Johnson County volunteer, Danielle Garrison helps out her community.
Danielle Garrison is a recent Franklin College graduate who enjoys spending her time volunteering in Johnson County.
Volunteering takes a certain type of person to take time out of their day to help out others without reaping the financial benefits. However, there are other benefits that one can acquire from volunteering and recent Franklin College graduate, Danielle Garrison, is learning more about herself simply from volunteering. Garrison is 22 years old and is a Franklin resident, however she grew up in Shelby County before she decided to attend Franklin College to pursue a degree in psychology.
Garrison currently volunteers at Christian Help in downtown Franklin and throughly enjoys it. She has been at Christian Help for over a year and she did her AmeriCorps term there while she was a student and chose to continue to volunteer there because she felt passionate about it. Christian Help most likely will be adding Garrison to their payroll because she has been sucha deidcated member of their team over the past year. Garrison uses her psychology skills from school and helps others that come into Christian Help.
"Basically we help people that are homeless or will be homeless if they can't get their rent paid, we also help them with any mental needs they have if they need to talk to somebody. Nobody here is a registered psychologist by any means, but they need somebody to talk to," said Garrison.
Garrison enjoys volunteering because she works with the elderly and she finds the work she does with them rewarding. Garrison teaches them anything from basic technology ideas and just why maybe a younger person would do this or that. Volunteering at Christian Help has really molded Garrison into the person that makes others proud of her and respect her. By volunteering at her organization, Garrison sees all sorts of people. " I've learned a lot about people, I have a much different perspective now than I had prior to working here. I'm not as biased as I used to be, I'm not as prejudice as I used to be, you get a wide range of people in here . People that you never think were having trouble you know, come in here," said Garrison.
It was made clear that Garrison would tell anyone if they have the opportunity to take the time and volunteer. Garrison believes you have the financial solution to back you up and allow you to volunteer sacrifice your time and help others. "Just go with your heart, if it feels right, go with it," said Garrison.