If you volunteer?

[KB]

In looking back through this thread, I see where I mentioned that I had thought about working in our local food bank.

Well this past summer I started volunteering in the food banks new vegetable garden. The garden has 32 raised beds and a small orchard. I work one or two mornings a week depending on the season and we grow whatever vegetables produce well for the season. It's very rewarding to pick vegetables, walk them over to the food bank and see them distributed to people who need some help feeding their family.

 

[Accidental Retiree]

Until the end of 2012, I served as a Senior Peer Counselor for the elder care part of our city. Finishing with my most recent client, I decided that after nearly 3 years of volunteering, I wanted no commitments for 2013 so that DH and I can travel more without having to worry about rescheduling client meetings.

Those meetings, and having to complete timesheets and write accompanying follow-up reports, felt too much like w*rk sometimes!

 

[REWahoo]

Those meetings, and having to complete timesheets and write accompanying follow-up reports, felt too much like w*rk sometimes!

+1

Precisely why I gave up on any 'regular gig' volunteering after a couple of years. Too much like a job with really lousy pay.

I find an occasional one-off volunteering event is more to my liking.

 

[Purron]

Foster parent for the SPCA - currently on hold as the last kitten we had gave both our own cat and one of my daughters ringworm.

I've fostered kittens for years and treated those with ringworm often. If you decide to foster again, set up a large cage in a spare room seperate from your pets and don't let others handle them, particularly children since they are prone to ringworm. If you have an extra bathroom, this works well too. I often use gloves particularly for kittens than came from outdoors even if no ringworm is visable.

 

[Coolius]

I am a volunteer Consultant with SCORE. Service Corps of Retired Executives.

Also visit a local Alzheimer's home monthly to conduct a church service. We then spend time with residents who need comfort, a willing ear to listen, and prayer.

Until recently, was Executive Director for a local nonprofit providing alternatives to legal processes for low income people. The nonprofit was combined with another nonprofit that had better facilities and more resources.

 

[jimnjana]

I've fostered kittens for years and treated those with ringworm often. If you decide to foster again, set up a large cage in a spare room seperate from your pets and don't let others handle them, particularly children since they are prone to ringworm. If you have an extra bathroom, this works well too. I often use gloves particularly for kittens than came from outdoors even if no ringworm is visable.

I don't think I could foster kittens. Just get to attached to them.

 

[PawPrint53]

I love reading about others' volunteer gigs. I volunteer at our local animal shelter once a week evaluating dogs, which means gauging their temperament as much as possible, seeing what commands they know, etc. I'm a tutor at the place that teaches English to non-native English speakers as well as helping in the preschool sometimes. Also volunteer weekly in a first grade classroom, mostly helping with reading, but doing anything the teacher wants me to do. There are a couple other things, but those are my big three.