I am so embarrassed. While walking the new dog yesterday, I encountered a horde...no, a fleet...no, a BATTALION of volunteers cleaning up garbage on my street. Battalion is the most appropriate way to describe them, as they were dressed in matching uniforms and there were tons of them. They needed those numbers, though, because cleaning up my street is no small job. It is now pristinely clean.
*Warning: This post contains graphic images.*
Some of the first words we learn as children are cat and dog. We are taught these words at the beginning of our verbal endeavors because they are short, easy to sound out, and simple to spell. They are also good to use because they can be attached to a concrete visual reference.
I’ve always liked volunteering. Call me selfish but I like how it makes me feel. I know that it looks good on a resume and that it is the right thing to do but I like how helping makes me feel and how seeing what I do makes a difference makes me feel.
Chances are, if you're a regular blogger on Progressive U, you have come across several of our volunteer faculty members who work to keep this site and the Blogging For Progress Scholarship up and running smoothly.
A few months ago I had the opportunity to chat with Kendall Ciesemier, the 15-year-old founder of the Kids Caring 4 Kids organization, which provides impoverished African children with food and education. This past September, she appeared on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” with former President Bill Clinton, who came to her high school and spoke at a surprise assembly.
Kendall felt moved to fight for justice in fifth grade, when she watched an Africa special on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” about orphans. One girl her age had lost her family to AIDS, and now she carried the responsibility of raising her younger sibling. Compelled by the orphan’s pain and grief, Kendall signed up to sponsor a child through World Vision that day. Later she expanded her sponsorship to include an entire Zambian village. Her charity eventually grew into a nonprofit organization, Kids Caring 4 Kids.
“It’s gotten so much easier for people to join the force to fight AIDS,” Kendall said at a coffee shop in January 2008.
Have you ever volunteered abroad (or in your own country) and wondered what would happen once you left? Would your message become lost with time? Would the people whose lives you saw change go back to how they once were?
Today is not a good day to be picking up food from a food pantry, or receiving a meal from a soup kitchen. Due to the increasing cost of food, more and more people who need assistance, and less government donations, food pantries and soup kitchens across the United States are facing a crisis.
“This is as bare as I have ever seen the shelves,” said Melissa Travis in a press release on the People's Resource Center web site.
I don't think there is such a thing as a selfless act. I really don't. I think that everything you do has some benefit to you, otherwise there really is not point in doing it. You like the feeling of helping others. You want to make sure that the world will be safe for your future generations. etc.
