May 1: Volunteering
As part of its high school graduation requirements, the Ontario
government has mandated that each student clock a certain amount of
volunteer hours. This is a wonderful thing. Over the past 11 years that
I've been a practising journalist in Ontario, I've met dozens of
teenagers who were making other people happy with their presence. Just
recently I talked to a 17-year-old who was dishing out spaghetti at a
fundraising supper for a local elementary school.
He helped make that fundraiser possible. When that school raises enough money to buy new playground equipment, that young man will have played a role in it. I hope he goes walking by that playground five years from now and he sees some kids having fun on the swingset.
And I hope he smiles.
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About a month ago, I volunteered my magical services to do a fundraising show for a family that had lost everything in a fire. The family did not show up. They never called to thank me. The show happened to fall on the same day as a blizzard. As such, the turnout was minimal. We raised $100.
Here's the kicker - in the audience was a man who liked the show so much that he hired me for his kids' birthday party the next week.
Who says volunteering doesn't pay?
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Last week, I met a lady who had been volunteering for 35 years at a nearby retirement home. She operated the tuck shop there and was pretty much a non-official resident of the manor. They had a party for her and a whole bunch of the residents stood up and told her what she meant to them.
It was probably the defining moment of this woman's life. For 35 years, she did nothing more than sell tissue boxes and chocolate-covered raisins to old people. But she also talked to them. She became a friend. She'd seen plenty of her friends die over those three-and-a-half decades but she kept going back.
I humbly submit that, in the grand scheme of things, her job is just as important as the president of the United States'.
He helped make that fundraiser possible. When that school raises enough money to buy new playground equipment, that young man will have played a role in it. I hope he goes walking by that playground five years from now and he sees some kids having fun on the swingset.
And I hope he smiles.
-
About a month ago, I volunteered my magical services to do a fundraising show for a family that had lost everything in a fire. The family did not show up. They never called to thank me. The show happened to fall on the same day as a blizzard. As such, the turnout was minimal. We raised $100.
Here's the kicker - in the audience was a man who liked the show so much that he hired me for his kids' birthday party the next week.
Who says volunteering doesn't pay?
-
Last week, I met a lady who had been volunteering for 35 years at a nearby retirement home. She operated the tuck shop there and was pretty much a non-official resident of the manor. They had a party for her and a whole bunch of the residents stood up and told her what she meant to them.
It was probably the defining moment of this woman's life. For 35 years, she did nothing more than sell tissue boxes and chocolate-covered raisins to old people. But she also talked to them. She became a friend. She'd seen plenty of her friends die over those three-and-a-half decades but she kept going back.
I humbly submit that, in the grand scheme of things, her job is just as important as the president of the United States'.
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