True stories of personal volunteer-related experiences from colleagues.
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Just a Little Can Make A Difference in Another's Life...and in Your Own
Many years ago, while I was employed full time at a busy job, and also being a newly married lady, I gave of my time, talent and energy at a mental institution in our town. The joy I found and the satisfaction I felt was overwhelming. At first it was somewhat scary to be in this environment, never having had anyone compromised in this way in my family circle or circle of friends--but I had a reason for doing this.
I learned from this valuable time how to deal and cope with these situations and how to work with them. I volunteered in a locked-up environment which was also overwhelming at first.
To my surprise, I found out that a friend of my parents from many years back was a resident of this facility, and that when I was a baby, this lady had wanted to keep me as she was unable to have children. I brought this lady up to date with pictures, brought her special items and brought her up to current times. The time came when she was able to piece things together, and she said to me one day "please dear, you should not come here, as this is not a place for you," but I wanted to bring something into this lady's life. Together, after much time, we had closed up the years. I was told that she would have been able to be released from the facility, but because she had no family to go to, she couldn't leave. But I did bring her to my home on two occasions for afternoon refreshments, and I saw the joy of this lady "feeling a part of life." I have never forgotten this volunteering experience. This lady later passed away but I have the fulfillment in my life of having done just a little to make a difference in the life of one person.
I felt so humbled by this, and I give all thanks and praise to my Lord for directing me, and for my mother telling me the story of why this lady was where she was. I was the volunteer and this is the story as best I recall it.
submitted by Sylvia Jones
Angels
In working as the Volunteer Coordinator for Domestic Violence Services, where it is my main job to see that our Crisis Line is staffed at all times, I have started referring to Crisis Line workers as A.N.G.E.L.s, which stand for "Always Needed Gentle Enthusiastic Listeners." They are the back bone of our agency.
Submitted by Mandy Standard
Security
A volunteer recently arrived in our new City Hall just days after
an extensive staff meeting discussing building security and workplace
violence. He was with his job counselor, and they were to interview
with me for a possible volunteer position. I had previously asked
about skills, and this particular volunteer brought a sample of
his handiwork. He brandish a huge machete-type knife that he had
made out of car bumpers. Our Human Resources director was passing
by my office just as he held up the knife. Unknown to me,immediately
there was a clustering at the end of the hall to decide what should
be done. I later advised the job counselor that the next time they
visit a public building, they should leave anything that looks like
a weapon behind!
Submitted by Paula Anderson, Coordinator of Volunteer
Services; City of Grand Junction, Colorado, USA
The Greatest Gift I ever Gave, and Received
I sat in Mia's tiny second floor bedroom, as I had every Thursday
afternoon for the past year--I, Mia's hospice volunteer, and she,
my 37-year-old hospice patient, dying of a rare blood disease. We
talked, as we always did, of Mia's 18-year-old son and his most
recent antics. We watched the Young and the Restless. I lit
Mia's cigarettes, carefully making sure the ashes didn't fall and
burn her T-shirt. "Do you want to write in your Memory book this
week, Mia?" "No," she quietly replied. "Not this week." As our visit
was ending and I was getting ready to leave, Mia, somewhat anxiously,
commented on the two bracelets I was wearing on my right wrist,
the same two bracelets I had been wearing on my right wrist, every
day, for the last 15 years--my cherishe "button bracelets," one
gold and one silver, given to me by my parents when I graduated
from college. "Sally, those bracelets are so pretty, so different-let
me try one on-please?" Without hesitation, I "unbuttoned" my silver
bracelet and fastened it on Mia's thin and fragile wrist. Mia held
her wrist up to her eyes and began to cry. "Mia, what is it, why
are you crying, what's wrong?" "This is the nicest present anyone
has ever given me." Mia tearfully said. "Thank you, Sally. Thank
you so much. I'll never-ever-take it off." My stomach felt tight
and my heart began to beat uncomfortably fast. Present? What was
Mia thinking? I gave her my bracelet to try on, NOT to keep. But
she's crying, she's so happy; I can't take it from her now.... I
gave Mia a big hug and told her I would be honored for her to keep
my bracelet, and wear it, and never take it off. I then turned and
left, walked down the stairs and out the front door, never to return
again. Mia died before my next visit. That last day with Mia, we
gave gifts to each other, though I didn't know it at the time. I
gave Mia my most cherished button bracelet, a piece of me, to keep
close to her as she took her final steps from this world to the
next. In turn, Mia gave me the gift of Living. For, everyday, when
I look at my single gold button bracelet, alone on my right wrist,
I think of Mia. I think about how life is limited and can be taken
from us well before we are ready to leave it. I remember to live
every day as if it were my last, without regrets and to the fullest.
To Mia, I thank you......
