Have you ever done volunteer work?

[mountain_waif]

Please let me know of your experiences with volunteering your time. The pros and the cons and why you chose to work where you did and for whom you did.

 

[Sterling]

Yes I have....when I lived in North Carolina I worked at the ASPCA/Humane Society. Well aside from the obvious reasons of loving dogs and cats, I wanted to help them. The pros would have to be the happy faces of the many dogs and cats leaving to their new homes, and to see how happy they got when we'd bath them, walk them and just devote time and attention to them. The cons would have to be the fact that some did'nt find homes, some came in sick and alot of times I wanted to take them all home with me. Would I volunteer again? Yes!! In a heartbeat! Problem is there is not one closeby now to where I live.

 

[jdomep]

In college I volunteered at an Adult Day Care Center and it was one of the most rewarding experiences ever! I still fondly remember the stories they told me

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Now my volunteer work is coaching soccer and baseball teams - it seems everyone wants their children to play and no one will donate their time. I have 4 in sports and our schedule is always chaotic but if needed I will always volunteer my time to coach. (I was approached Tuesday about the boys U12 team and they had no coach - but they do now

: BTW - my husband thinks I am nuts) I hope to volunteer again at nursing homes once the boys are older.

 

[anoki]

I volunteered quite a few years ago now.....and actually I got a job out of it! :bgrin

It was at the horse stable that I am still working at. I just wanted to be around the horses and learn as much as I could, and at the time, there was no room for a third person to work....but because I was soo close to them I said I'd do anything...so they agreed to let me feed the horses every day (they both had day time jobs). I also helped out with stalls on weekends, getting bedding and throwing down hay. Then a couple of months later one of the girls quit...and voila!!

It was good though, because I learned a lot during that initial time and that was what I was looking for to begin with!!

~kathryn

 

[Marsha Cassada]

I have volunteered quite a bit over the years. the only thing I am doing now is working at the local museum occasionally. It is fun to meet out of town folks who come to visit, it's a small part of community involvement, and I like old homestead stuff. Plus, when it's quiet there I get a chance to do my needlework! I do take my little horses also to nursing homes, fairs, and other hands-on things. I like seeing children discover something new about a horse, such as where his tail really is, what a real horse smells like, and what a hoof looks like.

One volunteer thing that has a "con" was visiting an elderly shut-in. We visited her the first time as a Scout project for my son, and the lady commandeered me. I was suddenly driving her everywhere, doing her shopping, and my husband was repairing things in her house. She was charming, but I was glad when we moved away. I would be careful of getting into one-on-one with someone who is dependant unless you are willing to be committed to the job.

Marsha

 

[FairytailGlennMinis]

I started volunteering with a group that worked with kids with special needs when I was 12 or 13 and continued on to after high school wherever we moved to. I loved it and learned a lot. I think I got so much more than I ever gave. I worked with a therapeutic riding program in CA my senior year of HS and worked with another one here in VA where I wound up going to a month long training course to become an advanced level NARHA instructor and then ended up as the program coordinator and instructor for that center. I loved the animals and the students but was ver discouraged by the amount of flat out thievery of the company (a group homes system) that owned the center. It made me sick and I wound up walking out. There tends to be a lot of corruption in non-profits and you really have to be careful. I helped with the Special Olympics outside of the horses and am a certified coach for several sports--I LOVE that part! I have also gone to help out in various senior centers and comminity pre-schools. That is where I will spend any volunteer time in the future I think.

-Amy

 

[Davie]

When I was in high school I was a candy stripper (volunteer) for one of the hospitals. I delivered papers, mail, did some running for the nurses stations and visited with the patients who might not get visitors. It was very rewarding and I plan to do some more voluntee work with hospitals once I retire--at this rate that might not ever happen though.

 

[Erin]

Well, as I am a student in Ontario, the requirement is that you have 40 hours of community service by the time you graduate. So I just started volunteering for this program called H.A.T.S (Horse Alternitive Therapeutic Services) and I really like it. It helps disabled people gain confidence and encance quality of life.

The pros are simply watching a child or adult light right up when they get on a horse. Think about it... some of these people are wheelchair-bound and are always looking up at people. On a horse however, people look up at them. People who can't walk sudenly can move and tell their horse where to go, rather than having someone wheel them around. What I do is either side-walk (either help support the person or am right beside them in case the begin to fall off.) or I lead the horse.

Another pro for me is that due to some circumstances, I have had to stop showing and training minis and that has really made me sad. But now, in addition to helping people, I can interact with horses again, which is *GREAT*!!

The only con I can think of is that I get nervous. When your sidewalking, you have to really pay attention to the person and you are responsible for them. When leading, you are responsible for your horse, which includes telling it when and where to go, etc. , but you want the person to make an effort at doing it first... there's alot of information to process, and it can get nerve-racking (for me anyways!)

