Make a difference with small daily actions ... Volunteers, You ROCK!!!

-- Quote of the Day --

“…We would not be alive today without our volunteers. We have about 500 volunteers… putting in almost 18,000 hours of work into the marsh… so we are basically double our staff components; they do everything around here from maintenance, to education programs to stuffing envelopes… we have a wide range of volunteers, even someone that just comes and cleans. …We need help, and we will train you – but most of the work is grunt work.”
~ Laurie Shutt 07/27/08

The power of the individual to create a healthy, sustainable and conscious community is limitless. Volunteers are the strength of our nation and are behind every rally, every fundraiser, every school event, every community event, sport event... they are everywhere. You will find them in museums, schools, libraries, senior centers, women's centers and virtually anywhere really. There are others, as well, who "volunteer" behind the scenes with small supportive actions here & there in their daily life. This might be someone who has agreed to transport paint from the reuse center to the organization's staff for their project - or - someone who spontaneously helps the organizers clean up after a fundraiser has ended.

Are you on a weight loss program and thinking of taking on a low-impact walking regime? Consider multitasking a little and spend that time with a fur-friend by volunteering to walk dogs an hour a day, 3 times a week. The companionship will make your workout less tedious and you are helping rescue animals become more adoptable, while enabling the staff to work on other things. If you are walking with a human friend, even better! Encourage them to take a dog along as well!

Consider taking youth groups or your family to animal rescue centers to bathe, brush, walk or play with the animals there. These animals need companionship, they deserve loving touches and entertainment and it is within our power to give it to them.

Volunteers benefit in many ways including learning new skills. Often organizations will have training sessions ranging from a few minutes to several weeks depending on what the volunteer would like to learn next. Laurie Shutt is the woman I quoted from earlier today - she's from the Wye Marsh Center and she was telling us about the wide array of interesting volunteer positions for anyone of any skill level and any age. You could learn Falconry or specialty training certificates... and let's not forget that volunteering is a form of work experience and is a great way to build content for a resume.

I encourage our blog readers to access the full interview with Laurie Shutt regarding the Wye Marsh Center - The archived interview can be found under July 27, 2008; archives are listed underneath the links on the Conscious Discussions home page. To go there, simply click on the hyper-linked show title here in the blog, click on the link for the show on the right of this page. Either of these will get you there. :)

Find Dave & Lillian Brummet, excerpts from their books, information about their radio shows & free resources & articles at www.brummet.ca