Do you volunteer for anything?

I rarely volunteer. The exceptions are for those enterprises or causes where I fully understand the requirements and obligations of whatever it is I’m getting into.

Lots in my town – - Master Gardener, Shriners volunteer Childrens Hospital driver, Elks Lodge cookhouse team and City Rose Garden volunteer.

Yes, I am a volunteer hospice companion and I have done a lot of volunteering over the years, including candystriping, fostering kittens, delivering meals to low income households for the holidays and I was on the board for our local community garden. Volunteering is such a rewarding experience, it’s good for your soul to give freely for the sake of benefitting the community.

I used to for the local mission, some for the scouts but I have not done it in a while. I’m currently working through the FEMA courses that will allow me to serve in the local emergency radio/response team. I toyed with joining the rescue squad or volunteer fire department but I’m on call at work quite a bit and when the fit hits the shan is when I’d get called in anyway.

I currently put in volunteer shifts as a bookseller at the office of a family support group. I can sign up for 2-hour shifts as frequently or seldom as I wish. My routine has been about once every two weeks.

I used to hold a major role in an international volunteer-run organization. For about 2½ years I put in about 150 hours a month on top of a full-time job. I really enjoyed the work, much better than my paying job, but that was about as long as I could keep it up without falling apart from stress and exhaustion. These days the organization pays outside hires to do what I used to do, but I don’t think it has been better for the organization to have someone who works for money rather than for love.

I think time is about the greatest gift a person can give. Our minutes and hours are really all we have, and they are equally distributed among everyone. Some people find satisfaction in helping others and in allying themselves with something bigger than they are. As for me, I like knowing I’m doing something purely beneficial and not selfish or harmful, and I find that making a commitment and fulfilling it helps me sustain a sense of having a place in the world, where so often I (like many others) feel like an alien.

I volunteer through the church for a few things. I help out with the food collection and distribution we do and I help with the Church Without Walls where we cook and serve food to anyone that wants it and we collect and distribute clothing free of charge. We have done back-to-school events where we gather/stock backpacks for kids who can’t afford school supplies. When we give them out we also serve burgers and dogs and sides to all the families that show up. Those are the volunteer things I do. I donate as well for a variety of things, though that is different from volunteering.

Since retiring from the work force, I volunteer my time for any cause I feel a calling. I don’t like feeling obligated to show up for work due to a paycheck being attached!!! I’ve found that I ENJOY working out of LOVE!!! My main cause right now is working with our emotionally challenged teens. I work with a group of mostly boys between the ages of 11–15 who are challenged with ADHD & parents with NO patience. They are children who seem to have NO hope of navigating life because they have little or NO social skills. They receive very little love from their parents who don’t understand or care what problem the child has & all they do is tell the child what a bad person they are. Most have become my adopted grand children. By volunteering, I have the option of not engaging with them when I’m having a really bad day myself; but I’m finding that I seldom say NO because I love my little group of misfits!!!

I love watching them realize that they are NOT the problem when they think through the solutions to their problem & they choose a better option to get out of their situation!!! I’ve watched a few of my kids who were on the path to jail hell turn their life around & eventually graduate high school with honors & even a few made it out of college. These are the kids that everybody else gave up on & I’ve had the pleasure of watching them THRIVE!!! By volunteering, I’m NOT bound by the rules of the head honchos. At a time the paid employee would be told to drop the current kid & move on to the next waiting kid, I have the luxury of helping the next waiting kid as well as continuing on with the current one. Yes, they reach a point of self sufficiency; but even then, they still need to know that somebody still cares!!!

For me volunteering gives me the option to care for my OWN reasons without feeling an obligation to care. My caring comes from my heart…NOT my checking account!!!

I volunteer to teach Zumba every week.

I just volunteered to lead a discussion on birthright citizenship.

