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Volunteer | Pad Patter 1.12

bestcee

bestcee

In love with places I've never been to
Joined
Dec 18, 2013
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Today, I'm heading over to the school to help out with some volunteer work. Last time I helped with the book fair, and that was really fun for me! I love books. Is there a volunteer opportunity that you enjoy? Or, is there a volunteer activity you'd like to do?

I know that things may have changed in your area in the last two years, so feel free to share about older opportunities that you've enjoyed.
 
I haven't volunteered in probably three if not nearly four years (not because of Covid), just life changed for me.

Most recent volunteer work was as a board member for a specialist disability community law centre - I was on their board for three years. I would have put myself up for selection for another three year term but we had just heard that my mum was about to have major heart surgery so I felt the need to step down plus professionally I had got the value out of it I had wanted.

Previous to that was as a Play Volunteer through Radio Lollipop at a local hospital - I can't remember how long I did that....maybe two years

And way back when I was heavily involved in Girl Guides/Scouts and was a Brownie and Guide Leader

I'd love to get involved in another volunteer opportunity when the opportunity arises....strongly thinking about Dress For Success as I'm an ex-client and loved my experience with them.
 
I'm not volunteering currently. In the past I was a Brownie Scout co-leader for my daughter and I coached her cheerleading squad for a number of years. More recently I was a co-leader for my granddaughter's Girl Scout troop, although the girls are now 24-25 years old (time flies).

I also volunteered with my grandsons' cub scout packs and boy scout troops ... pack treasurer, newsletter editor and ran/organized a bunch of other activities.

When my youngest grandson (now 16) was in 5th grade I volunteered one day a week to help his class run the school store. I also volunteered in the classroom and as a field trip chaperone for my three grandkids when they were in elementary school.

I've given thought to re-volunteering with Pack 1127 when I retire as they always need volunteers.
 
Over 25 years ago I enjoyed genealogy and joined our local society. When the treasurer wanted to step down, I volunteered to take over. Made sense since I was an accountant. Then I volunteered to do the bi-monthly newsletter. Then I volunteered to do a website. Do you see a pattern? I get so entrenched that I have no other life. After maybe 6 years of this, I had to quit.

Then in 1999 I volunteered to be on my 25th class reunion committee. I said I'd put together a book from the responses to our surveys. Silly me pulled out all the high school "newspapers" and typed them up to include in it. The book was appreciated but thankfully there was an end to it.

3 or 4 years later I got involved in a group of Havanese owners in the Toledo area. Yeah, I volunteered to do the website. After 2 years I had to step away.

So needless to say, even though I would like to volunteer more, I just can't do it. It takes over my life because I just can't say "no" and people realize that. So I just don't do it. I have no problem donating goods or money instead of the actual volunteering.
 
We are part of our GK's PTA. We have done teacher gifts, treats so far. We like being able to give to them, since we were both educators and they are giving to the GKs.
 
HavaDrPepper said:
Over 25 years ago I enjoyed genealogy and joined our local society. When the treasurer wanted to step down, I volunteered to take over. Made sense since I was an accountant. Then I volunteered to do the bi-monthly newsletter. Then I volunteered to do a website. Do you see a pattern?
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LOL ... that's pretty much what I did with Chase's cub scout pack ... no one willing to volunteer? Then I did it. Six months before Chase was to bridge to boy scouts I did my best to find people to handle all the stuff I'd been doing, and left all sorts of notes re: the various activities the pack did, but even with doing that I later heard "I didn't realize how much you were doing" from a bunch of parents who still had boys in the pack. I pretty much had my thumb in everything. I did enjoy doing it though.
 
littlekiwi said:
And way back when I was heavily involved in Girl Guides/Scouts and was a Brownie and Guide Leader
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My mother in law has been a long term Girl Scout volunteer - like 25 years or something?! She volunteers at the national level now. She didn't have any girls, so this was how she could 'borrow' some.

littlekiwi said:
I haven't volunteered in probably three if not nearly four years (not because of Covid), just life changed for me
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I totally understand that! I feel like I'm finally at the stage where I can volunteer more. Most of the people in my family are fairly self sufficient, and I finished school.

Memaw2Wm said:
I've given thought to re-volunteering with Pack 1127 when I retire as they always need volunteers.
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That's always the case! Troops, girls and boys, always need volunteers!

HavaDrPepper said:
Then I volunteered to do the bi-monthly newsletter.
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Yeah, I volunteered to do this. Only monthly, for the school.

HavaDrPepper said:
I have no problem donating goods or money instead of the actual volunteering.
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Totally understand that!

AJK said:
We like being able to give to them, since we were both educators and they are giving to the GKs.
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That's so sweet!
 
All the work I did when I was a homeschooling mom in the 2000s and 2010s was volunteer. I ran a homeschool group, held classes and activities, and was photo editor of my statewide organization's magazine for several years.

Currently my time is too filled by a paying job.

One of my dreams for the future is to rock babies in a NICU or something like that. :love
 
Memaw2Wm said:
LOL ... that's pretty much what I did with Chase's cub scout pack ... no one willing to volunteer? Then I did it. Six months before Chase was to bridge to boy scouts I did my best to find people to handle all the stuff I'd been doing, and left all sorts of notes re: the various activities the pack did, but even with doing that I later heard "I didn't realize how much you were doing" from a bunch of parents who still had boys in the pack. I pretty much had my thumb in everything. I did enjoy doing it though.
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They hook ya. I thought my husband would quit working with Scouts once my son got Eagle and aged out. Nope. Instead, he joined Arrow of Light, became Round Table commissioner, AND became Scoutmaster, all while keeping up his role as Sponsoring Organization rep for the Cub pack. I'm a scouting widow, that's for sure!
 
