Where do you volunteer?

[Ma3tt]

My wife and I leave Thursday morning with 14 high school youth to drive from Malibu to Tsaile Arizona (Near Canyon De Chelle) to work on the Navajo Reservation. It is with a group called http://www.SierraServiceProject.org. I usually get a construction project like a roof or a deck. We sleep on the floor of a gymnasium so it is kind of like camping. 10 days of bad teen music. See ya in a week and a half.

[Rob]

National Ski Patrol at Sierra Ski Resort: I spend at least twelve days a year, and usually more than twenty days, picking up the injured on the hill. Injuries can be anything from a bruised ego of a four-year-old to not breathing. Fortunately, I have not had to apply my CPR training yet. I hope I didn't just jinx it. It means being on the hill by 7am and frequently not getting off the hill until 5pm. It makes for a long day, but when a child stops crying long enough to say, "thank you" it makes it all worth it. We don't get paid, but we usually get a run or two in before the day's action starts :

[kirtsjc]

Had to remove details as it was pointed out to me that I was close to breaking privacy laws.

Sorry.

John Kirts

[BILLYL]

I work at Childerns National Medical Center - here in Washington DC - and part of our requirements is to be advocates for childern. I volunteer with my son's scout troop- have been involved with the Montgoemry County Ag Center - 4H and various activities at church. This year I am letting my hair grow long and will be donating it to LOCKS OF LOVE. It is a non profit group that makes wigs for childern that have cancer. So all of you old hippies and your pony tale is 10+ inches go get it cut and put a smile on a kids face - the feeling is wondeful.

Bill

[JunkMan]

Odie & I were volunteer escorts for an adoption agency specialising in Indian adoptions. Since we have two adopted children from India ourselves, and escorted our son home ourselves, we thought that we would help out others that are adopting.

After escorting two infants back to the states, the Indian government put a stop to allowing volunteer escorts. Now the children must be escorted by a family member, social worker, or adoption agency or oprhanage employee.

We hope that they change the ruling soon so we can start escorting again (there are rumors that they might). We really enjoy visiting India, even thought we usually have to deal with a ton of red tape when bringing back a child.

Anyone that thinks our government requires a ton of paperwork for anything should try doing the same thing in India. Just picking up a suitcase that the airline lost on our first trip over, took us almost 3 1/2 hours of paperwork, after we got to the warehouse that they were holding it at (and this was before 911!). Had we known that it was going to be so much trouble, we would have just left it there, since they didn't find the bag until 2 days before we wewre leaving for home (Odie had to do without most of her stuff for 2 1/2 weeks!).

I've also been thinking about joining the local search & rescue. Talked to them a little bit last month, but haven't made it to one of their meetings yet.

[TomS]

I volunteer for the Major Taylor Association. Specifically, I am on the board of directors. I also serve as the organizations webmaster, and perform other tasks as required.

Major Taylor was an African-American bicycle racing champion who competed around the turn of the 20th century. Fifty years before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in baseball, Major Taylor competed with white atheletes in the most popular sport of his day. In 1899 he became the second African American to win a World Championship. He raced internationally, in Europe and Australia.

Dispite his unparalled success on the bicycle racing tracks, Taylor endured what he called "monster prejiduce" that was so prevalent at the in Jim Crow era. Besides routinely being denied lodging and service in restaurants, he endured insults, threats and on several occasions, physical assaults.

Major Taylor was a man of incredible personal charachter. He was a devout Baptist, refusing to race on Sunday. His refusal to race on Sundays cost him thousands of dollars in prizes and appearance fees. It was that charachter that makes his story so special.

Our organization is memorializing Major Taylor with a statue in Worcester, Mass., his adopted home town. We just achieved our goal of raising $250,000 for the statue through a combination of public and private donations. And just this week, the City of Worcester renamed one of its streets, "Major Taylor Boulevard."

You can learn more about Major Taylor at the Major Taylor Association web site.

BTW -- kirtsjc, as someone who was bullied as a child, I really appreciate what you are doing. No child should have to endure bullying.

[Larry Messaros]

Just joined our local volunteer fire department as a director. Currently I work away from home and can't join as a firefighter because I can't make the practices. When and if I get a job closer to home, I'll probably become a firefighter. Being as we live in an area where most people vacation, most of the firefighters are retired and they are having problems attracting younger people.

[Leon]

I spent 15 years on the Kern County Fire Department as a volunteer fireman until my back started getting worse. It was some of the most rewarding work I've ever done. I also did 10 years as an instructor for the Motorcycle Safety Foundation teaching better riding habits to motorcyclists.

[Kurt (Indiana)]

Our organization is memorializing Major Taylor with a statue in Worcester, Mass., his adopted home town.

Nov. 26, 1878 -- Marshall W. Taylor is born in rural Indiana to a black couple who moved north from Kentucky around the time of the Civil War.

Too bad Indiana did do what you are doing. The man is a national treasure.

Sounds like a very worth while cause.

[TomS]

Nov. 26, 1878 -- Marshall W. Taylor is born in rural Indiana to a black couple who moved north from Kentucky around the time of the Civil War.

Too bad Indiana did do what you are doing. The man is a national treasure.

Sounds like a very worth while cause.

Thanks Kurt,

Indianapolis has the Major Taylor Velodrome. He isn't totally forgotten in Indiana.

Major Taylor lived in Worcester because he found tolerance here. He was able to live and train in relative peace. That is something our city can be very proud of.

[Chris C]

I volunteer as a grief group facilitator for several groups. A couple of them are only a couple of 8-session mettings a year, but one of them is held two hours every Tuesday evening of the year.............Holidays included. (T'wern't no fun being there on Christmas Eve and New Years Eve a few years back!) People who haven't experienced a grievous loss have no idea what grievers are going through and this causes a real seperation in connection and leaves the griever bewildered because friends disappear. When polled, most non-grievers will tell you the loss of a spouse, for example, is something someone should get over in 6 months or less. Truth of the matter is it takes as much as 5 years to grieve in a healthy way. That's the goal of our groups. We teach people how to grieve in a way that will bring them back to a healthy and active life at the end of the process.

I also volunteer at local bluegrass music festivals. Lots of work, lots of hours, and TONS of great hand-clappin', foot-stompin', smilin' from ear to ear music.

[Jiminsav]

I'm an asst. Scoutmaster..enough said

[Dogwood]

I'm an Asst Scoutmaster also, I feel you pain! I'm getting ready to go for a week of scout camping tommorrow. We usually have a great time.

[Nytewyng]

I volunteer every thursday night 6-midnitght on a Para-Medic ambulance for http://tinyurl.com/hb449. Been doing it for about 10 years now. Very rewarding work.

[GeorgeT]

Dream Center Austin. Counselor. Christian based facility housing and feeding men just getting out of jail, mostly ex-drug offenders and alcoholics. Some have been incarcerated for a while for some serious stuff. Alot of these guys have been kicked out of other state, local and federally funded facilities and this is the last chance place. Local judges send them here. We focus on helping them get back into society with jobs, documentation, GEDs, training, drivers licenses and spiritual counseling if they want to pursue that avenue. Generally just being a friend and trying to encourage them not to fall back to their old ways by focusing on showing them how to start helping others with troubles and be good servants. We also feed a lot of homeless and street people every Thursday and we housed and fed a bunch of folks from Katrina in parnership with Operation Blessing out of Virginia Beach 700 Club.