I help my neighbors and friend’s when I can, but I’m not so sure that’s volunteering. Like when my neighbor was sick I checked on him, and one day I took him to the doctor, I didn’t want him to drive. Lots of things like that.

I am a volunteer for emergency medical response for my area.

@Caravanfan That’s so wonderful. We have that where I live, and I know stories where it has saved lives with the volunteer getting to a neighbors house before the EMTs. We have a lot of retired medical people where I live.

I volunteer doing some math tutoring through Vita. I hope to do more volunteering after I retire. A lot of volunteer work is during regular working hours.

My wife and I have volunteered for fundraisers, potlucks, coat drives, toys for tots and girlscouts at the various colleges we’ve worked at and our daughter’s school. I also volunteered to chaperone every field trip my daughter’s classes went on from kindergarten to eighth grade (from local museums to New York to DC).

I’ve always wanted to volunteer at the Children’s Hospital or a Soup Kitchen, but have not made the time.

Plus, and this is no excuse, but my wife taught ESL at a prison, was a state social worker, and a probation officer — so I feel like her service to the world is covered.

I just ended a volunteer position at the RedCross after 13 years. It had become impossible to do with my Siatica. It was hard to do, after 12 years, but I had to because I no longer could with the condition. I will miss it, but I hope to find somewhere else to volunteer. It was like my “job,” and I treated it like it was. I will miss it, and I hope to replace it with another volunteer position.

As a teen at the local zoo to adult at Special Olympics or other charities. It is the best feeling in the world.

I recommend it to everyone. From building your own self-esteem to simply making someone smile, there are no drawbacks. I keep it manageable by doing events, and only two or three permanent positions. Sometimes I just contribute to other charities or events to help friends, too, which are one time situations.

@GracieT Have you heard about the app for your cell called “Be My Eyes”??? You NEVER even have to leave home to help!!! ♥ It’s a wonderful app so sighted people can assist the blind who work to remain independent whenever they’re in need. Sometimes it’s something as simple as a blind person needing help reading a label on a can of food or maybe a label on a prescription bottle. Sometimes they simply want to know IF their choice of clothes for the day match. Occasionally a blind person goes out & gets twisted around & just needs you to tell them what you see if front of them so they can get back on track without having to fear the kindness of unknown strangers. You are under NO obligation as the call goes out to the Network & whoever answers gets the call. So, IF you’re unavailable at the moment, the call still gets covered by someone.

I know the app is available on Google Play & I believe it’s also available on the Apple network. It’s an audio/visual app so the blind can hear you & you can see what it is they need. This is going to be my next project; but, I’ve not started it yet. I have 3 friends who love it & swear by it. IF for any reason, you discover this is not the service you enjoy giving, you simply uninstall the app & you’re NO longer on their Network. & you’re under NO obligation nor expectation of providing the service. I’d think that this app would work around your bouts of Siatica. You also tell them what languages you speak & you only get calls within your language experience.

This is NOT spam as I receive NOTHING from them except that I feel it is a WONDERFUL service for those who are interested!!! I also believe that we have some WONDERFUL Jellies who would be PERFECT for this type of service!!!

I was volunteering at the democratic headquarters. Then signed on with habitat for humanity. I volunteer at our yearly festivals here in town. I volunteered to participate in a discussion about dog obedience.

Not anymore. I no longer have abilities anybody wants.
I am boxing up my daughter’s things, some of which I will donate to a local shelter.
Last volunteering I did was two years ago at the local zoo.

Happy holidays to all.

I don’t volunteer for anything currently and haven’t in a while. I volunteered sporadically throughout high school and college, from planting trees to delivering donated Christmas presents to needy families to repairing donated computers. I’ve always greatly enjoyed my volunteer experiences; they’re rewarding in a way that being paid to do something isn’t. But I simply don’t have time for it anymore. I work all the time, including many weekends, and volunteering is something I haven’t been able to make time for. I can imagine getting into it again some day when I have more time.

