Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Disaster - 10 Ways to Volunteer

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Sun, 06/13/2010 - 22:58

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This awesome article was brought to you by Andrew Dunkle

Andrew Dunkle from GO! Overseas Andrew studied Chinese and Art History at the University of Colorado - Boulder. He loves to travel, and has so far called Colorado, Australia, Taiwan, and California home. Follow me on Twitter: @AndrewOverseas and Google+: Andrew Dunkle.

When disasters such as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill impact the United States, it is inspiring to see people rally together and volunteer their time to bring relief to those affected. However, this desire to get involved will often lead to a familiar question: How exactly can I help? To that end, we have compiled together 10 useful Gulf of Mexico disaster relief volunteer websites below. All of these sites provide up to date information about the oil spill and different ways to get involved.

Before you jump in the car and start driving to the Gulf of Mexico, it is important for would-be-volunteers to carefully consider their motivations. Start by thinking about and then answering the following questions honestly. This thought process will help you develop realistic expectations for ways you can effectively contribute, either through volunteering your time or in the form of monetary contributions.

Why do I want to volunteer and what are my specific goals?
Do I have the required experience and skill set to realistically meet these goals?

I will use myself as an example. My areas of expertise are in online marketing and social media. For the time being I cannot go to the Gulf region and provide on-site assistance, so I have volunteered my time and knowledge to a number of conservation and disaster relief websites to help spread their information online. Now consider your own work experience and how the needs of a volunteer organization might benefit from them.

As promised, here are 10 useful websites that contain more information about the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster and ways you can help: