Volunteering | pad patter 3.3.17

[Tree City]

A lot of my volunteering is mundane, clerical tasks too, but I'm happy to help so it frees up the teacher to teach.

That's how I feel, too. If I can do the little things in order to give them prep time (or time to actually eat their lunch!), or whatever, then I feel good. And I love being in DD's class. I used to stay to have lunch with her afterward, but just this week she said "you don't have to stay. You're too ... Mom-ish." It's like, darn tootin', I'm "mom-ish." I'm your MOM! It's not like I spit-clean a spot of dirt off her face rotfl, but apparently sitting quietly and eating my lunch is just sooooooo embarrassing! But I take it as a sign that she's growing up. And frankly, that is what's supposed to happen.

 

[jk703]

I have done some volunteering at my kids schools... but there are times that I wish I didn't have to work, so I could volunteer more often. I always feel guilty that I can't be more involved during the day for activities. I live in a stuck up town, and on the wrong side of it to boot, so I leave the PTA things alone. Not my cup of tea there. I occasionally will take off to be at the school for a function or volunteer, but not as much as I would really like!

I think I could handle kids in a school setting, lol! I do get a little awkward with kids, but then I usually do something silly and then loads of giggles around. Eases me and the kids, lol! I'm pry just as silly as they are!

I've been considering volunteering at our local Emergency Squad. That's right up my alley! We shall see... I honestly will have to see how it's run and the people involved. (Based on my experiences with the PTA, lol!) Otherwise, maybe a nearby animal shelter!

 

[keepscrappin]

That's how I feel, too. If I can do the little things in order to give them prep time (or time to actually eat their lunch!), or whatever, then I feel good. And I love being in DD's class. I used to stay to have lunch with her afterward, but just this week she said "you don't have to stay. You're too ... Mom-ish." It's like, darn tootin', I'm "mom-ish." I'm your MOM! It's not like I spit-clean a spot of dirt off her face rotfl, but apparently sitting quietly and eating my lunch is just sooooooo embarrassing! But I take it as a sign that she's growing up. And frankly, that is what's supposed to happen.

hehe ... Oh yes, my kids want me there, but they don't want me to embarrass them! I tell my kids, if I'm not embarrassing them as their mom, then I'm not doing my mom job right! lol Megan is in 5th grade. What grade is your DD in?

 

[Tree City]

@keepscrappin She's in 4th. So with a 5th grader, you totally know what it's lIke!

 

[dawnmarch]

I've done a few things over the years:
- volunteered at my kids school a day or so a week. I helped in class and was on the yearbook team taking photos of everything
- I used to do Reading for the Blind & Dyslexic -- recording textbooks for folks who could not read themselves. I would like to get back to that someday but it's really far away which makes it hard
- I was on the fundraising committee for the AZ Friends of Foster Children Foundation -- an organization that donates funds to foster kids so that they can do "normal" extracurricular things like take lessons, play sports, buy a bike. The state covers only the barest necessities (and not event that sometimes).
- I was also on the Board for the ASU Law School Gold and Gavel which puts on an auction/fundraiser every year to raise money for scholarships
- We do Feed My Starving Children from time to time. Have one coming up soon, in fact.

Right now, I've cut back because my work is insanely busy but I might volunteer for Duet which pairs you up with a senior who needs help with stuff (bills, shopping, whatever) or just to visit.

 

[tkradtke]

When the kids were little I volunteered all of the time. Part of it was self-serving... I was president of the MOMS Club for multiple years. I arranged most of the activities and outings, so it was a lot like just inviting a group of friends to join me on whatever adventure I wanted to go on My husband traveled a lot so it was a way to keep busy and wear the kids out. I also ran our book club and scheduled it to start after the kids went to bed so I could have it at my house and not hire a sitter. I also was in charge of our supplies for our church's VBS, it was a task given that we usually had a couple hundred children attend. I started to get burned out... and then as the kids got older, it became more activities where they needed volunteers to be in charge of children. Like @bbymks5 (I'm an only child too!) and @MandaKay, being in charge of other people's children is not my thing. We moved back to Chicago and I took a break. I've done a few odd things here and there, but nothing regular.

