Value of volunteering runs deep
What’s in it for me?
That’s a question you ask about most anything you are asked to do. Why should I do it?
There is one thing in which you almost always get more than you give. It’s usually a good deal when that’s the case.
Yes, I’m talking about being a volunteer.
How can you get more than you give when you don’t get paid, and it actually costs you money? Here are some answers from my experience.
I have been a “volunteer” here in Fairfield-Suisun for more than 25 years. Here’s a brief list.
Fairfield-Suisun Arts Council, The Fairfield Theater Users Group, Solano Work Services (a sheltered workshop for developmentally disabled), Area IV Board of Developmental Disabilities, Solano County Emergency Medical Care Committee, substitute teacher, Principal for a Day, Solano County Community Foundation, Central Solano Citizen/Taxpayer Group and now Tools of Learning for Children, helping young kids build foundations for success.
And other short-term volunteer positions.
I’m not blowing my own horn. I think I have been making up for the 55 years I did nothing for the communities where I lived. As I said earlier, I got more out of every volunteer position than I put into it.
I have asked myself why I keep doing it. The answer? Because it always filled a need. And it frequently represents an opportunity to change the direction of the community.
You always learn. For example, gain an understanding of the real capabilities of the developmentally disabled. That they are just like you and me in most ways. You learn about the customs and backgrounds of different people as in the All Nations Festival. Or save Fairfield’s water ratepayers millions of dollars a year by challenging illegal uses of funds collected illegally.
You do something you really believe in. You do something worthwhile. It beats playing cards or miniature golf. Makes you feel good about yourself, even if you are the only one who knows what you have done. Sometimes you can help do something nobody believed was possible.
Volunteering has nothing to do with fame or recognition. The old expression about fame is true. It goes, “put your hand in a bucket of water. No matter how much you thrash and stir, when you take your hand out of the water, the hole that’s left is how much you’ll be missed when you are gone.”
The exception to that is if you can endow future activities with your money.
You do it because it is the right thing to do. You enrich your anonymous legacy — what you leave behind.
You work with others who inspire you and share your passion. For me, that produces the greatest benefit of all: lasting friendships and personal connections.
I am richer now in personal relationships than at any other time in my life, with more people I care about and who care about me. Many have passed away but so many are left, old friends and some new ones, friends without whom my life would be barren.
So it turns out that volunteering can be a selfish act, after all. It certainly has been for me. While I am alive, that’s enough.
Someone else will put their hand in the bucket of water after I’m gone. That’s the way life works. Until then, don’t stand too close to the bucket. I’ll get water all over you.
Reach Murray Bass at 427-0744 or mbass25@sbcglobal.net.
Short URL: http://www.dailyrepublic.com/?p=131437
Posted by Murray Bass
on Feb 9 2012.
Filed under The Other Side of 50. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
