Interesting...two people repped me for this post today. I just acquired fencing to put up dog kennels! Someone was giving it away and I grabbed it! I have a friend putting it up for me and next I need to work on some dog houses. Now the dogs can come to me and be quarantined outside until they see the vet and have enuf time to display symptoms if they are harboring any contagious diseases.

This is a great thread!!!

~" You make a living by what you get. You make a life by what you give." Winston Churchill

I have always tried to give back, volunteered with the Red Cross with the hurricanes Katrina and Rita, no-kill animal shelter, Aids Peer Counselor, you name it. When I was young i never realized what a feeling it gives you to help someone out with what you may take for granted. I commend all of you!!! Take pride in yourselves and never become cynical of what you can do for others - not everyone is out to take advantage, some just need a hand and if we can do it why not? I always feel that there by the grace of God go i.....

Once again GREAT THREAD!!!

Every June, the dept at work with, we spend a week prepping and painting a vet's, disabled or eldery person's home.
Last year our dept in the fall had a carnival for the preschool kids at Neighborhood House.
The battered women's shelter, some friends and I each took a room and decorated and made them nicer.
The company I work for also lets us take paid time off to work projects for United Way. Painted the interior of the Indian Walk in Center, tied ribbons for the Aids Foundation, cleaned up schools, cleaned, painted shelters, one of my favorite years round things to do, is baking cakes and having small birthday parties for the kids at the shelter.

I love our veterans and that is where a good deal of my volunteering is. I help with dinners and also do Buddy Poppy drives and for those who do not know what a Buddy Poppy is they are little flowers that are given out and people make a donation. That money goes to our Unmet needs for the veterans and can go anywhere from the young men and women coming home and need assistance with their bills to the ones in hospitals. I also am part of the VFWLA in my area and these women help with our veterans and also we bring in money to help with cancer research.
I also volunteer at my local Civic Theatre. I use to love being a actress before kids but now I help with everything from putting up/tearing down sets to seating and the food stand.
I also do work full time and still have one kid at home. I guess I am someone who likes to keep busy and be a part of the community. Plus I love people and making friends. :)

I volunteer in a VA Medical Center Pharmacy, once a week.

I volunteer at my local animal shelter. It's a kill shelter so it's sometimes extremely emotionally draining. If I am there when animals get put down I try to be right there with them and hold them on their journey to the other side.

I do have some good stories my favorite is when I first started volunteering they knew me from the food/snack/litter drop offs I used to bring down to them. They all knew I had a Boxer and was passionate about them. They said they had two young Boxers a brother and sister (that I named umm Brother and Sissy..I know not that original). They had been horribly abused physically and mentally. The shelter was going to put them down but I begged them to give me 1 week with them to see if I could make any progress.

They werent aggression just terribly afraid of humans. If you went into the kennel with them they would shake so bad they would lose both their bowels and urine. I had to carry them outside to the play area everyday because they were terrified of leashes. Kind of tiresome carrying two 65 pound dogs!
When they were in the play area they would romp and play but wouldnt come anywhere near me. I used to sit for hours everyday with my eyes downcast and my back to them gaining their trust and hot dogs helped too ;)
Within 3 days of this the male finally came over and sniffed my back and in time allowed me to toss him hot dog pieces. By the end of that week I was able to be within about 10 feet of them without too much trouble. The shelter staff gave me the promise if I worked with them daily they wouldnt put them down.

It was hard to swing it because I was working two jobs but I worked with them daily for about a maybe 2 weeks before the male finally took a hot dog from my hand. About that time a lovely older couple came in and fell in love with them despite their faults. We agreed if they made the effort and came down and worked with me and the dogs on the weekends they could possibly adopt them. Well they did do their part and in time the dogs accepted them...well as much as they could at that point. I made it clear these dogs would never be "normal" dogs. They would need constant work and patience. Since the couple had rescued an abused Mastiff(it had recently passed) they adopted both Brother and Sissy(now named Mosley and Layla).

This couple lives about a mile from me and I visit the dogs often. They have come a long ways. They are spoiled and loved by this wonderful couple who accepts them as they are. It's the best outcome I could have hoped for.

I dont do a lot of hands on training like I used to do there, but I coordinate with breed rescues all over the US willing to take some of the great dogs we get. It's extremely rewarding. Although it can be heart breaking and emotionally draining, I love what I do! I know I have personally been part of saving several dogs and some cats from sure death.

I took next Saturday off for our biggest event of the year Bark In The Park...I cant wait!.

Just a thought for those who love to take pictures. Most shelters would be overjoyed to have someone volunteer to take pictures of the animals up for adoption...your talents could save a life :)

They call it Friends of the Library.

I am a volunteer at my local Library.

Libraries and Librarians are not just about the books. They're about the people. Which is why supporting the library system is critical. What is TRUE is at this juncture, our libraries need us as much as we need them.

I volunteer at a horse rescue here well I do when I am in one piece lol
NYsunshinehorses.org they help horses that are coming off the track and we take in ones from the area as well.

I'm currently tutoring an Iranian woman, but seriously she teaches me more than I teach her. She's already got a stellar brain and a pretty good command of English. Half the questions she has are questions I have to look up in order to help explain. They are the shades of difference between words that are similar, just small things.

But now the Literacy Council has asked me to be on their board, and I've agreed. I'm overwhelmed but honored. I started a facebook page for them. I need to set them up with PayPal. They aren't tech-savvy. I'm not super-savvy either, but I know how to start up a PayPal account so I'm golden.

-----------------------

There is an awesome graveyard I saw recently. It's an African-American graveyard just outside the main cemetery next to the railroad tracks which up until 2002 had mostly unmarked graves. The origins are not entirely recorded, but it is thought that slaves, former slaves and their descendents have been buried there. In 2002, the cemetery was restored, and all the unmarked graves were marked with markers with the word "unknown." Each grave was also given a cross or silk flowers, and a large iron fence was put up around the entire perimeter.

Last week I took M to see it. Somebody had bulldozed into it with what had to be a massive truck or tractor or piece of machinery. A large beer bottle in a bag lay on the ground outside the mangled and uprooted fence. Many of the crosses and flowers had been uprooted.

M and I went through and picked up and replaced all the flowers and crosses that we could - though two of the crosses were broken. The fence is too expensive for us to replace, but I'm hoping to find a place to make some donations toward fixing it. I suppose it could have been an accident, except that the crosses and flowers looked like they'd been kicked and pulled up randomly - not knocked down by a truck. It was a small reminder that this town isn't especially welcoming or safe for people of color.

Anyway, I like cemeteries. I think on my own if I could get my sh*t together, I would wander local cemeteries with a trash bag and pick up trash, right tombstones small enough for me to handle and generally spread a bit of love among the dead. I know I'm weird.

Here's an article about the cemetery - apparently it cost $22 a foot to build the fence.

greetings from Saipan
 

I have been volunteering since I was a late teenager in many organizations dealing with anti-nukes, anti-violence, pro-environment, animal rescue, pro-consumer, queer, etc

Currently I am active with the local Community Emergency Response Team doing fire response, traffic control , triage...and I am a certified SAR Tech on the land based search and rescue team.
My other big commitment is as a Marine Safety and Environmental Protection Prevention Officer and Human Resources officer in the US Coast Guard Auxiliary

Volunteer Water Rescue
Habitat for Humanity