--Sally Hess, Johns Hopkins Hospice Volunteer
Submitted by Jean McHale, Volunteer Coordinator,
Johns Hopkins Home Hospice, Baltimore, MD USA
Looking Past Your Own Pain
I met a dreamer-catcher in the most unusual way. I was sitting in
my office in the basement of the Hospital, far away from patients,
when I got this request. "Lisa can you come up to Turner 4 to speak
with a patient? I went to the room they were calling from and there
sat a women hooked up to her chemotherapy drip. She was so happy
that I had taken time to come and speak with her. Through her battle
with cancer she kept wondering how she could give back for all the
kindness and caring she had received. This patient was also a professor
at the local College, so she was wondering if she could bring her
students in to volunteer? We came up with a group project for her
freshman class that needed to complete community service requirements.
They planned and implemented a weekly activities session for our
rehabilitation unit. Evenings of games, refreshments and craft projects
were organized. Patients benefited greatly from the opportunities
to socialize and participate in rehabilitative recreation. Through
all this- their fearless leader went through more chemotherapy and
reconstructive surgery, yet always stayed focused on how she could
help others and inspire her students to do the same! She was a dreamer
that didn't let her own problems stop her from reaching out and
helping others
Submitted by Lisa Coble, Newport Hospital Manager
of Volunteer Services, Newport RI
An Inspiration
I am an AmeriCorps*VISTA at a local elementary school in Clay County
West Virginia. One of my volunteers is a very dedicated grandmother.
Her daughter works so she has picked up the volunteering at the
grandson's school. She is wonderful. Both her and her husband volunteer
and her daughter volunteers when she can. This woman was in a very
serious car accident last school year. She now has to wear a very
stiff back brace. She is always in constant pain but she never complains,
she is always at the school helping in the office. She is the Vice
President of the PTO. She is still really active. It is such an
inspiration to me to look at her and see that she hasn't given up.
She still knows what she needs to do to make her grandsons education
a real success.
Submitted by Beth Anderson, AmeriCorps*VISTA, West
Virginia
Always Remembered
My husband worked many hours as a volunteer at the nursing home
where I worked as the recreation director (we are caucasian). There
was an 86 year-old African-American lady who, despite her dementia
diagnosis, had gotten my husband into her long term memory. Hattie
always talked about Cab Calloway, expressing how much she enjoyed
his music and telling us that her grandson played with Cab Calloway
(no, he probably didn't, but who knows). When I saw an article in
the paper that Cab Calloway had died, I showed it to Hattie. She
said, "Oh, Lord. Where's your husband?" I called my husband and
asked him to come to the nursing home because Hattie was asking
for him. When my husband arrived, Hattie showed him the newspaper.
He responded that he knew how much Hattie thought of Cab Calloway
and how much she enjoyed his music. Hattie said, "Well, it's time
you knew. That's your real father."
--The Manor at Blue Water Bay Nursing Home
Submitted by Lori Pyers-Goodwin, Director of Community
Education - Sprenger Retirement Centers, Ohio
Beyond Power and Wealth
I recently came across this from a speech given by Dr. Jonathan
Sacks, Chief Rabbi of the UK, and I thought others might find it
interesting and inspiring.
“Imagine that you have total power, and you decide to share
it with nine other people. How much do you have left? One tenth
of what you began with.”
“Imagine you have a sum of money, and you decide to share
it with nine other people. How much do you have left? One tenth
of what you began with.”
“Now suppose you have a certain amount of love or friendship
or influence or ideals and you decide to share those with nine other
people, and you do share them, do you have more or less than you
began with? You probably have ten times as much.”
“It follows immediately from this little exercise in arithmetic
that power and wealth will always generate conflict. The more of
them I have, the less of them you have, and the more I give you,
the less I have. Therefore governments and markets are mediated
arenas of conflict: the one mediated by democratic elections, the
other mediated by market and exchange. But those other covenantal
areas of love, friendship, trust, marriage, loyalty, faithfulness,
they are not arenas of conflict. And now we can say what is created
and
distributed in our houses of worship, and in communities, neighbourhoods,
voluntary organisations, above all in the family: namely, spiritual
goods.”
“And now we can also say precisely what has gone wrong in
our social ecology in the past 50 years. We made a simple, well-intentioned
assumption. But a wrong one. Namely, that there are only two institutions
that can deal with social problems, either the state or the market.
Some on the left prefer the state, some on the
right prefer the market, but on the most fundamental point they
both agree, and they are both wrong, namely that the state and market
are all there is.”
“So what else is there? To which the answer is, there are
families, congregations, faith communities, fellowships, neighbourhoods,
voluntary organisations - all of which are bigger than the individual,
but smaller than the state. They operate on a different logic.”
“Families and communities are held together not by the coercive
use of power, not by the contractual mechanisms of exchange, but
by love, loyalty, faithfulness and mutuality: being there for one
another when we need one another. I call them "third-sector"
institutions. And without that third sector, there will be problems
that neither
governments nor markets can solve.”
