Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Mentioned in the other volunteering thread one of the activities with which I am involved. That's just one of the volunteer things I do. Now that I'm retired, I MUST volunteer and have a DUTY to do so. My career in the national space program was funded by the United States taxpayer and I was handsomely compensated for a "job" that I would have gladly done for free, (if the finances allowed). Every day was interesting and contained challenges to solve and overcome. Not once did I ever think, "this job sux". We were not on the leading edge of technology...we were pushing it further than could be imagined. Never a boring day.
I've had a good life so far and a comfortable one for the most part. I owe the taxpayer a debt that I will never be able to repay. Volunteering is one small way I can give back. Doesn't matter if I like the gig or not, it is something that I must do, (however, I do enjoy what I do and have always enjoyed what life has placed before me). Do I get tired and worn out at times? Sure. But, carry on I/we must. Life waits for no one.
I'm sitting here trying to enjoy my morning coffee
I have to start getting ready for a fundraiser. It is going to be a hot day out there.
All i want to do is relax and read the latest news on what is going on in the world. Not run back and forth to get things we forgot, or talk down one of my crazy siblings.
This is it for me. Next time i am just going to donate 100 bucks or so and say - knock yourselves out
Really that would be what we all should do in our little group. They can afford it.
I volunteer at the senior center, at the military museum and take my therapy dog to school to read with children. I enjoy helping others, get to expand my social circle and it keeps me moving.
I volunteered at an art fair a few years hoping to meet people and make friends. All I ever wound up doing was working. I also tried volunteering at the annual Alzheimer's walk, but they had so many volunteers there was little to do. This year I skipped volunteering at both events.
I have posted here before regarding my desire to volunteer at The Henry Ford post retirement. So far I have spent 2-1/2 days in Orientation & Interviews, and have another 2 days of Orientation and Interviews remaining.
After all this I will be qualified to hand out Maps standing in a main walkway, and politely request unsupervised children to stay behind the ropes and not climb on the displays. Not exactly what I envisioned when I sent in my application.
And I thoroughly P-O'ed my current boss because of a situation which arose at work while I was attending the latest Orientation session during an approved day-off. He had to leave his desk, drive a mile across campus, and sign a form, all because I wasn't there.
Probably 90%+ of the others in these Orientation Sessions are newly hired paid employees. It appears what I envisioned doing, Presenter, is one of the Paid Positions. I will likely finish the Orientation and hope it places me on the greased track toward a paid Presenter position.
I was looking into volunteering for a local group that helps immigrants passing through town on the trains. I have no clue what my responsibilities would be.
I'm one of the "little people" (unlike our current president) who has dutifully paid taxes my entire life. Yes, I'm grateful to this country that enabled me to find employment and for reasonable security, etc., but I think I paid my share. I'm not big into volunteering.
Location: Unlike most on CD, I'm not afraid to give my location: Milwaukee, WI.
1,789 posts, read 4,154,552 times
Reputation: 4092
Quote:
Originally Posted by lieqiang
I was looking into volunteering for a local group that helps immigrants passing through town on the trains. I have no clue what my responsibilities would be.
Of all the things you could do to be helping people, why would you help people heading north to enter my country illegally? Surely there are seniors, disabled, or others in your town you could give assistance to, rather than invaders heading for the USA.
This is a touchy subject with me because my native southern California has absolutely changed for the worse largely due to the massive numbers of illegals who've flooded in during the past 20+ years. And I won't elaborate beyond that.
As for the main topic here, volunteering, I give rides to some older folks without transportation, and did a year volunteering at the local VA hospital. The latter didn't work out due to too many volunteers and not enough work.
They don't turn any volunteers away, and there are only so many places to put them, so you end up with jobs like patient transport (within hospital) overmanned, and the volunteers mostly sitting around and
socializing while waiting for the occasional transport request to be generated. Making it worse were the hogs who would just come back in to the office from making a run, then snatch the very next request that was generated while the rest of us sat there idle.
I brought these problems up to the proper managers, nothing changed, so I quit.
I'm one of the "little people" (unlike our current president) who has dutifully paid taxes my entire life. Yes, I'm grateful to this country that enabled me to find employment and for reasonable security, etc., but I think I paid my share. I'm not big into volunteering.
Things vary in people to what we are. Me, I am vastly oriented to the State, to always be ready to offer a service to them. It may be something romantic, but I like it. I'm part of CERT, a scuba diver, trained in various emergency medic techniques, and so forth. A retired woman of my late mother's community was a paramedic. She probably got paid for it, of course, but she did it because she wanted to reach out.
For some, paying taxes is not enough but no grudge is held for those who just do that.
I think volunteering really saved me after my DH passed away. I do 3 shifts a week at the food shelf where it is super busy at times. After a year I was shocked when they asked me to be a team leader, but I love it. I had never thought of myself as the leader type.
I meet so many nice people, fellow volunteers and customers alike. I really like all the people I work with. Some of the customers can be a pain but I practice my people skills on them and have no problems.
What would I be doing if I wasn't doing this? sitting around, goofing off, feeling sorry for myself.
I'm sorry some of you had bad experiences. There is no excuse for misusing volunteers. I don't think I would be happy in the kind of gig where you stand around and wait for someone to tell you what to do.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
