We VOLUNTEER our Time! Congratulate Yourself & Post Ideas!

[Nat]

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.

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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.

[1QuirkyKiwi]

I’m a volunteer Arts Co-ordinator for a Disabled Arts Studio and the local Hospice. I sew and hand embroider blankets for the local Special Care Baby Unit and the Hospice, as well as sewing and hand embroidering soft toys and other items for these places to raffle at Christmas and Summer Fetes.

I’ve been a volunteer Arts Co-ordinator in Nursing homes, other Disabled Arts Studios and Hospices’ in other cities I’ve lived. I was a volunteer for the NZ Red Cross and on my first time of living in the UK for the British Red Cross.

Edited to Add: Not sure if this counts; I take rescued kittens and cats until they have a forever home to go to or if they get on well with my tribe, live with us.

[Turino]

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

[Scuba]

Volunteer Water Rescue
Habitat for Humanity