Why I Love Volunteering

While The Meliorist buzz this week will about the brave and fantastic decision of Kelti and the Meliorist staff to pull the TLFs to draw attention to the overt bullying for which it has become a platform, I also noticed another article. This one, Why I hate volunteering,caught my eye. No one gets to argue against volunteerism without a rebuttle from me. So here it is. 

Why I love volunteering

Okay, maybe love is too weak a word, but apparently it’s a strong enough feeling to bother writing about it, so here we go. Full disclosure, I was the president of the Rotaract Club last year, and I’m not at your throat but I am at the defence of volunteers and volunteerism.

Our volunteer-sceptic had good points and points that represent misguided resentment.  Yes, scholarships and graduate programs do need to consider work experience, financial situations and other extenuating circumstances more often (though that is why they also have financial need scholarships). But here’s the kicker – they’re not just looking for people who help others, this is often a way of making sure the applicants have received some of the benefits of volunteerism and community involvement. Namely, experience with new perspectives and communities, a feel for the bigger picture, and an understanding that progress in any field requires a group effort that no, there isn’t always money to pay for.

And I’m not sure if anyone has ever talked to volunteers in Rotaract or any of the other incredible clubs, volunteer organizations and non-profits around Lethbridge, but they do not represent this exclusively financially flush, elite group described. They are people who go to school full time, work full time jobs, raise younger siblings, have fended for themselves since their teens, and suck up massive debt loads. They give up their tv time, their dinner time and their sleep because they understand that this world needs every extra hand it can get, and they just want to do their part to make someone else’s life easier.

I’m someone who has volunteered for most of my life and someone who has coordinated and organized volunteers, even the kind that don’t necessarily want to be there. In my experience, yes of course you want volunteers who genuinely want to be there but isn’t having an hour-counting volunteer better than having no one to walk the dogs, sell the tickets, set the tables or put up the posters? And in a shameless plug for Rotaract, even people who sign up for hours, end up realizing how awesome an experience it is to be part of something bigger and better than yourself. And in case people are worried about the kids, folks in nursing homes, and rescued animals at the hands of these reluctant volunteers – don’t worry, people need a vulnerable sector police check and to pass probationary time with non-profits before they get to have that kind of incredible experience.

I’m glad our anti-volunteerism volunteer has a supportive family and does have the time to write articles for the student newspaper and volunteer occasionally. But I really hope that she realizes that if we left the volunteerism to the Carnegies and Bill Gates of the world, there would be seniors without visitors, there would be schools without readers, there would be refugee students without tutors, there would be homeless people unfed and unrecognized, there would Meliorists unpublished. Most of all, communities would be impoverished by the absence of the incredible, resilient volunteers I know who eat KD to feed their bodies and volunteer to feed their souls.