Sod the kids...

[Vermilion]

Last year I decided I needed to do some volunteering. All fired with enthusiasm I applied to the Brownies and Guides association, but never heard back. I was thinking of trying them again once Christmas was over but, inspired by a wave of longing for something furry and arrogant, I logged onto the Cats' Protection League website and was lost. I have just applied to be a volunteer with their organisation - hell, I'll meet people doing that and even get some cat-time. Sod the kids, I'm gonna help the cats!

</random sharing>

So... does anyone else volunteer? Doing what? Why did you start?

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[starrkers]

I used to volunteer at the school - doing reading work with the littlies. I started when my older son was in kindergarten and have kept it up. Last year they didn't need me.
So I'm kinda looking for something else. But I'm enough of a social misfit that it's not easy.

 

[cloudy]

When I was at the reserve, I volunteered wherever they needed me - mostly at the youth center.

Here, there's not as much of a need.

 

[Salvor-Hardon]

I do some volunteer work with a youth center around here, to put my education degree to some kind of use.

The kids are great, its the other volunteers I want to shoot in the face.

 

[Vermilion]

I thought of volunteering to help littles with their reading, but with my immune system it's probably a *really* bad idea to spend lots of time with those little germ factories... I think I'll see how the puss cats goes first...

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[cantdog]

giving

It's dead plain that we are on this earth for other people.

 

[elsol]

*burp*

Between cant and ami, I'm utterly convinced that one of those wacky evolution experiments... like a duck with venomous fangs.

 

[MarshAlien]

Sorry. From the title I thought this thread was about doing unspeakable things to the children of the world. And I came here, naturally, to protest. My bad.

 

[snowy ciara]

I sponsor and run the NaNoWriMo club at the school where I work, and I coach Munchkin Amazon Soccer in the spring and summer. I also do afghan squares and scarves for WarmUp Canada. If I ever get better at knitting, I want to learn to do preemie caps and mittens, too.

I started doing the NaNo club this fall (my first year as a teacher, aside from my semester of student teaching last spring) as an antidote to the athletic clubs at my sports heavy school. I've done the Soccer in various cities since I was 18, because I love the game and because I actually like kids. I even did it when I was in the wheelchair for two years. I had one of those catastrophic sort of accidents a few years ago in October. Even though I felt like my life was over, I thought it was important to set a good example for the kiddos. Besides, it helped me with my depression over the accident. The knitting I started to do in the hospital when I was recovering.

 

[cantdog]

You have a place that needs preemie stuff nearby? That's great.

 

[cantdog]

*burp*

Between cant and ami, I'm utterly convinced that one of those wacky evolution experiments... like a duck with venomous fangs.

I think you left off the verb. Ami is just self-deluded.

 

[snowy ciara]

Yup, and when they have lots of stuff here and don't need anymore, I send it back to the hospital where I was born, a month early. I was impatient even before I was born.

 

[cloudy]

I sponsor and run the NaNoWriMo club at the school where I work, and I coach Munchkin Amazon Soccer in the spring and summer. I also do afghan squares and scarves for WarmUp Canada. If I ever get better at knitting, I want to learn to do preemie caps and mittens, too.

I send hand-crochet blankets to Pine Ridge every year - boxes of them. It gives me something to do while I watch tv.

 

[elsol]

I think you left off the verb. Ami is just self-deluded.

I did... girlfriend at airport.

Attempt #2

Between cant and ami, I'm utterly convinced that I am one of those wacky evolution experiments... like a duck with venomous fangs.

 

[The_Fool]

I did... girlfriend at airport.

Attempt #2

Between cant and ami, I'm utterly convinced that I am one of those wacky evolution experiments... like a duck with venomous fangs.

That can only bit his own ass???

 

[SensualCealy]

I use to volunteer- too much infact. When I went back to school I stopped completely to dedicate time to myself. Feeling rather useless lately, maybe its time to get back into it.

C

 

[cantdog]

I did... girlfriend at airport.

Attempt #2

Between cant and ami, I'm utterly convinced that I am one of those wacky evolution experiments... like a duck with venomous fangs.

There we are. I didn't expect that one.

I think that would be, actually, a delightful thing to be. How's it going? Reproducing successfully?

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Well, in the past I've been an intake counselor at a public clinic (something I wasn't much good at) built camps with the Scouts, done conservation work with Quail Unlimited. Now that I'm a professional do-gooder (elementary school teacher) my time is completely used up with that . . . but at least they pay me for it.

 

[Katyusha]

So... does anyone else volunteer? Doing what? Why did you start?

I'm with World Sport Chicago, been with them since September. I helped with the AIBA World Boxing Championship (a Beijing qualifier), an international basketball conference and most recently, a Paralympic table tennis event at the Mayor's Holiday Sports Fest (another Beijing qualifier). I actually started volunteering for sports events like this at Salt Lake in 2002, and I want to volunteer at Vancouver and maybe London (although getting to be a volunteer for these two is going to be more difficult than it was for Salt Lake because I'm not British or Canadian).

And definitely 2016 if it's here in Chicago.

 

[Katyusha]

The kids are great, its the other volunteers I want to shoot in the face.

Isn't that always the way. All the athletes I've worked with are awesome (even those from countries who supposedly hate us), but some of the other volunteers...ARGH!!!! ::banging head on keyboard::

 

[ms.read]

Camp Sunshine.. I did that for awhile. Its kind of funny actually. I did it for two summers. I volunteered there during the weeks of kidney failure. the next summer ( not volunteerin) I met my future husband who had kidney failure and I helped him get a transplant...

 

[lisa123414]

- to everyone who volunteers.

Kid stuff, yes, do lots of it mostly related to the things my kids are doing. A few years back, I was between jobs and ended up working the suicide hotline for the public health department. When they asked me to do it, I did not want to, felt unqualified, afraid to mess up. Turns out all I really needed to do, was to listen. I feel like volunteering does me more good than the people on the receiving end.

 

[glynndah]

- to everyone who volunteers.

Kid stuff, yes, do lots of it mostly related to the things my kids are doing. A few years back, I was between jobs and ended up working the suicide hotline for the public health department. When they asked me to do it, I did not want to, felt unqualified, afraid to mess up. Turns out all I really needed to do, was to listen. I feel like volunteering does me more good than the people on the receiving end.

I work a couple of hours a day (for pay) at my local grade school. I often stay after my time is finished to help with other projects. I also bring in goodies and things for the children and the staff.

 

[elsol]

There we are. I didn't expect that one.

I think that would be, actually, a delightful thing to be. How's it going? Reproducing successfully?

Hmm... so-so.

A few duck-girls liked it when I kicked the crap out of that rottie that came by the pond... but sadly, most fear me getting overexcited during sex.

 

[oggbashan]

I'm a public busybody doing the boring things that others won't do - following our local council's activities, commenting on all the proposals that are put out for public consultation and getting others to do so too; representing my community's views whenever and wherever I can; bidding for public funds for local projects; starting groups for this that and the other and helping people who want to start such groups; participating in development of regeneration for the district; lobbying councillors and Members of Parliament; working with the Police, schools, the local businesses, community groups including sports and arts; and reading all the heaps of paperwork sent out weekly for issues that I can help with.

My basic premises are - If I can help, I will. If some proposal is wrong I'll try to get it changed. If something needs fixing I'll try to help towards a solution.

Sometimes I feel like a voice in the wilderness but other times I seem to have hundreds of helpers. What does worry me in the longer term is that no one else locally is doing what I do.

It's not the traditional form of volunteering but it produces results, none of which I can claim as my successes because each result is produced by many people working together. I suppose I'm a community catalyst.

Og