I've not done any volunteer work recently. I've found when I've volunteered in the past that people took huge advantage of me, even to the point of not doing their own volunteer assignments because they "knew" I'd do it for them. They'd sign me up for things I didn't volunteer for, tell people I'd be happy to make things for them when I had no intention of doing so, or yell at me whenever they could just to make themselves feel better.

I had to do a lot of "forced" volunteering in the past, such as working in the church nursery when our kids were of age (whoever in their right mind thought that new parents would be good nursery volunteers is beyond me - we couldn't have our kids in there unless we volunteered once a month. It was horrible). I also had to volunteer at various skating events when my daughter skated, but half the time I was already there and had nothing else to do. So, nope. I'm done volunteering.

My husband would LOVE for me to volunteer with his Scout troop. Absolutely not. I've got one major roadblock of why I could never volunteer for the troop, but since it's my husband spends more time on Scouting than he does at home, I really don't want to have anything to do with scouting anymore.
 
I did my fair share of volunteering when my kids were in school. I also enjoyed volunteering at the local art gallery and I've volunteered at church from time to time.
 
I loved volunteering for the book fair! That was one of my favorite PTA volunteer opportunities! I also did/do a lot with teacher appreciation- bake cupcakes, make crafty stuff, etc. The last couple years, there are no volunteers allowed in the school. It's so strange now...

My husband has volunteered to coach my son's hockey team for the last 5 years. And with that- that really means that I am also lumped in as a volunteer team manager/secretary! ;) ;)

This year I volunteered to book all our travel for our softball team... why I signed up for that... who knows.... ;)
 
QuiltyMom said:
They hook ya. I thought my husband would quit working with Scouts once my son got Eagle and aged out. Nope. Instead, he joined Arrow of Light, became Round Table commissioner, AND became Scoutmaster, all while keeping up his role as Sponsoring Organization rep for the Cub pack. I'm a scouting widow, that's for sure!
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I enjoyed though, and had no problem being the "mean mom" ...

NO! only two pancakes to start.

NO! you can't have thirds, the cooks haven't had first yet.

Oh, so you couldn't be bothered to read the newsletter or even the highlights in my email, well here's a PINK plate, mug, and plasticware you can borrow to eat off of. Please remember it needs to be washed, dried and returned to me at the end of the weekend ...

QuiltyMom said:
I also had to volunteer at various skating events when my daughter skated, but half the time I was already there and had nothing else to do.
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Oh yeah, I forgot about having to work the snack bar when my DD was playing softball ...
 
And yes, a lot of the dads don't stop volunteering when their sons "eagle out." I was always thankful for them b/c my grandsons' fathers were MIA and I truly appreciated the dads that stepped in and helped to father them.
 
Memaw2Wm said:
Oh, so you couldn't be bothered to read the newsletter or even the highlights in my email, well here's a PINK plate, mug, and plasticware you can borrow to eat off of. Please remember it needs to be washed, dried and returned to me at the end of the weekend ...
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LOL! That made me laugh out loud!!!
 
I've volunteered at church for Vacation Bible School, Wednesday night craft activities, nursery and toddler classes, face painting for harvest festival, co-teaching a teenage girls class, decorating for the annual widows banquet, decorating for the pastor's birthday party, etc.

For our public schools, I served as room mom, PTA secretary, face painting at carnivals, secretarial work for a variety of teachers, creating a scrapbook for Olivia's kindergarten class.

My mom has catered and I was roped into helping with a couple of those adventures . . . now Mama knows not to even ask. NOT my thing.

My health at this point is not at a point where I have energy and strength to do any of those things I did before. I had back pain back then, but it was manageable. I was able to walk and stand. Now I'm in pain when I'm sitting or resting, so I know I would get too cranky to deal with little kids.
 
Up until my son's graduation last year, I was on the Board for the marching band booster organization. There were over 100 kids in the band but the same 10-15 parents did all the volunteering. I really enjoyed it though since we had a great group and we could spend a lot of time just hanging out at football games and stuff like that when we weren't actively needed. It also let me keep an eye on my son. :D I've stepped down now but since I am an empty nester now, I've been thinking about what I want to do next to volunteer. I'm a lawyer, so I've debated being a CASA -- court appointed special advocate for kids in the legal system -- but that's a huge commitment so I'm not sure about it.
 
From January 2014 until September 2021, I was a Volunteer in Aged Care at The Village ( local nick name for our Aged Care facility owned by Baptist Care as the facility used to be only a retirement village when first constructed).
Each Thursday, I would help first thing in the morning with clearing the tables after breakfast. I would help with all sorts of activities including craft. Do some one on one visiting. At lunch time I would help in the dementia section with helping with their eating. Helped with the sing a longs. I helped on outings. Once a fortnight on Sunday afternoons, I was holding a Christian Worship time.
Some of the residents became like family to me so I still at times well up inside of me when I think of them all and can no longer be there. There are a few I am writing to at times. One lady who is not as old as others, did send me a Christmas card which was so nice.

( in case you are wondering why I am no longer able to volunteer it is because of the illegal mandates happening here in Australia)
 
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I used to volunteer a lot with my kids when they were younger...field trips, chaperone, class parties, team mom for various sports teams. As a teacher, I've put in tons of volunteer hours doing lots of different things.
I'd love to do some volunteer work with something outside of my kids or school, like at the hospital or nursing home or animal shelter or something, but it's just not doable with a full time job and after school commitments currently.
 
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