Caitlyn and her mother, a United Way volunteer
Throughout the next few weeks, we want to give the UWBucks Community a chance to meet our six awesome interns! Each Wednesday, we will feature a post by an intern telling you a little bit about themselves and their mission for the summer. This week is Caitlyn Feldcamp, a Bucks County native who is just learning to navigate her hometown.
Hello! My name is Caitlyn Feldcamp. I am a Campaign and Resource Development Intern here at United Way of Bucks County. I work with Kelly Schmidt on a thanking campaign. He puts his life in my hands every day as I drive us around Bucks County to different workplaces to thank them for supporting UWBucks. Both my father and supervisor Jeannie Foy will attest that I have no geographical concept of Bucks County at all. By driving around, I am finally learning the difference between Rt. 413 and Rt.13 and I now understand that Street Road isn’t just a way to get to Franklin Mills Mall. I still can’t give you directions, though.
I am a Nursing major at Salisbury University on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Struggling to find an exciting summer job, I was barraged with text messages and e-mails from my mother about the internships available with UWBucks this summer. She is a volunteer on the Community Impact Panel and has been involved with UWBucks for some time now. Although I felt that I might be unqualified because of my major and past job experiences, I went out on a limb and applied. Thankfully, something went right and here I am writing this blog.
Interning at a nonprofit has introduced me to many new aspects of our community that I wasn’t aware of before. I never thought about how food pantries were stocked, or how afterschool programs were funded. I always envisioned a distant third party or some generous billionaire funding these programs. Now I realize that’s it the everyday citizen like you and me, who generously donate to the United Way of Bucks County, where the staff works to stretch that dollar so it can have the biggest impact.
I am super excited for the Bucks Knocks Out Hunger Event coming up in August. I didn’t realize the magnitude of the hit our community took from Hurricane Sandy. While I was down at school, I was just happy to have two days off of class and I never even lost power in my dorm. At home here, it was a different story. Houses were destroyed and power went out for days. Food pantries lost the stocks of food they stored in their fridges and freezers, as did many residents of Bucks County. These residents then went to the food pantries, which began to run low on supplies because of the increase in visitors. Bucks Knocks Out Hunger is a way for these food pantries to become replenished and to help the people in Bucks County who are food insecure. Hunger is an issue in Bucks County that should not exist. Hopefully this event can start the movement to knock it out for good.
I am so thankful for this opportunity to intern with United Way of Bucks County. I am honestly learning so much and having a blast at the same time. I even got to wear a banana suit to promote Bucks Knocks Out Hunger, which is a personal dream of mine. I look forward to the coming weeks of the internship that will hopefully allow me to continue explore the nonprofit sector.
About the Contributor: Katie Pilot is the Marketing Intern at UWBucks for the summer. She is a rising senior at Villanova University with a major in Communications. Due to her passion for social justice, particularly the importance of education, she is excited to help get the word out about UWBucks’ great contributions to the county in hopes to get more people involved.