Volunteering

[shnen]

I have always wanted to volunteer, but have gone through so many ideas on WHAT I want to volunteer for, what I can handle, etc.
Just wanted to see what everyone else has done, is doing, wants to do...

[MammaStar]

I used to, when I was younger. My Mom works with retarded adults, the agency is called ARC. I used to volunteer in one of the gift shops. All items in the shop were made by the clients, plus they would have little things, like cards, small trinkets. All money made went toward the programs that helped them.

I used to also do work for the Rainforest. I guess that counts sort of. I used to table at a lot of Grateful Dead shows, where ever the local group didn't want to, I volunteered to do it. Got to see a LOT of free shows that way. I even organized a benefit concert in my local town to raise money for the Vahalla Wilderness Society (all BC residents are going WHA!!!!! :bug: ) They are a Canadian group working to protect the forests on the BC coast. It's funny, how I could do more of this when J-man was a lot younger, now that he's in double-digits I hardly have time.

[Xander67]

I can say from expiereince that when you give of yourself to your community, it gives you a great feeling inside, and the community gives back! :)

[Old Witch]

For the Humane society.......

[Yvonne Belisle]

I give what I can where I can but I used to do more.

[shnen]

I give money to WWF already, but I want to try and squeeze in some time too.. just seeing what everyone does... :)

was thinking of the humane society, but not sure how I can deal with that...

[Wyrdsister]

I volunteered for several years at the Rape Crisis Centre in my area. I loved it. Hard work, but really worth it. I worked on the crisis phone line which included occasionally counselling women who had been attacked and brought to the hospital. That wasn't easy. I'd love to get back into it, but finding time right now is difficult. :(
I also used to teach Sunday school. That's over. *snicker* :T

Wyrdsister

[Psyche Ague]

I used to volunteer when I was younger so that it would look good on college aps. *chuckles* There was more to it than that, but it's great inspiration to get started in a hurry!

I used to ring the bell at christmastime for the Salvation Army for National Honor Society, stuff envelopes for the local center for the arts, do adopt-a-highway with NHS, and other stuff.

Now I'm more of a civil rights/environmental activist. I e-mail and write letters to officials and representatives voicing my opinion. They write me back, which is really nice. I go to protests and am involved in Amnesty International and the Green Party. I give money here and there, but not lately: I'm a broke college student!

[Emaleth]

I used to volunteer, I had to give it up a year ago.

I worked with children from problem families. Most of them had parents who were alcoholic. It was a kind of place where children went after school, where they could eat dinner and do their homework in peace. My job was to help the kids with their English homework.

It was a hard work, the kids were extremely shy and frightened, it was really difficult to teach them anything, but when they came to you, happy because they got a C from a test, you knew it was worth it.

Blessed Be

[Flaire-FireStar]

Yes.... I used to foster animals from the SPCA...... (So I got one, and fell in love with her!)

I'm also (starting) to volunteer at Ma's church........ They need the bodies, and I have more than enough free time on my hands..

[FlamedLilly]

I voted didn't have the time, but it's really don't have the transportation.

[Danustouch]

How about a Big Sisters program, or a literacy program in your area? A Soup Kitchen?

Let's see, volunteer work that I've done?

Taking up collections for Unicef, for A Cancer Victim, canned food drives for soup kitchens. Volunteer Trash Clean Ups in Parks (we'd go hiking, and bring plastic bags with us, to gather up all the junk on the path, and in the woods that we could find), volunteer work at the hospital when I was younger. I organized the town vigil for my town after Sept 11th. Youth Leader of my Church Youth Group (don't laugh. I was 17-18 at the time, dealing with kids who were 12-15.) when I was young...helping out with the Church Pageant....

In other words, its' whatever you can, whenever you can. Volunteer work shouldn't be something you feel obligated to do, imo. But rather something you DESIRE to do. Thus, maybe you should try doing something that wouldn't require you to committ to a schedule every day, every few days, or even every week. Try to find something where you can just go when you want to, and not go when you want to. That's a good way to introduce yourself to it. Then, after you decide whether or not it IS something you can commit more of your time to, you can :) You can also see if the Local Womens Shelters might need any help. And I don't know how you feel about Abortion, but I know some people who volunteer to safely escort women into Clinics for their consultations, or their procedures, because of the protests going on outside. Just some Idea's for you to keep in mind :)

[Radocs]

Nope. Never once.