But in the end it all pays off and I love it.

:

Erin

 

[nootka]

Yes, I did quite a bit before I had children, different things that my stepmom "helped" me get into.

SADD, Literacy programs for ESL students/adults, etc., working at the voting places helping to load the boxes of ballots. More often than not, I dreaded going, but we always had a GREAT time as everyone was in good spirits and had a common sense of doing something for the greater good. I know it sounds corny, but it's true.

There are a lot of great causes out there, and look for something that is near and dear to you is my only suggestion. I am not a good "people" person, but there are a lot of things that need doing that don't involve interacting with people even though once I get in there, I am usually fine and I love to see people happy.

I believe if you look around in your Yellow Pages or community pages in your newspaper, you will find more than enough possibilities. If you don't like it for whatever reason (sometimes the coordinators in these things make the work less than pleasant, but I found that to be rare), you can always find another organization that you find worthy.

Good luck!

Liz M.

 

[RAPfrosty]

I have been volunteering for a local animal shelter called C.A.R.E.S. for the past three or so years.

I enjoy it a lot and the nice thing about volunteering is it can be on your time, it's all up to you how much or how little and when your can and can't come. However, I would advise not volunteering for a place that really is in need for volunteers (like animal shelters) and only volunteering for like a month or two. It gets hard for non-profits when people don't commit.

 

[tifflunn]

I volunteered at my kids school for the last 9 years and am hanging it up so to speak for awhile. I started volunteering in the class rooms once a week and then it worked up to a couple of days a week- then I moved into fundraising which I found was really fun and rewarding and became chair of the fundrasising committee for the last 4 years. I am going to miss it but I have the farm now that will be just as fun :bgrin. I started the volunteering to keep an eye on the kids at the school- then it just transitioned into something I really liked to do. :bgrin Pros is I knew what was going on in the kids school and in the community- I also enjoyed the relationships both with the kids, parents,teaching staff and support staff that I developed- it also gave me a first hand look at the challenges that our community faced and over came or didn't. The down side is coming face to face with some not so pleasant situations that kids face, that it is hard to do things without the direct support of the community( arranging events and volunteers are absent) but it was rewarding and I am glad I did it- but not sure I would get so involved in the new school :bgrin

 

[runamuk]

My son spent a year volunteering his saturdays working in an animal shelter..........he enjoyed it until the politics got to him

: .....I volunteered in a foodbank when I was a teen...........I have done volunteer work with kids with disabilities when I worked for a pony farm........have done classroom stuff with the kids........when we used to show rabbits I often "got volunteered" to help at tables or setting up tearing down etc............I also used to volunteer to help at horse shows etc doing everything from grooming to running for forgotten items to finding missing entrants...............Lately I have been volunteered to help with my neighbors horses (full sized) a whole lot more than I would choose to

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Check around as there are all kinds of opportunities to do short or long term volunteer work......breed clubs, plant societies, museums, adult day centers, hospices, food banks, animal shelters, womens shelters, homeless shelters.......the list is quite long

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[mountain_waif]

I have volunteered at a few places...and find I have time to do it again. Kinda searching for something different. Y'all have given me so much to think about. Thank Y'all!!

 

[minimule]

My husband and I used to both be volunteer firefighters. We loved it and he went on to make a paid career out of it. I on the other hand decided I really didn't like dealing with people that much, at least not in those kinds of situations.

It was fun though. Very exciting if you are an adrenaline junky. But you have to have a strong stomach and a good way to let out stress. We developed a pretty warped sense of humor doing that.

 

[Cronewolf]

:aktion033: Oh my, yes, SPCA, Animal Aid, older neighbors, the little race track near my home, all kinds of things. A good friend of mine use to volunteer for stuff and take me along for support. That's how I got into Title 1 reading for 4 years. She had children in it, so off we went. She lasted 2 visits, I [who hwd no children] did it for 4 years. Same thing hamptened with 4 H. Glad when she moved, so all the time I did stuff it was my stuff.

 

[CAM]

Before kids I volunteered at a number of different veterinary clinics and hospitals and my favorite, the Oregon Zoo where I fed the monkeys, elephants and bears as well as cleaned cages. I volunteered at the zoo while I was in Dental Hygiene school because I knew in my heart of hearts, I always wanted to be a big animal vet. I even took the last of my prerequisites during my summer off from DH school and was getting ready to apply to vet school when my husband and I found out we were pregnant with our first child. Oops! Came a little sooner than we had planned. He was still in school and I was just finishing up. Oh well, I put vet school off and focused on being a mom. We have since volunteered with Northwest Medical Teams seeing displaced people that need dental work done and working out of their van. Our hopes are to go with them on one of their volunteer trips to Mexico when the kids are a bit older.

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