I'm trying to find my thing now though. The kids are 15 and 16 and are fairly self sufficient. I don't want a job as I like my freedom, but I would like to have a regular volunteer gig. I asked at our library as I love our children's librarian and really wouldn't mind shelving books all day... but our library employees are union and the libraries are not allowed to have volunteers except for youth during the summer reading program. I've looked into joining The Saints and have that as a possibility when the kids are off to college. There is a theater about a block and a half from us... The Saints are volunteer ushers for the performances there (and other theaters). You go, pass out playbills, help people with their seats and then get to watch the show for free. Most of the performances are at night and that's about the only time my family is ever home... so I would hate to not be here. Just a few more years though!

 

[bbymks5]

@MandaKay I posses the teaching skill either; I can show you, but as far as giving verbal instructions, not so much!

@keepscrappin Oh fun!! I love being help in that way!

@tkradtke YAY for only children! I really do feel, being an only child has made social interactions and parenting a bit awkward.

 

[gonewiththewind]

My doctor thinks I have fibromyalgia on top of my chronic kidney stones and right side back/hip pain. That's why I've started doing deep water aerobics. She recommended it back in December and I've been trying to go 2-3 times a week since. The exercise has really helped ease the pain. I couldn't believe it because it hurts to exercise on land, but in the water I can do so much more. I hadn't been to water aerobics since last Thursday (been to busy), and I could tell. I was starting to hurt again. I went this morning and I feel great now. It's so good to get moving and release all those feel-good endorphins. I'm happier and have noticed I can handle stress better. It's also good for some good comic relief, because I look like sight walking into the pool in my bathrobe and snowboots! LOL Sometimes you just gotta laugh at yourself or you'll be paralyzed and not do what you need to do.

I did water aerobics as well. The place where I was going closed. I didn't really notice an improvement in pain, but I was definitely more flexible, which is always a plus. ((HUGS)) to you and prayers that you heal with this exercise!

 

[bonnenuit]

When my kids were in school, I volunteered once a week in the school library. I helped start a middle & high school parents organization serving as president one year.

I've been a Girl Scout volunteer forever. 25 years as leader with two different troops, also was a service area manager, day camp counselor, and misc other positions. I've been a GS trainer for almost 25 years but nowadays I just train Senior/Ambassador leaders and do Gold Award training. I'm also a member of the Gold Award committee for our region. We assess girls' applications, interview them, give them the green light, and help with any problems along the way to earning their award.

I also volunteer as a literacy tutor for our local literacy council.

 

[AliSarah]

That's how I feel, too. If I can do the little things in order to give them prep time (or time to actually eat their lunch!), or whatever, then I feel good. And I love being in DD's class. I used to stay to have lunch with her afterward, but just this week she said "you don't have to stay. You're too ... Mom-ish." It's like, darn tootin', I'm "mom-ish." I'm your MOM! It's not like I spit-clean a spot of dirt off her face rotfl, but apparently sitting quietly and eating my lunch is just sooooooo embarrassing! But I take it as a sign that she's growing up. And frankly, that is what's supposed to happen.

At my daughter's middle school, they had "Operation Observation" which was a once a month event where the parents were invited to come have lunch with their kids at school... SO, in reality it was a HUGE contest between the moms to see who could bring the best lunch stuff and therefore lure the most kids to the table where they were... It was a very interesting time to say the least, but it did give me a chance to meet some of the other parents, observe the kid's dynamic, and (ultimately) decide to move before high school... :-\

Huggles!!
~Sarah~

 

[Tree City]

At my daughter's middle school, they had "Operation Observation" which was a once a month event where the parents were invited to come have lunch with their kids at school... SO, in reality it was a HUGE contest between the moms to see who could bring the best lunch stuff and therefore lure the most kids to the table where they were... It was a very interesting time to say the least, but it did give me a chance to meet some of the other parents, observe the kid's dynamic, and (ultimately) decide to move before high school... :-\

Eek! I'd want to move, too! Who thought that was a good idea? At least at DD's school, there are usually 2 or maybe 3 parents having lunch, and they're all volunteers who just want to help and then have a little time with their (grand)child. (This is what it seems like, esp. after speaking with most of the women--we all seem to volunteer on a set day. But maybe I'm totally wrong?)
IDK why women feel the need to be competitive like that. That's just not my cup of tea. I barely have enough energy to get through the day with my beasts--I mean, my wonderful children--so how could I even attempt to make (or buy) The Coolest Food? Nope, no thanks. Plus, I wouldn't want lots of kids at my table. I'd want just DD so I can be silly and she won't be embarrassed!

