This month, Cloudera Cares is worked up to highlight Burt Wagner, senior options engineer from Alexandria, Virginia. Burt—who joined Cloudera earlier this yr— volunteers often with the Boy Scouts of America. He began Scouting as an eight yr previous; it has at all times been an integral a part of his life and one thing he now enjoys sharing together with his son.
“Scouting has been there by means of each part of my life, and it’s central to my identification. I can’t think about it being another approach.”
The mission of the Boy Scouts of America is to organize younger individuals to make moral and ethical selections over their lifetimes by instilling in them essential values akin to being reliable, loyal, courteous, and sort. The group cultivates in youngsters a love of studying and camaraderie—one thing that many Scouts carry with them for many years.
Burt helps Scouting in a lot of roles. He’s a unit commissioner, mentoring and supporting Scoutmasters and different leaders in offering a high quality program to their packs and troops. He’s the STEM Scout Information for Nationwide Capital Space Council, chargeable for main and rising the brand new STEM Scout program all through the Washington, DC metro area, meant to domesticate a love for STEM in younger individuals and a need to pursue STEM-oriented careers. Throughout Cloudera’s newest unplug week, Burt took on a barely totally different function serving as an assistant Scoutmaster for his son’s troop whereas at summer season camp.
Burt used his unplug week this July to volunteer in a approach he’s by no means been capable of earlier than: he helped his son’s Scout troop to Rodney Scout Reservation in northeast Maryland. Sadly, shortly earlier than their arrival, a 3rd of the personnel on the summer season camp had been unable to take care of help the campers. With out assist, the camp would have needed to severely curtail its program choices, and thus disappoint the lots of of Scouts in camp that week. Together with a number of different devoted leaders in camp, he merely mentioned, “Not on my watch.”
As to not disappoint the younger Scouts, the summer season camp workers turned to the grownup volunteer leaders attending camp with their troops to assist. Burt and his fellow leaders rose to the event, leveraging their Scouting experiences to make the camp a significant and profitable expertise for the attendees.
“As a youth member of Scouts, I served on aquatics workers at summer season camp myself, so I provided my providers and Camp Rodney requested me to reinforce their workers. I taught swim classes to non-swimmers, endorsed Scouts engaged on incomes Swimming Advantage Badge and Lifesaving Advantage Badge, and taught water security to different Scout Leaders.”
Throughout this brief (however exhausting) volunteer expertise, Burt additionally helped 19 Scouts earn the BSA Snorkeling award, and mentored Camp Rodney’s younger workers members on the best way to be efficient of their roles.
The expertise was “completely exhilarating, extraordinarily rewarding, and fully exhausting,” Burt mirrored. And whereas there have been extenuating and non-ideal circumstances that result in this volunteer expertise, he famous he can be completely satisfied to do it once more. Given his perspective and expertise, he felt that not solely may he share knowledge with the younger Scouts, however with the workers as nicely—one thing he not often has the chance to do.
“It made me respect the expertise extra. I actually noticed the distinction between what the 17- and 18-year-old camp workers had been capable of educate, versus what I used to be capable of deliver to courses with 30+ years extra expertise.”
As Burt concluded his reflections, he added an overarching message that applies nicely past Scouting—however will get on the essential and rewarding nature of volunteering with teenagers and younger adults. “I believe volunteering with youth organizations is likely one of the most respected issues somebody can do. Youth want steering and mentoring, and serving to them study classes and purchase knowledge each ensures the way forward for our society and offers the individual volunteering a chance to make sure their very own legacy.”
Following this expertise Burt utilized Cloudera’s new volunteer incentive program, {Dollars} for Doers, to additional help the Boy Scouts of America. {Dollars} for Doers permits Cloudera to additional help the causes their workers are most captivated with. To study extra about {Dollars} for Doers and different Cloudera Company Social Duty initiatives go to our web site now.
