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Giving Back To The Community

muggle

muggle

New Member
Do you give back to the Community where you live by volunteering your time and services. Example; homeless shelters, food banks, literacy and learning, healthcare, etc......the list goes on and on of ways to help those less fortunate.

I am curious how many perform volunteer work.....or are we too busy earning a living and doing other things.
 
My veterinary hospital runs an in house adoption program for stray pets. We also organize a huge dog wash every summer to raise money for the animal shelter. Finally we treat injured wildlife for free. Organizing and implementing these programs makes me and my employees feel like we're really giving back.
 
Dogmatix said:
My veterinary hospital runs an in house adoption program for stray pets. We also organize a huge dog wash every summer to raise money for the animal shelter. Finally we treat injured wildlife for free. Organizing and implementing these programs makes me and my employees feel like we're really giving back.
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Kudos to you Dogmatix. I am not surprised at your "giving back".
 
Actually, I just applied to volunteer at the Children's Hospital near me. It was a rough process; orientation, interview, medical tests, another orientation...but it's going to be worth it. I get to play with little kids on the general medicine floor, and I get to work up to kids with more severe injuries. It'll be good practice, I plan on going into the medical field.

I think a lot of people just don't know where to volunteer, or how to get started. It's as easy as looking in the newspaper though, so there really is no excuse. Unless you're too busy with a job and a family, of course. But being a teenager, I think everyone my age has a little time to spare.
 
6 months after I moved into my condo, at the annual election of managers of the condo association, I ran for a seat on the Board - and won. The term is 3 years. I served that term and ran again, and won a seat again. Now I'm in my second term, and I've been voted the President of the Board of Managers, by the rest of the board.
It's an unpaid position, and requires many hours of my time. I'm responsible for two, 7 story buildings, each with 75 units. The annual budget is well over a million $$. The Board consists of 9 members, including myself, and a paid managing agent. We also have 2 porters and a Super.

It's a lot of responsibility - I never volunteered for anything before this, since I volunteered to be a hallway monitor in the 4th grade, and got beaten up the first week, by the school bully (Carmine). Actually, he never laid a finger on me. He was so notorious, so feared, that all he did was corner me in the stairwell, alone, and threaten me. I was so scared I crumpled into a little ball in the corner - he walked away, clearly disgusted. I quit the next day. Never volunteered for anything since then - till now.
 
Libre said:
It's a lot of responsibility - I never volunteered for anything before this, since I volunteered to be a hallway monitor in the 4th grade, and got beaten up the first week, by the school bully (Carmine). Actually, he never laid a finger on me. He was so notorious, so feared, that all he did was corner me in the stairwell, alone, and threaten me. I was so scared I crumpled into a little ball in the corner - he walked away, clearly disgusted. I quit the next day. Never volunteered for anything since then - till now.
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Kids can be so cruel. I'm glad we never had to be hall monitors.
 
I've always volunteered at my son's school for whatever's going on. This year I did the theater group plus some chaperoning, but I used to tutor reading and do more literacy-oriented stuff and science field trips.

I also volunteer in various capacities for the local land trust (I founded an all-volunteer land-use education group a few years back, putting in 20+ hours a week on that for about 2 years), and I do publicity and writing for a few local groups whenever they ask.

My son's band (not a school band) plays free concerts at homes for the elderly and hospitals, and I drive them and chaperone. He's in one tonight, as a matter of fact.

I also give to the local vollies (fire and EMS), public radio, the library, the thrift shop, theater group, land trust.

But I believe that, in addition to giving voluntarily like this, there should be public, tax-financed programs to support all of these functions. I think they are a vital part of civilization and should not be left to chance, but recognized by the citizenry as necessary.
 
Muggle,

As you said, earning a living does indeed get in the way. For the last few years I've been involved in quite a bit of volunteer work with Shelter, which is a homelessness charity. In addition I've done some bereavement counselling for the local hospital, and played a ton of different roles for two very troubled schools.
Mixed with having to work and plus personal circumstances & responsibilities I had way too much on my plate. My family intervened and now i'm on a promise that for a year I shall not take anything on and will take things easy. So until Christmas this year the only thing I'm involved in is the local small business foundation.
 
