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Volunteers make the world go ’round

June 1, 2017   ·   0 Comments

By Constance Scrafield

It is amazing, when one thinks about it, how much of what happens for good in this world is largely operated or assisted in being operated by volunteers.

The definition of volunteer speaks mainly of offering services of one’s own free will without actually mentioning the matter of wages, although, certainly now, volunteering is almost always considered to be an offer of service without pay.

A friend of mine volunteers at Pearson Airport. She wears a uniform of sorts, black trousers, white shirt, and assists anyone – a passenger usually – who appears to need help with the complexities of checking in and managing the procedures for actually getting on a plane – finding the check-in desk, sorting out the machines that have replaced some of those desks, just generally, aiding folks unaccustomed to the airport and its many changes.

She works on the same day every week and regards it with the same commitment she would give to a paying job.

There are volunteers equally ready with information and smiles in many institutions – ospitals and in lots of other similar places, no doubt, that I don’t even know about. They wear the same coloured smocks or jackets in order to be identifiable, and seem very well informed, friendly but not casual, bearing a good balance between approachable but not too familiar.

Throughout this country and every country, there are people with will hands ready to do what they can at home or abroad to bring relief to others.

The absolute blanket across every situation and organization using volunteers everywhere in the world is stunning when you think about it.

People pay their own tickets to go to far-off Africa, to visit grandmothers caring for the children of their children who have died of AIDS or war or are otherwise disabled. Volunteers travel to Nicaragua to build schools; to Cuba to bring musical instruments.  Then, they bring the stories home for volunteers here to help give support.

Doctors without Borders spend their time and skill to aid the damaged and disease stricken in the most dangerous and miserable of circumstances around the world.

People teach; they build; they learn – not just about others, but about themselves.

It is a really long list of the kindness of volunteers aiding the afflicted. Often, when those volunteers come home, whether they were away for a long or short time, their perspective and priorities have shifted, for there is nothing like travelling to give a person a clearer vision of his/her own environment.

When the teenagers from a local high school went to Nicaragua for 10 days, they returned with odd questions. Having shared one or two rooms with entire families, they asked: “Why do we need all these rooms? Why do we need all this stuff?”

Working in a Canadian restaurant, they could be brought to tears by the waste of food.

These hard lessons are entirely beneficial, whether the extent of the effect of them lasts long or short term, the time of learning never completely fades and will always be an influence.

For everyone who volunteers away from home, the mere exposure to the lives of others will always matter.

Travelling at all does that for us.

More than that, happier circumstances also require and receive the labour freely given by volunteers.

Sometimes these hours are in aid of a festival or party of some kind in benefit of needs: it is important to remember that pain is very much alleviated by laughter, music and joy.

People cook; they sing; they perform plays and organize silent auctions.

In the arts, volunteers are essential and, make no mistake, this is also character building and life changing. For the arts deal with what is best about us and all work really comes  from our creativity.

Volunteering at a function in a gallery, watching people take in the visuals of what other people with the talent and, more importantly, the drive to paint or sculpt – reflect about all that is around us and within us –

An association with the arts on any level is wonderful but, as a volunteer, there is the chance to feel involved without necessarily having to get on stage, as it were. So, ushers at the theatre, members of community theatre, working a huge music event, singing in a performing choir, serving coffee, preparing a meal – it is all good.

There is hardly an organization or group which involves volunteers that does not need more people to come and help. For those of you with time, look around you to see where you might like to offer your hand freely.

Volunteering to run a shop for a charity; sitting on the Board of an organization; seeking out auctions item for fund raising functions – there is plenty to do, and the benefits of meeting interesting and dedicated people is invaluable.


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