City of Glendale - News

Amazing Volunteers

On the job with Josh Donaldson—a volunteer with Glendale’s Crisis Response Team

Even though he’s only 23 years old, Josh Donaldson has some pretty hefty responsibilities with the City of Glendale. Donaldson is a Crisis Response Team Leader, which is a volunteer position with the city. In this role, Donaldson, along with other crisis response volunteers, go to scenes of accidents, fires and other traumas to help out the individuals involved in the situation in any way they can. For example, Donaldson says that if a family’s home burns down, the crisis response volunteers help find the owners a place to stay and try to gather other necessities they might need.

“I like giving back to the community and feeling like I’ve helped,” he says. “I love doing it. I can’t believe it’s a volunteer job.”

This young man, who is on call every third day for 24 hours, found out about the city’s Crisis Response Team two years ago when he was taking EMT (Emergency Medical Technician) classes. He checked into the volunteer opportunity further and has never looked back. He enjoys the work so much that he continues to volunteer on top of working as an EMT.

And though all the situations Donaldson encounters in his volunteer work are tragic, it doesn’t seem to lower his morale – he’s just thrilled to be able to help the people of Glendale when they are in need.