Volunteer work, do you do it? Why or why not? What about giving to charities?

-- Anonymous, November 17, 2000

Answers

I do volunteer work, usually with a group of my friends, because we get to hang out and feel like we are actually contributing to change (instead of sitting around watching COPS re-runs, which we do quite a bit.) I give more to charities than I used to, both because I make more money now and I have less time to volunteer.

As an aside, I am a terrible fundraiser because I loathe asking people for money and putting them on the spot. So a lot of the money that I give for, say, the AIDS walk, is dough that I cough up myself.

-- Anonymous, November 17, 2000

Yes, and yes. I do a lot of volunteer work, and donate a comparatively small amount of money directly to charity. I'm very selective about the charities to which I give, also.

The paid work I do is often related to charities, and there comes a point where a charity becomes just another business, so it's hard for me to give to those types unless I am completely committed to that cause.

The volunteer work I do is rewarding and interesting. It's also a social mechanism -- a great to way meet like-minded individuals. On the downside of that, there's a lot of goodhearted people out there who are total flakes....

-- Anonymous, November 17, 2000

I used to teach learning disabled kids to read, and I used to help my Dad out with his charity work (not always out of choice). The most fun thing I ever did was help him organise the Rotary Club Pancake Day (which he does every year) and a charity fish fry he organises (which he does every year). Actually WORKING at the fish fry wasn't the best -- unless scooping potato salad and baked beans onto styrofoam trays for ten hours on end is your idea of a good time -- but that was another case where I didn't have any choice.

The last time I gave to charity was two weekends ago, when I bought a poppy for the Poppy Appeal. Then my husband was giving me shit for 'being so political' and the poppy clashed with the shirt I was wearing, so I just put it in my pocket. But I still paid for it!

-- Anonymous, November 17, 2000

See, Mary Ellen, that's my fear: being a flake. I always have very good intentions, but I have to be very careful not to commit myself to too much because I know if my life/work/etc gets too crazy, I can't follow through and it's worse than if I never got involved in the first place. So, I try to just commit to what I can do and *finish*.

I've done full time volunteering before (living onsite and working there) and it was a good experience, but sometimes I was resentful of just not having a lot of time for myself (I was 18 at the time). That's when you gotta step back because once your heart isn't in it, you start being useless.

I don't currently give to charities because I don't make that much money and I'm still paying off graduate school loans. What I will do is donate stuff for garage sales or something that benefit charities. SI've found that if you're broke and you still want to give, you have fto find creative ways to do it.

-- Anonymous, November 17, 2000

Yes and Yes. I've helped raise money to build two new library buildings in two small towns in our magazine distribution area and I've taught night classes in the library. Every year my wife and I donate advertising space in the magazine for the ASPCA, Women's Centers, Big Brother/Big Sister and local charity drives. The down side is we get hit by everyone for not only space in the rag but money, period, because we own a business. What really irritates me is when I refuse someone and they say things like: "It's only space in the magazine...it's not like it actually costs you something." I usually don't even try to explain that, yes it actually DOES cost me real money to give space. My favorite is "Oh, come on...you can write it off on your taxes." Some people make think the expression "dumb fuck" is one word. One demented old church-lady said said, "The good Lord loves a cheerful giver!" I gave her a check and said, "Right...and necrophiliacs like cold stiff ones." My wife (who overheard us) came into my office right afterwards, pointed her finger at me, and said, "Don't ever do that again." But in all truthfullness, if it was up to her, they wouldn't get a dime.

-- Anonymous, November 17, 2000

Along the lines of what Bubba wrote, I hate it when people become preachy or judgmental if they ask me to fork over dough and I say that I can't; I too have heard, "It's not like you don't have 10 bucks to spare." Well, aside from the fact that sometimes it is like that, it's no one else's business what I do with my money. And it certainly isn't very charitable to berate someone for not complying with every donation ever requested of 'em.

I just had to vent.

-- Anonymous, November 17, 2000

Got to agree with Elena - some folks who ask for money are so damn presumptive. I mean I have huge debts but still give to charity through my pay at work but I am selective and reserve the right to be so. Sometimes its first come first served so if I have spared some change that day, the next person who asks is gonna be unlucky. Its getting cold over here now and that means more begging not to mention Xmas - which brings the dogs out in force cos' its harder to turn down a plea from a person accompanied by a forlorn looking pet. My course of action is to hand over a ciggy to the person and a tin of dogfood.

-- Anonymous, November 17, 2000

I give my time but not my money. I'm the charity my pittance of a paycheck gets spent on. Besides, the volunteer events I work typically provide a free meal or admission to the play/concert/whatever.

-- Anonymous, November 17, 2000

poeple have all ways told me i was a charety case. i dont know what that means!!!