Happy Holidays @Patty_Melt. ♥

Yep, sure do. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, supper, snacks…

Unfortunately, not lately. But I used to volunteer for the University of Kentucky hospital every summer

I would like to volunteer at a hospital. I love hospitals.

@Dutchess_III Huh. I can’t stand them.

Oh man! That is not good news @Caravanfan! Well, I do. But I also like taking tests and I don’t like coffee.

I love coffee and hate taking tests for the record. @Dutchess_III what the hell is wrong with you, I’m all for hospital avoidance. ; )~

I actually agree with @Dutchess_III on liking hospitals. I find them soothing and like hanging out in them.

Could be because I’ve spent dozens (hundreds?) of hours at Mass General in Boston over the years, I’ve just become accustomed to it. I even like the food.

I used to do a Whole Lot of volunteering, but now that I’m older and not well, I really miss it. Just the other day, I was trying to think of a way I could volunteer again but came up with nothing. I cannot be trusted to show up daily anymore.

Getting older sometimes stinks.

I was a candy striper for a while in the 70s. That was my first experience with a hospital. I enjoyed the technology and the bustle and the air of importance.

@Caravanfan doesn’t like hospitals because he doesn’t like sick people. It’s a good thing he’s a DJ and not a doctor.

(I like your bee @Qav. Nice work!)

‘Bout my bee, thank you, @Dutchess_III !!

I volunteered a lot more when I was in college. Habitat for Humanity, soup kitchen, etc.

Now I just volunteer as an art docent at two local elementary schools. It’s hard to find the time to volunteer. :/

I go to public schools and tell kids about engineering. I also mentor on robotics teams.

LadyMarissa,
No I haven’t. but I will check it out. Thanks!

When I did volunteer, one of my favorite places was at the blood bank, just doing whatever they needed that day, from gopher jobs all over the building to getting drinks for those who needed hydrating before their donation to those who had donated.
Second favorite was working for MCCL, stuffing envelopes and gopher stuff. This made the pastor at the church very upset with me, and he told me I had no business working for a right-to-life group, because that was a Roman Catholic issue, not ours.
Third favorite was working for schools, answering students’ questions.

What is MCCL and what does any of it having to do with being Roman Catholic?

MCCL was Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life. I should have written that. He was a strong supporter of abortion back in the 1970s and on, while I was and am a strong supporter for the right to life. He claimed that the Right To Life movement was a R. Catholic movement and that Christians should stay out of it.

An example of his antics: he invited me over to his house for my birthday, for a party., and invited my friends. In the middle of the party, the started yelling at me for being prolife and volunteering for them. Surprise, surprise—my friends at his party were all prolife, too. He went and pouted in his study until we all left.

Oh, there’s a lot more about him than this, but the other stuff is not relevant to volunteerism.
;^D

Some people just like drama I guess.

Hey. I married his nephew. Talk about asking for drama . . . . ;^D

By the way, I did some volunteer work for the uncle-pastor in his church. in the ‘70s. I didn’t last long with him.

So are you right to life or pro choice or what now, that 40 years have passed?

Just as strongly right-to-life now as then. I’ve gotten to enjoy the lives of my daughter and son because of that, because I had absolutely no desire for children before the day I learned I was pregnant with my first. Lost a friend that day and gained a lifetime of joy from my bears. Lost my first husband 5 years later but I got to keep our two children because I suddenly became prolife on that day. My gains, because of those two wonderful people, are nearly 50 years of joy. Oh, Dutchess! I have been more blessed than ever was imaginable.

I was afraid to have children—afraid I would abuse them—but I didn’t, and I learned so much from them and about myself. Pardon me for getting excited about them. They are also volunteerers!! :^)

I am proud of all you have overcome Bee. You remind me of my daughter. She told me she’s anti-abortion for herself, no matter what, but pro choice for every other woman.

Awwww, Dutchess. You’re so sweet!

That’s how I ended up married, she asked for volunteers.