My Volunteer Experiences

Hi TBF readers, attendees, and fellow volunteers,

The Greater Rochester Teen Book Festival is right around the corner and volunteer forms are already out! I'm going to encourage you and everyone I know to hurry up and get that volunteer form submitted. Whether it be dedicating your whole day or just a few hours of your time it can be a huge help to the festival and all it's participants.

So I've been volunteering for TBF since 2012 and I'm telling you, its worth every second you spend there. My first year volunteering I just did a few hours of my time volunteering and got to explore the festival for the rest of the day, and I'll admit that it was pretty cool, but for the rest of my time volunteering I was privileged to be an author assistant, which allowed me to meet and hang out with some of my favorite authors and all around coolest people I've ever met. Author assistants are teen helpers that announce the author's panel, take them too and from places they need to go throughout the day, and overall help the authors in any way they can. (And for you aspiring writers out there, in between sessions they might even pass along some of their authorly wisdom to you if you ask them). Going to TBF every year as a volunteer has been seriously rewarding for me. I've learned a lot, met a lot of people, done and seen a lot of cool things, and heard my fair share of inspiring stories. I promise there's a reason we all get out of bed bright and early for this wonderful event. Volunteering is one of the stones that holds up TBF, without us, without you, we wouldn't have a Teen Book Festival to go back to every year.

If you're thinking about volunteering this year, go for it. If you're not, why not just attend? What's a festival with no one at it? TBF is, as many of you probably already know, May 20th this year, so come, bring a friend! Everyone is welcome!

Thanks for reading!
Theresa