What is the most satisfying community activity that you are a part of?

Hospice.

I consider it a “community activity” because I meet a lot of other hospice volunteers, family members in the community, and, of course, the patients themselves. I’ve learned a lot about the town and people in general from taking care of them when they’re dying. I go every weekend and I couldn’t see myself myself spending that time anywhere else. I meet the most wonderful people and they teach me so much.

does this site count ? It IS a community,I’m active in it, and I’m pretty satisfied with it so far.

Well, I’m in a local theatre group. Ok, it’s not a volunteer organisation in like protecting the environment or saving lives (my sister is actually in one of those), but it probably counts too, right? We’re going to be playing a parody of the Trojan War, it’s an extremely funny script and I laugh a lot during rehearsals, we all do. I play Achilles and also did the music for it. The music is a lot of work since we don’t have a studio to record, or many musicians around, and all the actors are amateurs and most can’t sing. The words are ok, I have a relatively small role so I finally managed to learn them. The people are wonderful, we are a fun group without any bickering or the usual egos you get in these cases. We have a great time together.

I think working at the battered women shelter. It used to be completely horrifying, at times, now what I see are strong women who are finally standing up for themselves and their children. They may come in broken, but so many leave strong and ready to start fresh.

Of course, it is heartbreaking to see the repeat visitors and those that return to their household because they think that is the best they can do. You just keep trying, hoping that one day, they will understand that abuse does not equal love.