 

[AliSarah]

Honestly, the lunch thing was pretty cool. The moms made it a contest and I didn't even mind that too much, because I love a good "I can cookie better than you can" sort of throwdown, lol... BUT, the dynamic between my daughter's friends was just really not great. And, when I saw the parents in that environment, I could see where it came from. I had met this mom many times before, but I had never seen how she bullied her child into doing everything she wanted her to do and called it love.

Case in point: She bought daughter a shirt that daughter didn't like. She forced daughter to wear shirt to school. Daughter wore a zipped up hoodie over shirt because she didn't want friends seeing it. MOM unzips hoodie forcibly at lunch and demands "playfully" that all friends say whether they like said shirt or not since she can't understand why her daughter wouldn't like it... SO, with that example, was it any wonder when her daughter said to mine: "Your laugh is so annoying, you really should try to work on another one..." Or, demanded to know why my daughter didn't pick up the phone when she called on the first ring every time no matter what. It was not a great group for my daughter, so I moved so she could hopefully find a better one, WHICH SHE DID!! Amazingly, she was able to loosely maintain contact with her middle school friends and now that they are all adults, they have fun together.

But, going into high school with that queen bee in charge of her life would have been miserable for all of us, so I stopped it in it's tracks by moving across town...

Huggles!!
~Sarah~

 

[Scrapping with Liz]

I've taught some sort of class at church for the last 17-18 years. Right now I'm teaching the 3-4 year old class every time at church since my son is deaf & needs ASL and nobody else knows it. My fave class to teach is between K-4th grade.

I also teach/help at our local homeschool co-op. Last year I taught an ASL class the whole year. This year I'm just with my new 2 & 3 year olds (helping them get acquainted & interpreting for my son).

I've volunteered at our local pregnancy care center.
I've lead a running club.
A handful of other little volunteer jobs....

Even with this I still want to volunteer more in my local community, but that'll have to wait until my kids are a little more self sufficient.

 

[enjoyyourpix]

I did the whole volunteer mom thing during elementary school. Library, computers, room mom, stuffing folders, copy room duty, lunch duty, PTA earthquake preparedness, work the auctions/fun run/movie night/hoe down, art docent, classroom helper ...

I was cub scout leader (Tiger through Webelos) and girl scout leader (not main one, but led some of the meetings, did cookies, nuts, camping). When my son moved to boy scouts I led a few merit badges and held a couple board positions. Advancement Chair was a doozie after summer camp.

In middle school I chaperoned some band trips and worked on the foundation making newsletters and fundraising brochures.

In high school, I helped a lot with the speech and debate team. Judged tournaments, carpooled, did a little coaching. I also was the team photographer for cheer and helped with all the different events they did over the year.

Not sure what I'm going to do next year though!! I really like helping run the speech and debate tournaments so I think I may continue volunteering next year to help the local district/league. I'm also a district employee (I'm a substitute) so sometimes I end up being handed an extra pay slip to sign so some of the speech tournaments net me a little extra on my paycheck, so I guess that's not really volunteering. But the time put it is always longer than what I actually get paid for. It's fun though.

For a couple years I was in the Junior League but it got super difficult to try to go to the evening meetings and get my husband home to watch the kids. It just didn't work out.

**not my high school, middle, and elementary days!! LOL. I mean when my kids were in ...

 

[scrapsandsass]

I used to do a lot of community service projects through the Jaycees back when I was single. Years and years of projects and local and state offices. It was a lot of fun. Now with married life and health problems, I can't do as much.

I teach art once a month to Kennedy's 1st grade class. Recently, one of the moms came up to talk to me because she had to "meet" me (according to her son). She told me how much it really makes a positive impact on him, and I know the majority of kids are always so excited when I come in. Some of them get resentful toward Kennedy because they assume he gets to do art at home every day.

