A volunteer’s story
“Having volunteered for 74 years, I attribute my enormous circle of friends and the companionship I enjoy to those volunteer capacities in which I have served.”
W hat satisfaction is gained by being a volunteer? Are you afraid that the commitment will be too great? Are you fearful that you do not have the skills for the position? Are you too old?
There’s is only one way to find out. Take a leap in faith and become a volunteer. I encourage you to do so by sharing a few of my own personal experiences. Having volunteered for 74 years, I attribute my enormous circle of friends and the companionship I enjoy to those volunteer capacities in which I have served. Over the years I have absorbed far more knowledge than I have ever imparted.
My volunteering life followed the pattern created by my mother – for me and for my sister as young girls living in Sheffield during the Second World War. I suppose it was “in the genes” as the phrase goes today. When I was age four, my sister and I set out one evening to collect scrap metal to help build more ships, and thus began my volunteer journey. Wherever I went in England as a child, a student and eventually as a teacher, I was expected to volunteer. It was part of our family culture. My mother had a TIA while driving her car in rural Derbyshire and was denied her driving licence. She was 89 years old and her main worry was “who will deliver
Meals on Wheels to the elderly in the village?” My sister added the delivery of the meals to her list of volunteering. She drove while mother delivered!
I was 40 when I immigrated to Canada. I lived in Nova Scotia, and perhaps because I had a degree in phys ed, I was invited to volunteer in the recreation field. In addition to being on the local recreation commission, I coached tennis, gymnastics and figure skating. I had been taught to figure skate by Rob McCall, who became a Canadian Olympic ice dancers.
I was in my mid-50s when I moved to Victoria, invited to volunteer at the board level of numerous organizations, both provincially and nationally. I traveled to nearly every province and territory, giving presentations, teaching fitness, writing manuals and helping create programs for organizations involved with older adults. I met wonderful people – from every walk of life imaginable, including three governor generals.
Today, I am a volunteer at a training clinic for the Times Colonist 10 km, I am a board member for Silver Threads and volunteer at the Saanich Peninsula Hospital Foundation.
What do I get out of all this? I have the pleasure of being a part of this wonderful community we call Greater Victoria. Work is not the correct term in relation to being a volunteer. There are people who accept the role and complain about how much work there is to do, and delight in telling everyone how much money they have saved their organization by being a volunteer. Almost every NGO in Canada would collapse were it not for volunteers. I recently read this quotation: “One day I will wake up and not be able to do this. Today is NOT that day.” How fortunate that I can say this each day.
May we remember all volunteers across this vast country and thank them for their gift of time, energy and expertise to help keep the wheels on the wagon in whatever sphere they find themselves. An elderly friend from Moosomin, Saskatchewan, used to preface her remarks by saying, “I volunteer because I’m retired from work, not from life.”
Silver Threads has many dedicated people who give their time in many capacities. Their volunteer positions are as varied as the people who fill them: board of directors, drivers, seasonal decorators, servers at dinners, thrift store attendants, choir and band members, kitchen hands, income tax preparers, sign language teachers, mentors, telephone callers, computer instructors, web designers, photographers, librarians, fundraisers, craft instructors and program support people.
The mission statement for International Year of the Volunteer in 2001 was “The value of one. The power of many.”
“May were member all volunteers across this vast country and thank them for their gift of time, energy and expertise to help keep the wheels on the wagon in whatever sphere they find themselves.”