Volunteering?

[DimesDan]

What with Con/Dems trying to introduce the Big Society here in the UK, I was just curious to discover if anyone here volunteers for anything, why they do it and do you actually get any satisfaction from it?

I'm a Scout Leader, it takes up quiet a bit of my time, including one or more evenings a week. I do it because I enjoy doing it and I feel I'm giving something back to my Scout Group as I was a Cub and a Scout with them. And I do get satifaction from it.

So anyway, who here volunteers and if not, why not?

 

[scottydog]

I volunteer to help troubled teens who are being raised in homes where there is alcoholism and drug abuse. Also, I volunteer at my church to help 4th graders with their spiritual growth.

I should do more. The more we're given, the more we should give away to others.

Thanks for this great thread, Dimesdan. I suspect you are a great Scout Leader.

 

[wamdue]

well I do some volunteering mentor, generally with people with either mental or physical disability, I very basically help those people use some web software to help them learn the very basics of a computer and web surfing.

Nothing to Big Socitey about it, until the new year, when I started a group at an NHS adult meantal health ward, which could be seen as "Big Society"

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

No, because I'm a selfish bastard.

 

[TerokNor]

I volunteered at an animal shelter, though not at the moment. The shelter where I live right now is to far off for a non-cardriver. However depending where I move next that certainly would be an option again.

Well and my mom and I have a "foster-child" by the organisation in my link, but thats not really volunteering as we don´t do work ourselves, but give money for projects in the village the girl lives in.

Truly volunteering in social projects and such I am not sure if I´d want that, though I find it great when people do it.
But when you work full-time already in the social sector, then the spare time just needs to be...well.. not the same (for me at least).

The volunteering with the animals however was very satisfying, doing something good, giving them some attenton and love (but it was difficult to not take all of them home... which would not have been possible anyway, but still...)
...and it was also something, that gave me a better balance, inner calmness and such.


TerokNor

 

[Amaris]

When I can, I donate my time to teaching people how to use a computer (how to email, surf the net, create resumes, etc).

 

[Deranged Nasat]

I did voluntary work with the Young Carers - providing trips out and such for children who help take care of disabled relatives. That was every Saturday for several years (I started when I was 15 and I had to stop around three years later when I left for university).

 

[Kestra]

I love volunteering! I've done it since middle school and it's one of the few things in my life that has consistently made me happy. Currently I volunteer at a domestic violence shelter in the city. In the past I've volunteered at nursing homes, hospitals, shelters/soup kitchens for the homeless, a literacy center, animal shelter, and done other odds and ends.

 

[B.J.]

I'm a Scout Leader, it takes up quiet a bit of my time, including one or more evenings a week. I do it because I enjoy doing it and I feel I'm giving something back to my Scout Group as I was a Cub and a Scout with them. And I do get satifaction from it.

Same for me, although I'm in a different city than where I grew up. My oldest just crossed over from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts this past weekend.

 

[mtblillie]

I used to be a volunteer for the Civil Air Patrol (US Air Force Auxiliary), I started out as a cadet in the leadership program, and then when I became an adult member I was an instructor for the cadets.

Now I am a volunteer firefighter. I could say that I did these things to help the community-not that it isn't true, but honestly I do mostly because it is a hell of a lot of fun. Helping out the community is just a bonus.

 

[Timby]

Volunteering is an integral component of my life. Once I turned 21, I was an active member of the Dubuque Jaycees for five years before I moved away. I also served as the assistant coordinator for the Iowa-Illinois-Wisconsin Toys for Tots effort in 2009. This past holiday season, I volunteered for the Empty Stocking Club in Madison. I also work the 24-hour hotline at the Madison Area Intergroup.

When asked why I do it, I quote my best friend's dad, who passed away on February 24, 2009: "Perhaps the tallest you'll ever stand in your life is when you bend down to help a child in need."

 

[Yeoman Randi]

I hate to say it but it has been a while since i donated any "time". I do donate things all the time though. I'm scheduled for my regular blood donation next week. I just donated a shitload of blankets and towels to the local animal shelter (they put them down for the dogs to lay on instead of the hard cold concrete floors), toys at xmas time to Toys for Tots, furniture and stuff to Vietnam Vets, Salvation Army etc, money to PBS and public radio and coats to the coat drives.

I would love to get back into personal volunteering (which i have done in the past) but i swear, these days i find there aren't enough hours in the day to get my own shit done.

 

[Timby]

Toys for Tots is a criminally misunderstood effort. Many, many people think that Toys for Tots provides toys to needy families. That isn't true, at all. Toys for Tots is essentially the middle man. It collects / buys the toys, and then it distributes the toys to local organizations that do serve the needy. (The vast majority of the toys handed out by the Salvation Army, for example, come from Toys for Tots.)

We served almost 11,000 kids in Dubuque, Grant and Jo Daviess Counties in 2009. That's one of my greatest achievements.

 

[Lindley]

I used to be a volunteer for the Civil Air Patrol (US Air Force Auxiliary), I started out as a cadet in the leadership program, and then when I became an adult member I was an instructor for the cadets.

I wish I had done CAP when I was younger. It would have been a much cheaper way to learn to fly....

 

[Yeoman Randi]

Toys for Tots is a criminally misunderstood effort. Many, many people think that Toys for Tots provides toys to needy families. That isn't true, at all. Toys for Tots is essentially the middle man. It collects / buys the toys, and then it distributes the toys to local organizations that do serve the needy. (The vast majority of the toys handed out by the Salvation Army, for example, come from Toys for Tots.)

We served almost 11,000 kids in Dubuque, Grant and Jo Daviess Counties in 2009. That's one of my greatest achievements.

When you say "criminally misunderstood" you are saying that figuratively, right? I mean, ALL of the toys DO get to kids? None get "lost" along the way?

 

[Holdfast]

No, because I'm a selfish bastard.

This.

The only volunteering I've done wasn't really volunteering because a) I didn't really have a choice about it, and b) it was done to bolster a specific career route rather than being altruistic in nature.

 

[Kestra]

No, because I'm a selfish bastard.

This.

The only volunteering I've done wasn't really volunteering because a) I didn't really have a choice about it, and b) it was done to bolster a specific career route rather than being altruistic in nature.

Oh Holdfast, you really are terrible, aren't you?

 

[Crusher Disciple]

I volunteer during disaster relief, mostly for the Red Cross. I also work with a local food pantry a couple of days a month.

As soon as I get a chance, I want to work with a local free clinic. Being almost homeless and broke really deepened my appreciation for how much these services are needed.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

No, because I'm a selfish bastard.

This.

The only volunteering I've done wasn't really volunteering because a) I didn't really have a choice about it, and b) it was done to bolster a specific career route rather than being altruistic in nature.

Actually, I don't mind devoting some of my time to helping others, only one or more of the following factors usually seem to apply:

• the other people involved as they are weird, have power complexes, are religious nutters, interfere in your life, are insulting, are helping themselves to stuff ... and so on
• the people that you're helping won't help themselves at all, or treat you like dirt
• the charitable organisation also wants you to donate or raise money, and starts to behave more and more like some religious cult

This may be a UK thing. A lot more US folks seem to get involved in volunteering.

 

[Lunarflower]

I have been volunteering for a theraputic riding program for a number of years now. It can be a little crazy (depending on how many students are there at a given time). But it is fun.