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Be a Creative Volunteer

Use Your Interests to Energize Your Volunteer Efforts

Aug 26, 2008

Use Your Interests to Spur Your Volunteer Efforts, Courtesy of Morguefile

Using your interests to fuel your volunteer work will give you more energy and enthusiasm for giving.

Making a difference in your community can be a creative affair. If you give the idea some thought, you can probably come up with dozens of ways to let your passions guide your volunteer efforts. It's easy to feel like a lonely voice, or cringe at the prospect of stuffing any more envelopes, but there are other ways to be useful. Allow the things that engage and stir you to energize your desire to give. That way, giving back to the community also fuels your creativity.

Let Your Interests be Your Guide

Hobbies are great outlets for you, but they can help your community too. If you sew, donate. Quilts are welcome symbols of caring in convalescent homes, shelters, and youth centers. Your painting may seem amateurish to you, but your creative efforts in adding a splash of color to story time could brighten up a school library or reading corner. If you are a gardener, extra seeds can be a boon to the science department of the local grammar school, or you could volunteer to start a flower garden at a hospice nearby.

Teaching car maintenance at a youth center, conducting bird watching sessions for seniors at a nearby park, or baking dog biscuits for the independent pet rescue in your community are other ways that you can use your knowledge and passion to make your community a better place to live in.

Find Your Unique Way to Serve

Albert Sweitzer, in his book The Quest for the Historical Jesus, wrote: "The only ones among you who will be really happy, are those who have sought and found how to serve.” When your volunteer projects spring from of your interests, giving will feel doubly rewarding. You are also more likely to keep up the good work over time, and be better at it.

Sit down and write a list of your interests and skills. Rate them by their level of difficulty relative to the amount of time you can contribute. Now link each item on the list to a charitable activity that might benefit from your participation. This could be the library, your child's school, a community shelter, retirement home, or other organization. Once you have made some connections between your talents and how they can be useful, start making some calls. Once you decide what you have to offer, it's easy to get things rolling.

A few dozen dog biscuits won't lead to world peace, but they'll be a start on the road to helping others. Your children will see what you are doing and learn the gift of selflessness and service. Lead by example, and show your children that giving comes from the heart and can be a very personal and fulfilling activity.

The copyright of the article Be a Creative Volunteer in American Affairs is owned by S. Elliott. Permission to republish Be a Creative Volunteer in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.