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Volunteer Lessons
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| I HAD MY FIRST ENCOUNTER with volunteer work when I was six and living in London, England. My mother was involved with a women’s group that helped shut-in seniors. One day, she announced that she was going to deliver food parcels to a number of them and that I was to help. It was late afternoon and nearly dark when we set out. I can still picture the rain falling steadily on the car window as I looked out at the streets of dingy row houses we drove down as we made our way from one cold, grim dwelling to another. I had never witnessed poverty before, never realized that people had to live in tiny rooms with cracked plaster and no heat unless there was an extra shilling to put in the metre. I didn’t want to stay to drink the cups of tea that were graciously offered by elderly people whose joy at seeing us revealed the loneliness of their lives. But a look from my mother made it clear that I must. And so I did – and willed time to pass so I could return to the more hospitable home I knew.
Forty years later, the memory of that excursion remains vivid. As much as I couldn’t wait to get those visits over with, I look back from my adult perspective and am very grateful that my mother insisted I accompany her that day, that wittingly or not (and I suspect the former), she awakened my young mind to the realities of the wider world. As time passed, my mother engaged my help in other volunteer activities of her women’s group. My favourite was an annual jumble sale, through which money was raised to provide the shut-in seniors with an outing. I used to be assigned to assist at one of the stalls, where I helped to price items and serve customers. It made me feel worthwhile, and I was always allowed to choose something from the stall for myself. I enjoyed the outings a lot less. A bus would take the seniors and those escorting them to the sea or some picturesque garden, and on the way back the group would have afternoon tea in a restaurant. To me, the trips seemed extremely boring, consisting mostly of driving and washroom stops. It horrified me when my mother told me that for some of the seniors, these outings were the highlight of their year. "Some people here don’t get past their local shops other than on these trips," she said firmly. And I learned a little more about the world around me. Volunteer work is like that – it gives you windows on worlds you might not normally come in contact with. And there are other benefits too, like camaraderie and the knowledge that, grain of sand or not, you can make a difference. There is also the enormous value of the work done by volunteers. I’d like to be able to tell you that I am now a tireless volunteer, but I can’t. What I can say is that I do a little volunteer work, and that whenever I do, I’m reminded of how satisfying it is and that I really should do more. Like many parents, I tend to volunteer at my children’s schools and other organizations with which they’re involved. As such, I have participated in activities ranging from field trips and Hot Dog Nights to planning cabarets and providing snacks to choir boys. And just as helping with the shut-in seniors provided me with a window on poverty and loneliness, so helping with organizations my children are associated with has provided me with a window on parts of their lives to which I am not usually privy. My efforts in these areas are paltry compared with those of some other parents. Two years ago, an enterprising group of them decided to do something about the fact that my children’s small school didn’t have a proper library. It was ascertained that if a washroom were moved here and a wall there, a fairly spacious room could be had. It would be expensive though – upwards of $50,000. But that didn’t deter these parents. They set their sights high, planning an elegant gala and auction as the highlight of their campaign, which raised, as I recall, about $35,000. The remainder they secured from donations. Over the next summer, the library was constructed, a beautiful, peaceful room with hand-painted leaves and birds that will always remind me of what the spirit of volunteerism can lead to. And what a fine example these parents set for the children of the school, who frequently embark on volunteer efforts of their own. Last year, for example, after someone visited the school to talk about homelessness, a group of grade 6 girls decided they wanted to help and set about planning an ice-cream sale, managing to convince a local vendor to contribute several barrels of ice cream. They made more than $450 one lunch hour. "If every school in the country held an ice-cream sale, think of how much money there’d be to help homeless people," one of the girls said. And I thought how valuable their experience had been. . . . . . THE UNITED NATIONS has declared 2001 International Year of Volunteers. And so it is appropriate that we celebrate the 7.5 million Canadians who do volunteer work, making life better for all of us. As Lila Goodspeed, president of Volunteer Canada, notes, "Volunteers are instrumental in the creation of a civil society." – Sarah Lawley
Illustration: Roy Schneider
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