[buttercup]

I volunteer quite a bit with Safe Streets in my community. I started as a block leader when my own neighborhood had some problems. I'm also volunteer (as well as work) at my childs school and worked with both groups to coordinate a large community fair to celebrate the good things a recent grant has done to clean up the neighborhood. I've found that when I'm working in the community to bring about change I see more of the positive things that come out of that work than I would if I stayed home and only saw the negatives. It helps me to keep a good perspective on what's going on.

[Pan]

I don't volunteer in this town.. I did once.. never again.

I volunteered at the local Salvation Army. Pi$$ed me off! They old ladies in there went through what we'd brought in and took what they wanted! Then they put all the other stuff up on the racks. We had to organise hangers for them.

They were mean, nasty old biddies and I refuse to volunteer there again.

[WtchyChick13]

I recently went and helped clean a local HIV/AIDS shelter. We had such a blast!

I used to do some volunteer work when I was in high school and I'll admit it that sometimes I didn't want to be there. After all, I wanted to be other places.

However, the one I will never forget was the food drive one year the weekend before Thanksgiving when, for some reason, the temperature went down to 5 degrees and we weren't allowed to go inside.

In a situation like that, you truly find out who your friends are then--they are the ones bringing you hot chocolate all day!!! :T :T :T

[Saphra]

I volunteered for the local zoo, I worked in the petting zoo, I would go home smelling like goats, but it was worth it, when you see little kids eyes light up when they actually got to go in the pen and pet the little stinkers, I even saw one give birth once, it was neat.
I also did work in high school with my school's key club, I did a lot of stuff, my my favorite was when I helped hang christmas decorations up at nursing homes, and the old peoples eyes would shine, and they would tell us stories about when they were young, it was really interesting.
I also worked in a christmas shop for kids, parents would bring their kids in to shop, really inexpensive items, and we would wrap them together, and it was cool, cuz the parents wouldn't know what they picked out, and the kids would all giggle cuz they were picking out items on their own (with a lot of help from the volunteers on what was appropriate for each person). It's hard to explain exactly what we did there.
Soon, hopefully, I will begin work with the Jaycee's, a over 21 volunteer organization that sponsers a lot of events that benefit the boys and girls club, and the arthritis foundation.

[earthcat]

---Saphra... You forgot the Haunted House....---

I volunteered at a wildlife park. Playing with the 8 week old cougar cubs and meeting an adult black bear literally nose-to-nose was a trip to say the least.
Meeting Boomer nose-to-nose wasn't supposed to happen. The head keeper opened up the back of the den for us to clean it, and Boomer came out of it, and right up to me. He put his nose against mine and sniffed deeply, the keeper said, "Don't move." I just looked at him from the corner of my eye. The keeper said, "Take one slow step back." I did, Boomer stepped forward. Keeper said, "One more.", same thing happened. We did it once more, then the keeper slid his body between the bear and me. He coaxed him back into the den, and shut the door, looked at me and said, "I'm sorry. He doesn't know who you are!" I'm still surprised I didn't need to change my panties.....

But mostly, I cleaned up poop. LOTS of poop.
And I also volunteered at the local PBS during auctions. That was a blast!

[Amemphis]

*Peeks* I volunteered at a church nursery last year, mostly because I wanted to help something, my friends went to it(unwillingly), and it was less than a mile from my house. I was loving it, working with the babies. I changed diapers, soothed boo-boos, and read naptime stories. I was pagan, didn't go to the sunday services, just volunteered. I never had a problem with anyone, the highschool youth minister and all the highschoolers knew I was a Wiccan. They saw I wasn't interested in converting, accepted my help,and taught me to use a sound board.
I never had a problem, until Zach, my friend who was like everyones favorite at the church, invited me to come try out working with the middle schoolers. The Middle school Minister hated me, called me a satanist, bitched and whined, told the Highschool minister I was a bad influence and would drag them all to hell.

So I quit.

[Amethyst Rose]

Sigh....I just wrote a big long thing and then accidently erased it. So this one will have to be shorter.

