Volunteering is a great way to be useful in our communities, and some experiences impact us in unexpected ways. These volunteers made quite the impression and some were even left beautifully scarred. Here are 12 volunteering experiences that will make you want to do better.
- I worked at a zoo, and twice a year, I was in charge of handling any volunteers that we had.
One time, a young man came to volunteer.
He was tasked with mostly cleaning around the walkways of the zoo. He was terrible at it.He would move on to another task without completing the previous one, and I’d be left to do my job and his.
At the end of the week, I called him in to ask him how he was feeling about the job. He went on a tangent about how he hated being here and how he didn’t even like animals.When I could finally get a breath in, I looked at him and said, “You know you can leave, right? You don’t have to be here.”
He looked at me like I was telling him that his entire life had been a lie. He immediately got up and walked out.I never saw him again.
- I’m on a team that goes out to help people that have had disasters (mostly house fires). Recently, we got a call at 10 pm for some persons that requested help, we drove 2+ hours on a Sunday night to meet them.
I was grumbling about it, but then you meet a couple in their late 60s whose trailer burned to the ground.They lost it all. We showed up, got them in the system, got them a debit card with a few hundred dollars on it, and sent them on their way.
Since they’re in the system, others will follow up with them and help them.If we didn’t make that drive, they’d have spent the night in a cold car. It’s my small contribution to the world, but I feel good about it.
- I spent a few years volunteering on a mental health helpline, and yeah, the florid calls are super intense.
We would focus on validating feelings (fear, sadness, anger, etc) without validating experiences (Uncle Ricky, Sasquatch, etc) while trying to make an agreement that they would talk with someone in their life about their worries, preferably a medical professional.
You’re never going to be able to sort out truth from delusion in a single call, so there’s no point in trying to build rapport and linking to support as the goals.
- I’ve volunteered with rescued animals, and I’ve volunteered with sick kids.
The story doesn’t end here — it continues on the next page.
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