Take Time to Care…Be a Volunteer

I can not remember who said it, but it speaks volumes about people who give of themselves through volunteering to help others:

“If you insist on measuring yourself, place the tape around your heart rather than your head.”

We are in very tough economic times. Everyone is feeling the loss of money, jobs, retirement, your home. What we once were able to give as contributions to charitable cause or event, is now going to pay the mortgage or feed our family. We want to help those less fortunate, but we just do not have the money.

So, just volunteer for something. Charitable organizations are feeling the economic troubles as well. They are cutting budgets and paid employees just to survive and continue to help people who need them.

Take a look at your skills and your hobbies. Pick one or two charities about which you feel compelled and offer your services to them.

Volunteer Match offers a database that allows you to enter your zip code and it matches you with opportunities to help out right in your back yard. Just in the 33409 zip code, there were 285 volunteering opportunities, including:

• Volunteer at the Veteran’s Hospital.
• Center for Family Services
• Become a Guardian Angel, by becoming a guardian ad litem for children.
• Records management for a group assisting senior citizen crime victims.
• Be an advocate for crime victims.
• Be a cattery assistant

Putting the search term “volunteering” into Google yielded nearly 13 million opportunities.

We give back… we take time to care… because tomorrow it could be any one of us who needs the help.