Written by April Fajardo and Jen Gigliotti
As a new grad PT or PTA, what makes you tick? What motivates you to get up every morning to go to work? For us, it’s been the insatiable desire to help others. It’s the feeling knowing that every day is an opportunity to improve someone’s quality of life. We get to wipe the tears of joy when a patient walks for the first time after a stroke. We get to celebrate with the patient who is pain-free and able to play with her kids after having chronic pain for years.
How It All Began
It all began on a starry night on the Amazon River when Efosa Guobadia was captivated by a crazy idea. What if, on the same day, clinicians, students and associated staff of the Physical Therapy profession volunteered in different communities on the same day around the world? What if, we then shared those moments and acts in a way that was galvanizing, inspiring, and promoted connections all over the world? What if!? He couldn’t shake it off and quickly e-mailed his dear friend and colleague, Josh D’Angelo. Without hesitation, Josh thought ‘Let’s really do this. Let’s shoot for the stars.’
The idea evolved into a global movement driven by ten passionate volunteers. Participants come from 49 states, 25 countries, 40+ sponsors, and over 1,000 domestic and international pledges dedicated to transform society. Since the development of this initiative, we have had the chance to engage our communities about servant leadership and civic responsibility. We have had the chance to convert compassion into action. The impact of this initiative is greater than anything we could have envisioned for ourselves. To our knowledge, this is the first global Day of Service coordinated by a whole profession!
Can New Grads Make an Impact?
As new grad PT’s & PTA’s, the opportunity is NOW. Let’s take the extra steps to find out what truly makes us tick within this profession, and to turn our compassion into action.
A global initiative like Physical Therapy Day of Service gives us the chance to do just that: to lead alongside our colleagues around the world while reaching out to serve our local communities. NOW is the time to make a difference in your community and your profession by helping this international movement!
Connect With PTDOS
We invite you to check out and learn more about Physical Therapy Day of Service on Social Media! Please feel free to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Learn more & pledge to join the movement.
Don’t forget to use #PTDOS (for anything related to PT Day of Service) & #PTServes (to discover what everyone else is doing for their service project) on our Facebook & Twitter pages. If you have any questions, please e-mail us at [email protected].
Pledge here to join the global movement today…It takes less than 60 seconds!
Received word from the PTDOS team that they recently received an ambassador from Vermont, so that makes it a perfect 50/50. Nice job everyone.