Giving money to a charity really should be given from the heart, not just to make people
look better. Donating to the poor or the sick should not be just for recognition of
oneself. Giving should be done, not to get a name in the newspaper or on a plaque, but
to help those who are less fortunate. In order to make the giving valuable, to the giver,
they should experience or witness the lives of the less fortunate or sick. Community
service is a very valuable way to get something out of life and give something back.
Community service can help the more fortunate to understand and appreciate the needs of
the sick, the poor and the destroyed environment.
Volunteering in a hospital will help teach healthy people the importance of life. Going
into the hospital can help the volunteer learn the value of life and how important every
minute of life really is. For instance, women and men who volunteer in an infant AIDS
ward may learn to take better care of themselves so that they will have healthy children
someday. Young people who volunteer in a geriatrics ward may realize the importance of
Mom and Dad, have more patience for old people and have much to learn from the elderly.
Working without pay in a homeless shelter helps people learn that being poor is not
wrong. It is just an unfortunate way of life for some. Volunteering in the shelters
teaches us that we are all equal, whether we have money or not. Homeless and poor people
have families too: husbands, wives, children, even pets. Getting to know people who have
less helps us remember that they have all the capabilities of a human being.
People can learn to appreciate the earth by getting involved in organizations set up to
help clean up the environment. For instance, two years ago I went on a camping trip in
Vermont. One of the activities was canoeing. As we were going down the river, we saw
lots of debris and decided to clean it up. The life in and surrounding the water all
benefited from our clean-up efforts and we realized the importance of not littering.
More people should follow in these footsteps.
Community service helps the people who receive the service, our land and the
volunteers, as well. The people who receive service from volunteers get to have a little
bit of a better life and learn that people actually care about them. The land becomes
cleaner and the trees become greener. The volunteers themselves learn everything and
everyone is valuable. They also learn that volunteering can actually be fun!
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