I'm volunteering in a hospital ..
though I was hoping to gain medical experince rather than acting on a humanity basis. specially with the supervisor nurse is trying to make sure of that. and making me forget the fact that I'm a medical student.

I'm trying to be around doctors and join them at rounds and ask them about medical education. but the nurse is always like "go talk to this patient" and I'm like "ok whateverrr =s"
 
xBasx said:
I'm volunteering in a hospital ..
though I was hoping to gain medical experince rather than acting on a humanity basis. specially with the supervisor nurse is trying to make sure of that. and making me forget the fact that I'm a medical student.

I'm trying to be around doctors and join them at rounds and ask them about medical education. but the nurse is always like "go talk to this patient" and I'm like "ok whateverrr =s"
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An observation / opinion. Good doctors always have the "patient" as their number one priority. My wife and I are fortunate to have a doctor that is recognized as one of the best in the U.S. (he has been our doctor for approx. 25 yrs) and one of the things that he likes to do during a "check-up" is let us talk while he listens.
 
xBasx There is an expression I'll share with you young grasshopper, "They don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care" If you aren't into the patients your best to become a surgeon and not a clinician.
 
My wife does a little bit of volunteering at our kids' school. And our church encourages service, so when I donate my time, it's usually along the lines of a church-sponsored service project, such as re-roofing a house for a widow or someone that's too poor to afford to pay for the work. It helps keep the neighboorhood and community a more friendly place.
 
Not taking anything away from anybody that does volunteering, but I do feel that in many situations volunteering is a substitute because of a lack of funds.
 
Chris302116,
Not taking anything away from anybody that does volunteering, but I do feel that in many situations volunteering is a substitute because of a lack of funds.
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Well Chris, in my view, if somebody is unable to help financially, but are willing to volunteer their capabilities then that is commendable.
In my experience, I've found that donating money is usually the most helpful when it comes to national/international causes, but when it comes down to your local community, than volunteering your services/time without charge is far more effective.
 
drmjwdvm said:
xBasx There is an expression I'll share with you young grasshopper, "They don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care" If you aren't into the patients your best to become a surgeon and not a clinician.
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it's not like when I become a doctor I won't talk to patients. it's just now, I feel like I need to have the basic medical info. after that I can interact with patients and get them to like me.
I'd love to talk to patients if they were mine and I can help them.
I know talking can help alot. specially with elderlies .. but I need to have the medical background before doing that ..
 
Gem said:
Chris302116,

Well Chris, in my view, if somebody is unable to help financially, but are willing to volunteer their capabilities then that is commendable.
In my experience, I've found that donating money is usually the most helpful when it comes to national/international causes, but when it comes down to your local community, than volunteering your services/time without charge is far more effective.
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No, I was not meaning it that way.

There are to many jobs in the community that rely on volunteers when these jobs should be done by someone trained and paid to them.
 
Chris,
No, I was not meaning it that way.
There are to many jobs in the community that rely on volunteers when these jobs should be done by someone trained and paid to them.
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Sorry I misunderstood you. I see what you mean, but the problem tends to be that the funds simply are not there to train and pay someone. But perhaps we're thinking of totally different scenarios, the only way to remedy this would be as per sirmyks post, to get a little more specific.
I think it's an interesting discussion, as long as we make sure we don't veer too far off Muggles thread.
 
Gem said:
Chris,


Sorry I misunderstood you. I see what you mean, but the problem tends to be that the funds simply are not there to train and pay someone. But perhaps we're thinking of totally different scenarios, the only way to remedy this would be as per sirmyks post, to get a little more specific.
I think it's an interesting discussion, as long as we make sure we don't veer too far off Muggles thread.
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There is for example, voluntary work associated with the Police, Teaching and Hospitals. Many Charities rely on voluntary workers, yet make vast profits and only a small percentage ever reaches the good causes.
 
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