, and hopefully give me some tips on how to get my own first car!