To independently create and organize one's own volunteer opportunity in another country is no small challenge; nor is it a small challenge providing nursing/health support to a prison community. Mally Arkin, current volunteer with the Stoll Foundation for Holistic Health, has done both.

Arkin previously spent two years in Guatemala where she lived in a boarding school for teenagers; there she organized and resupplied their unmanned medical clinic, provided much needed health screenings, and "ate a lot of beans and rice, before all was halted by Hurricane Stan," said Arkin. Arkin has also traveled to Ecuador where she and a medical team provided surgical care for residents with physical deformities.

Currently, Larkin is a volunteer for the Stoll foundation, a non-profit whose stated goal is to "improve individuals' lives through health education, providing lasting and inexpensive solutions for disease reversal through self-care and healthy lifestyle support." Arkin has helped organize and sell donated books to raise funds for the organization and has helped plan and execute numerous mini-seminars related to holistic health education. Arkin said her "most memorable seminar participation was a forced laughter seminar about which she was initially skeptical but it ended up being amazingly fun and therapeutic."

Through her passion for volunteerism and travel, Arkin says she has met many exceptional people and learned much. She said, "Volunteering has enriched my life by expanding and challenging me to be more tolerant of the many differences among people and I have learned (that) the world does not revolve around my preferences." She also sends the message that the reward of volunteering is the volunteering itself.

For information about volunteering with Stoll Foundation for Holistic Health or other agencies, call the Volunteer Connection at 303-444-4904.