-- Anonymous, November 17, 2000

I don't do volunteer work. I just don't want to. Actually, that's not true. One of these days I will volunteer to teach illiterate adults to read and write. But otherwise, no thanks. I've done some volunteering, mainly against my will. My wife tends to think she has all this free time all over the place and then signs herself up for something. Life and work intervene and she can't finish it. I can't let commitments go unfulfilled and put volunteer organizations in a bind, so more than once I've picked up the remainder of her volunteering stints. I think she's finally learned that she overcommits her time and she's stopped doing that, thank goodness.

We did volunteer for Canine Companions for Independence, and that was fun. But we weren't in it for the long haul and stopped after about 2 years. The dogs made it fun. Some of the people were irritating, though.

I don't usually give to charities, so my wife does so on my behalf. :-) We give to our church and we give (kind of a lot) to two animal charities. That's about enough for me. Honestly, I'm glad she gives what she does and to whom. I generally don't ask her about the details, but I'm secretly glad to give. Shhh, don't blow my cover.

-- Anonymous, November 17, 2000

I forgot about the tin-cup rattlers. Everytime I go into Wal-mart there's almost always a handicapped person at one of the doors and I have the policy of giving them all the change I have in my pocket at that particular moment. If it's a religious tin-cupper I don't even look at 'em. I get shaken down in church. If it's one of those execrable religious groups, I try not to hit them with my truck.

-- Anonymous, November 17, 2000

Those tin-cuppers annoy me. I avoid them.

-- Anonymous, November 17, 2000

floosie...you little doll. What it means is, don't give it away.

-- Anonymous, November 17, 2000

I tend to put my time, energy and money into local non-profit organizations. I have volunteered at a non-profit legal services program for over 15 years. In the past I have also volunteered at a local family planning program and a child abuse and neglect prevention program. The community I live in has a large homeless population and my husband and I donate money and food to a local homeless program and to the homeless project at church. My husband gives money, clothes and all kinds of odds and ends (flashlights, radios, camp stoves, etc.) to individual homeless people as well. Like Bubba, I get requests for donations of money or free services all the time. I usually throw them away.

-- Anonymous, November 18, 2000

booba idont get it i dont give any thing away. your cute

-- Anonymous, November 19, 2000

I used to volunteer at the local schools a lot, but now I don't. I always want to volunteer, but then I just don't.

Sometimes I give change to homeless peeps and Salvation Army bell ringers, but that's about it.

-- Anonymous, November 19, 2000

I used to volunteer as an ESL teacher to immigrants in the US, in Boston and Chicago, but then I moved abroad. I also used to belong to a food co-op and volunteered as an editor of a community newsletter.

Now I am the mother of 2 pre-schoolers and feel that I need to spend the time I'm not at work with them. When they get older I plan to do more volunteering of my time, with them.

In the meantime I give monthly donations to Oxfam and to my church. My church supports a school for handicapped kids, a kindergarten, a primary school and an old-folks home for English speakers - cause it is hard for old folks who don't speak Cantonese to live in a completely Cantonese speaking environment. I also donate $ to Friends of the Earth and give blood to the Red Cross.

Oh, and last Sunday I donated to the "poppy" fund for $ to go to local veterans of WWII and the Sino-Japanese war - they collect on Armistice day and give you a red poppy (made out of paper, now) for remembrance.

As for beggars, I *always* give to amputees for family karmic reasons and then to others as the case seems to merit. I usually don't give money to child beggars because I hear that usually an unscrupulous adult will usually take most of the $ from them, and even steal kids to become their little beggars.

-- Anonymous, November 20, 2000

I always donate to the bell ringers outside the store at Christmas, since they're good enough people to stand outside in the freezing cold. I always wonder why the store doesn't let them stand inside though. That and the guys who stand in the middle of the intersection for the Lions club and then I imagine them flipping coins to see who gets to play chicken with the cars.

Since my time is limited, I try to volunteer for one day events. I work at a food kitchen every Labor Day and while the donations are generous, the bread could be used for a doorstop and the veggies had seen their day long ago. Someday, I'll find some unused land and till it up and plant enough veggies to feed that kitchen. Just so those folks get some fresh food.

-- Anonymous, November 20, 2000

My Dad stands outside and rings the bell for the Salvation Army during the holidays. The big highlight of that was that, as a thank you, the SA gives the bell-ringers a packet of peanuts (probably to sustain them or something). My Dad would come home and then my brother and I would race to steal the peanuts first.

-- Anonymous, November 20, 2000

guzy last nite i dreamed tha god or jesus or a saint came to me. im not sure cuz jeusu didnt look like jesus in my paintings and i dont think i saw god ever and any way he told me that i was loved and i should die for his sins!! do you think i should be come a nun??

-- Anonymous, December 19, 2000

Only if you are Catholic!

-- Anonymous, December 19, 2000

i dont htink im cathlick. ill have to ask ma

-- Anonymous, December 19, 2000