I need to publicly thank my daughter, Molly, who provided background for this post.

Over at Social Edge, Saul Garlick wrote a Blog post entitled The Voluntourism Debate.  It's a great post.  And so are the comments, which I highly encourage you to read.  A couple of "super stars" in the world of volunteer abroad have commented there in fact.

GeoVisions is proud to present this guest post by Karen Middleton, President of Emerge America, a premier training program for Democratic women. Karen also served as a Democratic Representative for the state of Colorado and was on three committees - House Education, Business Affairs and Labor, and the Legislative Council.

After a long hiatus, I'm back.  What a summer.  Hot…that comes to mind first.  Hectic.  I just hadn't planned on being so busy.  I barely saw my kids.  And I've already been filling out my "dance card" for Winter 2010 and well into 2011 and that causes some pause. So to get things rolling back on the GeoVisions Blog, I'm not writing about Voluntourism or GeoVisions in this first Blog post of the fall.  I'm going to point you to another site, actually.  All about reunions. Everyone is marking the 5th Anniversary of Katrina.  Anderson Cooper 360 has actually been "keeping them honest" and having the previous administration's emergency response team talking about what they did wrong and what they would do differently today.  The interviews have been refreshing to see so many people own up to their mistakes. I'd never thought of reuniting family pets with owners and what an enormous job that would be.  Most of the volunteering we see in the Gulf consists of building and rebuilding homes, cleaning up, large construction, education and work with the hungry and homeless.  But when I saw the video over at Best Friends Animal Society, I was blown away.  I encourage you to watch their 6 minute video about how hundreds of volunteers showed up to reunite families with their pets who were left behind.  It will warm your heart and it will cause you to think differently about volunteering. Please, first watch the short video that appears below, courtesy of Best Friends Animal Society.  Then if you're so moved, check out their organization using the link above. Those of us doing this work sometimes forget to call attention to domestic organizations and the incredible work volunteers do in all walks of life.  This is me calling attention to Best Friends Animal Society and the incredible work they do to bring joy to people and animals.  It just doesn't get any better than that.  So enjoy the video:

Where can I go to volunteer abroad? Who offers voluntourism programs? What projects are available? What will it cost? Are there any pitfalls?