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Do you do volunteer work?

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Shasta542:

--- Quote from: Ellemeno on July 18, 2007, 05:36:44 pm ---I have been feeling for a while like I need to get into doing more volunteer work.  I used to, but then had a tiny child and it felt hard.  But now I do have the time.  

I was very inspired by Sicko, the new movie by Michael Moore about America's lack of health care for its citizens, and the contrast between that and various other countries.  I am thinking about looking into how I can support the effort to improve that.

One of my favorite volunteer things I ever did was I taught one man to read.  Troy worked in a lumber factory, where they turned trees into boards to build with.  He worked with the sawdust, hauling, hauling, hauling.  On Tuesdays and Thursdays after work, he would hurry home to shower and get the sawdust out of very pore, put on his very best clothes, and meet me at the local library for an hour and a half.  When we first started we had a hard time simply understanding the other.  I was from a college-educated New York culture and he was from African-American deep country Mississippi.  We spent a fair amount of time saying, "Hunh?" to each other at first.  :)

But we were smart and learned to understand each other.  He worked hard.  Progress was slowish at first, as he worked with paper and pencil and books for the first time in his life, and as I learned how to impart this skill I took as much for granted as I did breathing.  After about 6 months, we could both see huge progress and he started really getting not just how to be taught, but how to teach himself.  We were on the front page of the local newspaper once, and with various other achievements, that is one of the ones I am still proudest of.

When we started working together, he had a 3 year old he couldn't read to.  By the end of our nearly two years together, he could read to Troy Jr. and even help him begin to learn to read himself....:)


--- End quote ---

This is wonderful, Elle. What a sense of accomplishment and pride for both of ya'll.

MaineWriter:
I volunteer several evenings a month at the Portland Community Free Clinic. The clinic provides primary care to folks who do not have health insurance but who do not qualify for other programs, such as MaineCare. It is truly a safety net agency. I have been volunteering there since 2000.

http://www.mercyhospital.com/affiliated/freeclinic.html

Leslie

mvansand76:
Great stories, Clarissa, Lee and Leslie!

It's really all about the small things you can do if you have the time that makes a difference! And in small I don't mean the impact it has, but more that it seems small, but the effect it has is huge!

Shakesthecoffecan:
I should volunteer to help out with things, but when you work for commission you feel like you are volunteering a large amoung of your time already.

mvansand76:

--- Quote from: Shakestheground on July 20, 2007, 02:35:48 pm ---I should volunteer to help out with things, but when you work for commission you feel like you are volunteering a large amoung of your time already.

--- End quote ---

What do you mean by work for commission? What kind of work do you do?

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