How involved are you with your local community?

Yes; yes; yes; yes; yes; and more.
My career in volunteering started as a way to be involved when I left my FT job to be with our kids. It has evolved into more work than my FT job ever was. I get great fulfillment and great frustration out of it.

Not involved at all, my community is pretty lame.

Zip zilch notta. I never want to be bugged at home, so I will never participate in a door to door or phone campaign. Personally, everything around here is so corrupt, I’ve tried to participate, only to be rebuffed by old ways of thinking, or being shoved off and ignored or fed the copy paste line.

I do go to the soup kitchen to help out sorting cans or handing stuff out when I’m lonely or feel the need to do something better.

I pretend to be involved, especially with politics, especially after watching a couple of episodes of the “West Wing”.

Honestly, I’d like to do more – locally or state-wide – but I don’t know where to start & I already have a number of commitments.

@uberbatman: I’d love to go the soup kitchen route and I always think it would be especially nice to do that but seriously I can’t think of any reasonable excuse why I don’t, but I don’t.

I did volunteer briefly doing web design for a group called the New Democratic Majority in NYC, but it was a tiny grassroots campaign in the beginning but they couldn’t hold their shit together. I wonder where they are now…?

I’m not someone who ever goes out of his way to get involved in anything, but a few years ago I decided I wanted to join the town’s shade tree advisory board. We meet once a month.

I also go to council meetings and school board meetings if something important is going to be on the agenda, but that’s rare. I went last week because they were talking about cutting elementary school teachers, (which would increase class sizes while our elementary class sizes are already large relative to surrounding towns) without first cutting things at the high school and middle schools. If you’re going to cut anything cut it at the higher levels. Stuff like that I’ll go for.

I’m super over involved with my community, but I love it! I’m involved with the local young professionals group, downtown development, the environment and beautification of our area. I get involved with the community because this is where I live and I want to make sure it stays a great place to live as well as growing too.

My family helped found the community I live in over 150 yrs ago. I get very involved, in
*Wildlife
* Trees
*Historical Edifice
Issues/situations.

I have fought for the deer, the Elm Trees and helped save a Church my great-grandfather, and grandfather helped build. It now stands beautifully filled with an architectural firm that has brought it back from my parishes near destruction of it.

Yes, yes, yes, not currently and yes. I live in an area that is growing fast, to me and my family, it’s very important that we have a voice in our community. We still have a small town feel, even though we are in an area that is growing very quickly.

I’ve been involved in education in our area for well over 10 years. I hold a seat the board of an child’s advocate committee and will always do what I can to serve that committee. The goal is to create an equal education to all the children in the county – not just my local town. I live in a county that has very rural areas, as well as some of the wealthiest communities in the state. When one school has all the bells and whistles and another has ceilings that have mold on them and computers that are so outdated, something needs to be done. Not to mention the vast difference in the teaching staff. I feel that all children in the county should have access to an equal level of education, it shouldn’t be better for those that come from families with more means, than other families.

I have helped either advertise or work at local medical clinics to serve the community and reach out to those that may not be able to afford proper health care. There are many things I could list that our family is involved in – but it’s easier just to say that to us, it’s important that we serve our community and county. After all, we live here, we spend our money here and we want to see it grow and offer the best resources to those that live here.

I go to farmer’s market! Does that count?

I am a member of the Lions Club in our town. We’re a community service group that raises money to help the blind, hearing impaired, children with disabilities, the hungry, and more.

I absolutely love it! We have meetings—(not the secret hand shake type, but the type where you eat pizza and pass around sign-up sheets for raffle booths)—twice a month, and get to be out in the community helping people. I’ve had strangers hug me! It feels great, and I get to know the community at the same time. (my club’s website)

I got into it because my dad was a Lion back in our home town. A few years back I decided I wanted to devote time to helping others, so the Lions Club was one of the first places I turned!

Have any of you ever considered joining a Lions Club in your community?

They’re desperate for new members and helping hands to help others. :)

Very. I just came back from a community meeting tonight.

I used to be very involved but I have learned the hard way that one person cannot fight all the corruption… it is just not possible and so one makes a choice… altruism at any cost or family at every cost! I have chosen family… and pray it is not too late.

I try to be as involved as I can. It’s hard to find sports programs in Manhattan that you don’t have to pay an astronomical amount of money to participate in, but I always keep an eye out. I volunteer with NY Cares and when I’m with my family (in New Jersey) I volunteer at a senior center. There is absolutely nothing comparable to the knowledge that you’ve helped someone in need.

@sherlockpoems: Of course one would put their family above altruism, but you sound very apathetic about volunteer work. You really think that volunteering does nothing to better the world?

I have never been involved but have just recently seen the immense value in it. After being a nomad, I am semi permanently moving to santa monica in two weeks and plan on diving into community meetings and local politics immediately thereafter.
Excited!

I was an emergency foster care provider for many years. I did volunteer work with a local community youth group for about three years, and I was a volunteer yard monitor when my son was school age, and a long list of others. Now that I am not as physically active as I once was, I participate in online charities, as follows:

http://www.thehungersite.com/
http://www.freerice.com/
http://www.goodsearch.com/

and I urge other computer users to do the same.

Any other computer users here? (kidding!)

I am a Freemason. So it’s basically my other job to be community involved!