Be a Volunteer
Our fantastic volunteers have carried the Minnesota AIDS Walk and made it succeed for 22 years. With the Run for the Ribbon entering its third year, our responsibilities are growing and we need your help!
Please use our Volunteer Sign-up Form to sign up for the roles in which you would like to participate. To fill out this form, you will be asked to log in. You may use the same username and password you used if you registered for the Walk. If you have not yet created an online account with us, click the New User Registration link below the login form.
After you fill out the form, our Volunteer Coordinator will follow up with you to match you to the best role.
If you are volunteering in a group, be sure to provide the name of the organization and number of participants in question #4. An email will be sent out requesting the additional names.
Please email us or call 612-373-9160 with any questions or concerns regarding volunteering for the 2010 Minnesota AIDS Walk.
Volunteer Before the Walk and Run
Promotions
Volunteers help bring in new walkers and runners every year! We need help distributing fliers at races in the springtime, as well as staffing promotional tables with Walk materials. Become a MAP volunteer and check out Interactive MAP, our volunteer blog, to see when and where you can help us promote the Walk and Run.
Early Registration Days
Our friends at Wells Fargo have graciously offered space before the Walk to collect early pledges and hand out incentive prizes to our over-achieving walkers. We’ll need customer-friendly volunteers who are comfortable handling money while thanking and rewarding our most eager supporters. Become a MAP volunteer and check out Interactive MAP, our volunteer blog, to learn more about helping out with early registration.
Phone Calling
Put your charming voice to work! We need volunteers to come in and make phone calls throughout the spring to invite past participants back and provide information to new ones. Instructions and call script provided. And don’t worry, because it’s not cold calling, just a friendly reminder to our supporters! Become a MAP volunteer and check out Interactive MAP, our volunteer blog, to learn more about helping out.
Volunteer at the Walk and Run
When you sign up online, specify all of the assignments you are interested in working. You can also tell us how many shifts you can work throughout the day. Here’s a quick rundown of the volunteer roles available:
Muscle Crews, Signage and Decorations
Our hands-on teams build the park and route from scratch, turning it into a beautiful, festive venue for thousands of participants. We need all the capable hands and feet we can get to put up tents in the park and on the route, lift and haul supplies, inflate and assemble balloon displays, and populate the course with signs providing logistical and educational information.
Green Team
Compost happens! With a few thousand friends coming through the park and route, it takes a sturdy crew of volunteers to clean up. We need people who like working on their feet and don’t mind picking up and hauling bags of litter. At the end of Walk Day, Minnehaha Park and the Walk and Run route should look just as clean as we found it.
Park Hospitality
There are several ways to help in the park before, during, and after the Walk and Run. We need volunteers to help run activities in the Junior Walkers tent, Team Photography tent, Memorial Signs tent, MAP Welcome & Education tent, and Boutique.
Run for the Ribbon
We need workers to hand out water, bananas, snacks, t-shirts, and numbers at the beginning and end of the Run, and to distribute water at stations along the route. Volunteer timers need to shout out times to runners as they pass key mile markers along the route.
Walk and Run Registration
This is ideal for those who love to collect money and cheer for our supporters. Early in the day we’ll need a crew to collect registration fees from runners and issue their numbers. Then we need volunteers to collect pledges and sponsor sheets, tally up the totals, and make joyful noise when big donations come in. Volunteer spots fill quickly and there is a limited number of positions, so be sure to sign up early!
Walk and Run Safety Squads
We need volunteers to put up traffic barriers at each intersection along the route, stand guard to prevent cars from entering the route, attend to injured or exhausted participants, and call for responders during an emergency. This is an all-day position that includes a complimentary lunch at mid-day.
Walk and Run Spirit Squads
From beginning to end, we need volunteers who are ready to shake hands, high five, and enthusiastically thank our walkers and runners for supporting MAP. At Minnehaha Park entrances, we need cheerful, helpful groups to welcome walkers and runners, hand out pocket guides, and direct people to key locations. We also need spirit squads during the Walk and Run to make noise, encourage participants to keep going, and give handshakes and high fives to everyone they greet.
Training
For the Walk and Run to succeed, each volunteer must receive and understand instructions for what to do, where to be, when to be there, and how to get there. Because we know your schedule is limited, basic training information is available to download right from our website, so that you can review your assignment on your own time.
We do, however, want you to have detailed information and familiarity with your responsibilities and crewmates before Walk Day. At one of our pre-walk volunteer orientations, you will have a chance to drop in and speak with your crew captain(s), get in-person instructions, meet your fellow crew members, learn more about HIV and MAP, and pick up your volunteer t-shirt. When you sign up online, you can select the orientation date you wish to attend, or let us know to contact you to make separate arrangements.