Community Service is about YOU!

Small investments - of time or money - have huge benefits to the community and surprisingly have huge benefits for yourself.

Many people perform some type of work or donate monetarily to organized charities and groups, the world as we know it today couldn’t operate otherwise. These efforts have direct humanitarian benefits to the community at large and yes, each donation makes a difference – someone gets food, someone else gets a warm coat and further still someone gets temporary housing… From advocacy to art and from life skills to senior care…donations of time and money make a difference in someone else’s life.

Community Service is anything that benefits a community, does that mean that volunteering in direct charities is the only way? Certainly not! Everyone has something to share and every one of us needs and benefits from someone else’s service in some part of our lives. Making a better community through intentional service can be anything from helping your neighbor or making a meal once in awhile for that overworked mom you know to visiting sick friends or helping with a park clean up once a year. But yes, for some it is about more organized or more frequent volunteerism.

The world is filled with George Baileys and Bing Crosbys who see opportunities  to help  or to enrich others lives and who chose to act on those opportunities not knowing what the long term ripple effect will be - that is real Community Service.

I knew a woman who was homebound and wheelchair bound. She had not been able to work for 30 years – not since she was 34 years old. But her heart was HUGE! She managed to get out in the community when family wasn’t working and interacted with others. If she saw a need or heard of a concern, she did whatever she could to help. Whether it was offering suggestions and finding ways to make it happen, participating in meetings, sharing her social security check or picking out special gifts for children, she always found a way. Her ideas and her heart just never quit seeing opportunities. Some of her biggest gifts to the community where she lived were her big grins and her straight shooting comments. None of us were immune. You never knew what she was going to say but no matter how outrageous, she was generally on target and said things none of the rest of us had the courage or the daring to say. She volunteered on committees and for any task for which she was capable and had an interest in but her greatest contributions were inspiring (nay, pushing) the rest of us to do our best, to find the time, to “make it happen”. She instinctively and unknowingly knew which “buttons” worked on whom and never failed to use them but I never knew of even one of us who was mad about it. How could you turn her down?!? She was completely guileless. Her contributions were clearly making a difference in all of us for the better - an incredible community service!

Another friend is a whirlwind of community service to organizations. The lady is in her 70's and works every day! Not in a paid position but actually and probably harder than she would in any one position. In a week's time, she volunteers at the homeless shelter, the food pantry, the church (this is daily during the week and of course, she's back on Sunday), the library, serves on boards, acts as the church treasurer and back up bookkeeper, helps clean the food pantry and the church, takes care of her husband and more. Just looking at her calendar exhausts me and I'm much younger. She is quiet in her own way but has direct opinions which she'll share if encouraged. I don't think there is a judgemental bone in her body. So not only is she contributing through her direct service but by her example, she is encouraging each of us to step up our contributions.

And then there are the everyday angels, just trying to make a difference in their little corner of the world and doing it while struggling just to get through everything that is already on their plates. These are the unsung, real heros of Community Service. WIth the job, the kids, the spouse, the parents, somehow they still manage to find a way to help someone else, to "make a better world", to turn hurts of others into momentary smiles, to make tomorrow a little better. Maybe it's recycling efforts, green efforts, participating as often as possible in those unexpected giving moments of selflessness, helping the neighbor, allowing someone to cut in front in line - whatever the service, it is done with heart and is the human connection - making a better world by intentionally serving someone else.

Community Service is about what’s in your heart and how you act on it. Giving money to an organization is a wonderful thing and benefits a lot of people but doesn’t necessarily change you unless you spend thought and time on the donation. Community Service requires interacting in a caring way with and for others. The surprising thing about Community Service is that when we intentionally serve those around us, we change ourselves – a double benefit! And isn’t that what community service is all about – bettering our community by bettering those in our community – including ourselves.

                           LIFE - IT'S ALL "RELATIONAL"