This week marked a major milestone in my summer at LifeCare Alliance, I completed my 23rd interview for the Meals-on-Wheels Customer Journey project. It feels surreal to be wrapping up this core portion of the project, having spent the past several weeks speaking with a wide range of volunteers and staff members. My final volunteer interview was with someone who has been delivering meals for over a decade, and it was a fitting close, thoughtful, candid, and filled with reflections on long-term service. I went through the transcript, created the final playback sheet, and uploaded it to our shared project files.

With interviews now mostly complete, I shifted my focus to preparation for the upcoming half-day session, where we’ll share insights and co-develop solutions with employees. I finalized employee personas and began creating volunteer personas, fictional yet representative profiles that reflect recurring themes from my interviews. These personas will be used in group activities to bring stories to life and spark conversation. I also worked closely with Andrea and Molly during our weekly meeting to review key findings, refine slide decks, and finalize the pre-work recap for the session. Together, we identified a few remaining stakeholder interviews to complete with leadership members to round out the project.

Outside of the Customer Journey project, I helped out with the Beat the Heat Fan Distribution campaign which turned out to be our largest distribution event to date, where we handed out 152 fans to individuals. On Friday, I participated in the 10TV Fan Drive, helping collect fans, register donors, and load trucks. It was a full-circle moment, watching Roberta, our new head of marketing, capture the energy of the day through content creation and media interviews. It gave me a new appreciation for the storytelling power behind mission-driven events. The day turned out successfully with a total of 156 fans received with and additional $130 in monetary donations.

From a marketing perspective, I continue to learn the importance of tailoring communication to your audience. One of my interviewees, shared that a mandatory training would have deterred her from volunteering altogether highlighting the need for accessible, optional support materials. This inspired ideas like including laminated guides or QR code-based FAQs in delivery bags. I also started thinking about ways to highlight volunteer and donor appreciation more consistently on Instagram, through dedicated story highlights or tagged content from partners.

It’s hard to believe there are only a few weeks left. With preparations underway for the half-day event and the next Customer Journey project on the horizon, I’m grateful for the chance to keep learning, building, and contributing to something meaningful.

Until next week,
Kat Jolley