I just ran the book fair for his school as well. It was quite the task. The PTA is super disorganized and no one apparently knows what they are doing, so no one gave me any info or much in the way of help. Luckily, I put out a letter to all parents and asked for volunteers, so I had a couple of shifts where I had help. But it was great and a big learning experience. Scholastic is pretty amazing and has tons of free resources, so I am looking forward to doing it next year and starting from a better place since now I know what I'm doing. This was the biggest sales year ever, so I was thrilled with that.

 

[IntenseMagic]

I've done as much at my kids' schools over the years as I could, but working full time I just haven't had a lot of opportunities. I've done quite a few volunteer things with my school as well. There are a lot of things that go on at the high school level after hours that they always need help with. But, I don't do so much any more. Honestly, after 3 kids spread far apart in age, I'm just tired haha. I hope that when I retire I can look at some community volunteer things to get involved with. I have taught kids with disabilities for 28 years, and while I am really ready to retire from public education, I would love to find some way to continuing helping them through volunteer work.

 

[Karen]

I do lots of volunteering at my church and the some with the school (attached to the church). I used to do Sunday School, but quit that when my boys aged out of it. Now I do things like make posters, sing in the choir, make meals for fundraisers, sell concessions, make popcorn for movie nights, take photos at events (although why they pick me for that is beyond me... I really take awful pictures, but I have a "big girl" camera, so they assume I'm awesome), make decorations for plays and VBS, organize scrapbook crops as fundraisers, etc. Whatever comes up. I recently have been going on quite a few trips as a chaperone with the youth and at first I thought it would be weird being in "charge" of other people's kids, it's not been bad at all.

Last week I was asked to be part of a team that would go visit families in our church and ask them to be a part of our 150th anniversary "capital campaign"... basically they want us to ask for money to pay off some of the church's debts.... ugh. I SO don't want to do that, really outside my comfort zone. I haven't decided if I'm going to say no or not.

 

[lizziej]

I work outside the home, so my volunteering time at school was very limited. I volunteered in the school library once a month reshelving books or other things the librarian needed. I worked for an hour. My employer at the time was incredibly understanding. I didn't even have to make up the time.

At my church I volunteered for 9 years singing for the children during Liturgy of the Word during Mass, where the kids would go to another place where the readings and the Gospel were read to them in a simplified way. I did that every week. I quit doing it because my son was too old for it, and I felt I needed to be in church to listen to the homily (sermon) so that we could go home and discuss it. I needed to listen to them myself, too. My husband would say "You missed another good one." He and I taught Kindergarten Catechism for one year when our son was in Kindergarten.

I used to volunteer for the class parties, but then my son wanted me to quit going, so I did. I wanted him to be able to enjoy them and be himself. I volunteered for high school band helping organize the brand new uniforms and hats last year, but I've hesitated to volunteer since then because only two people (out of probably 20) spoke to me during that entire time. It's incredibly cliquish. In fact, while we were waiting for more uniform pieces to arrive, the group I was in was talking. One woman talked a lot and she looked at everyone as she was talking but never once looked at me. I thought that was incredibly rude. I don't need that. I volunteered again back in December, but this time it was for someone that I knew and I knew I wouldn't be ignored. The cliques have kept me away from volunteering at the times that I could. They keep asking for more people, but who wants to be ignored?

 

[MrsPeel]

I used to do a lot, especially for Sarita's schools, all up to her being in College (I think that would mean the last 2 years of high school for USA folks) but the past few years my mobility is so impaired, there isn't much I can do...
I do the GSO blog (Gallery Stand Outs) , we are all volunteers there, and that is amazingly rewarding ... I wish I could go back to a time when I was more able to do things

 

[keepscrappin]

I used to do a lot, especially for Sarita's schools, all up to her being in College (I think that would mean the last 2 years of high school for USA folks) but the past few years my mobility is so impaired, there isn't much I can do...
I do the GSO blog (Gallery Stand Outs) , we are all volunteers there, and that is amazingly rewarding ... I wish I could go back to a time when I was more able to do things

Cynthia - You do a lot of volunteering. Even though your health prohibits you from doing the physical things, you do loads of good through your computer and interactions with scrappers all over the world. You're always brightening other scrapper's days with your thoughtful comments and encouraging words. I always love getting comments from you. You're a sweetheart!