Submitted by Rob Jackson, Officer (Regional Fundraising)
Royal National Institute for the Blind, England
Pay Volunteers?
As the Coordinator for Volunteer Services for SA Ambulance Service,
I had a brief discussion with our Chief Executive Officer at a Christmas
dinner function last year. It suddenly occurred to me, that we could
never every pay our volunteers . . . because they are absolutely
priceless!
--The dinner was to congratulate new Ambulance Officers and recognise
all Officers for their dedication and committment over the past
12 months.
Submitted by Helen Elix, South Australian Ambulance
Service, South Australia. Australia
It's 1 AM!
A story I heard recently at a Lions Club meeting: The Lions Club
supports an Eye Bank in Washington and Idaho; the Eye Bank performs
over 400 cornea transplants each year. Frequently donated corneas
from deceased persons must be specially packed and delivered by
bus or train to the donor's location, requiring a volunteer to pick
up the package and deliver it to the hospital. One night, the program
coordinator was desperate; she had a package on a bus to Spokane
and no one to pick it up. She frantically called the list of emergency
volunteers...it was after 1am.
She reached a very sleepy man and explained what she needed. The
irritated man told her that yes, he had volunteered to be on the
contact list, but had specified afternoons and evenings before 8pm,
and in good weather only. "It's 1am and it's snowing here!" he protested.
"I'll do it just this one, but please, don't ever call me again."
He got up, and as he was getting dressed, his 13-year-old son came
out and asked what he was doing. When he learned that dad had to
"run an errand", he asked to go along.
They drove in silence through the snow to the bus station, picked
up the package, and drove it to the hospital. On the trip home,
the son asked what the package had been. Dad explained that it was
tissue from the eyes of someone who had died, and that tissue was
going to help someone else see again. The boy digested that for
a moment, then said, "Gee, Dad, I never knew you did such important
things!" The next day, the man called the coordinator back. "You
can call me anytime you need to," he said.
--Donna Oiland, Lions Eye Bank employee.
Submitted by Samantha Bowes, Director of Business/Community
Relations, South District; YMCA of Greater Seattle, Seattle, WA,
USA
Don't Need Those Little Pins
Sophie was a volunteer in Disaster Response for the Red Cross.
For 30 years she would grumble when invited to recognition celebrations.
"Don't need that foolishness," she'd say. "Don't need those little
pins. People don't need to make a fuss." Sophie passed away and
many people attended her funeral. She had an open casket,and, to
the surprise of all attending, in the casket was a red velvet ribbon
with every one of her hours pins that she had accumulated during
during her many years of volunteering pinned on it. So don't give
up when volunteers say that they don't want you to make a fuss over
them. You just never know.
Submitted by Kathy Cunningham, Manager, Volunteer
Services, The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, MD
The Source of Her Energy
There was an enthusiastic 70 year old woman in Montcalm County
who came to the training for volunteers with a smile that took in
the world. Other volunteers seemed to gravitate towards her at breaks,
and I wondered at her energy that seemed to fill the room. She came
up to me at the end of the training on building self esteem in children
and said, "You know I get up every morning just glad to be alive.
I go out and work with children for twenty hours a week. I can't
wait to get there and be with them. When I'm with those children
I forget that I am dying of cancer."
Submitted by Vallery Mann, Gerontology Network,
Michigan, Kent
A Jewish Village in Belarus
Streshin, a typical shtetl or Jewish village in Belarus, supported
at least 15 charitable organizations. There was a Khevre Kedisha,
or burial society. The Shomrim society would provide guards to stay
with the body from death to burial. The Khevre T'hilim society came
together to read Psalms and raise money for charitable projects.
The G'miles Khesed Society made interest-free loans to those in
need. The women's Lekhem Evyeynim Society collected extra challah
bread on Thursday mornings and distributed them to needy Jews in
time for the Sabbath. The Bikur Kholim Society would raise money
for families to travel to the city for medical care. They would
also harvest ice from the Dnieper every winter and store it in an
underground cellar; the rest of the year they delivered ice to those
suffering from fever. There was a Jewish Book Society that raised
money for the lending library and invited lecturers from nearby
cities. At its height in the 1880s, Streshin's Jewish population
numbered 552.
Submitted by Andrew Silow-Carroll, Fellow, CLAL:
The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, New York,
NY USA
"You Didn't Call This Morning"
In Jacksonville Florida, a volunteer was late in making her
daily call to an elderly person living alone. The volunteer received
a call from the elderly person who said, "You didn't call this
morning." The volunteer replied, "I was about to call."
To this the elderly person replied, "Then I will hang up and
let you call back because if you don't call the PHONE WON'T RING
TODAY."
Submitted by Reverend Gene Parks