In highschool I was an odd jobber at a medical clinic, and a candy striper.
In university I was on the editorial board of a literary magazine.
After Uni, I was editor of a pagan newsletter.
Here, in the BVI I'm not allowed to work, that includes volunteer, but if I was allowed, it would be at the struggling animal shelter.
If I was back at home, I'd be editing or proof reading, but some day I'd really like to volunteer at the SPCA or something like that.... raising puppies for programs, like seeing eye dogs, would be really rewarding. :)

[FaeFollower]

I used to volunteer at a soup kitchen, packing up the food and stuff. That was pretty fun. More recently, I worked as an intern at a theater. I loved that; I miss it, and its only been a week since I left! I give blood, does that count as volunteering?

I really want to voluteer at the SPCA, but you have to be eighteen. Like I'll have time when I'm in college...

[Akhkharu Asgard]

I volunteered at a hospital once, for about a week. They treated my like crap there so I stopped doing it. It was nice that they would gang up on volunteers and be mean to them. What nice people.

Well, that experienced ruined it for me and made me bitter in that area. Now I'm just too busy and need a "real" job that pays me money. Because as "good" as volunterring is, it doesn't pay a University student's bills. Plus, I don't know if I wll do it again, thanks to my really crappy experience above.

[TaysatWesir]

I volunteered to make graphics for AW Egypt in Springfest.

[tigers_fire]

Yes I do! In fact our small home town organized a drive for the victoms of hurrican Katrina. In our Little town of only about 500 people we managed to get people from all around us to donate 4 siemi loads of everything from clothes to supplies. I also gave a lot of time . Unloading, sorting, loading Ect. Our whole house did. Now two of us have actually joind the volunteer fire department. I only want to give back what people have given me.

[aislin_ryann]

I used to do the soup kitchens in the area, I worked with the women's shelters, doing food drives and such for them. I did food drives for several organizations. I have done volunteer work with different mentally disabled people and organizations. The church that I attended when I lived with my mother, we did alot of community volunteer projects. Since leaving the church, I don't do alot of the community things I did before, but I do volunteer my time, money, and resources to the women's shelters and food pantries. I am going to be doing some volunteer work for the Mansfield Reformatory Restoration Project this summer. Busy busy bee.

[EponaCapaill]

I used to be a volunteer for a therapeutic riding program. I didn't work with the riders directly, I was what we called a barn captain. It was my job to make sure the horses were ready for the lessons, keep the barn clean and keep the volunteers busy when they weren't in the lessons.

I really enjoyed it for the first couple of years, but I got burned out on it (I volunteered on saturdays which is the busiest day). Also, I am not living as close to the facility as I used to and it cuts into the time am able to spend with my fiance.

Maybe I will go back to it at some point, I do miss it.

[Salanthos]

wait, volenteering? its an ing? I thought it was volenteered. like, you know, when someone else "volenteers" you?

Just kidding. I think.

I have been volenteered many times, for the cancer survivor's celebration, almost yearly, for any function my parents volenteer for, lots of things. I wanted to volenteer at the humane society in HS, but I wasn't old enough (17) and by the time I got old enough I'm in college, I have no transport or time and I don't know where the closest one is from here.
At least I tried.
If I could volenteer anywhere, I would. It's just not possible at the moment.

[Philosophia]

Even though I need a real job, I volunteer in keeping open a Mental Health resource centre for my local area. Its a place of refuge for many individuals and is a stepping stone to going out into the community.
Forgot to add: I'm going to start volunteering at a Salvation army soon.

[misschief]

i have never volunteered except when it was court ordered :lol:

[wolf]

I think that volunteering is an important part of community-building.

I am a Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM (http://www.icisf.org)) debriefer and am also active with my local DCORT (Disaster Crisis Outreach Response Team).

(My paying job is what some folks do as a volunteer ... I am a Professional Crisis Intervention Counsellor and Mental Health Commitment Officer.)

[misschief]

i agree, everyone SHOULD volunteer, unfortunately, i don't have enough hours in my day as it is, and, unless i'm getting paid for it, i don't have time to do it.

[Blackdove]

I have volunteered for various projects for disabled children in the past, also conservation, the RSPB, and most recently an art project for people with mental problems or learning difficulties (which was unfortunately closed down when the government refused to renew its funding).