Without a budget for TV production, Macdonald Youth Services (MYS), a leading Winnipeg-based registered charitable organization, set out to recruit online volunteers to produce what is usually thought not doable via the Internet: create an engaging video awareness message that would illustrate MYS's  75 year history in Manitoba. But the potential of the Internet to help non-profit organizations in one of the most challenging of tasks was unleashed. Online volunteers from Detroit, Michigan; Toronto, Ontario; Clinton, New York and Portland, Oregon joined virtual hands to produce a 30 second, 75 year time capsule TV PSA about MYS (that is currently airing on local TV).

"Traditional volunteer opportunities have been difficult to maintain and schedule because I often travel with my wife on her business trips. After a web search, I found a site ... that offered involvement in something called "Virtual Volunteering," said Detroit-based Online Volunteer Kibben Miller, who produced and edited MYS's video. 

"I was intrigued and impressed that a service organization would have the insight to leverage people, tasks and needs normally not considered "do-able" via a strictly online collaborative process", continued Miller.

You may view MYS's 30 second TV PSA (5.1 MB)  by downloading the cross-platform mpg video at the following URL:

www.mys.ca/75/tv_psa

Macdonald Youth Services (MYS) is a 75 year-old trusted and respected registered charitable treatment and support agency based in Winnipeg, Canada, that provides a variety of innovative and leading programming for thousands of Manitoba’s young people on a yearly basis. MYS has been successfully utilizing highly-skilled virtual volunteers from around the globe to enhance their programs since 1998.