dminor Posted July 29, 2004 Share Posted July 29, 2004 Today is my last day volunteering at the hospital here in St. Paul. I have been in the gift shop as a cashier for two years. Since last fall I have been going in at least two days a week. The shop contributes all of the profit it makes and puts it toward patients without health insurance. I have met a number of wonderful people there and are going to miss them, but I am very ready for our move to MO. Unfortunately volunteering seems to be a past time for the older generation. If you have the time make it part of your life. Without volunteer match officials there could be no shooting matches. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiG Lady Posted July 29, 2004 Share Posted July 29, 2004 I still volunteer as the newsletter editor for the quarterly Lane County Sheriff's Office and we just sent another issue to print this week. It's a neat thing to do and part of the county mandate on communications and marketing of county agencies' activities. The newsletter gets issued in hard copy, e-mail to county employees and others, and posted on the county Website. Four full pages which I designed from scratch last year. I feel privileged, actually. As dminor says, "...I' met a number of wonderful people..." Boy, isn't that the truth! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IPSCDRL Posted July 29, 2004 Share Posted July 29, 2004 As I'm sure our pal Vince would say, "Good on ya!" My wife did the same thing at the hospital where she worked for several years. She did all of the buying as well and when she left there she turned that knowledge into her own business for a time. We both volunteer to different organizations and it really does make you feel good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil Beverley Posted July 29, 2004 Share Posted July 29, 2004 Good for you. All of you! The feel good factor makes it all worth while and it can be quite humbling to see the benefit to some who really need it/appreciate it. Three years ago I came up with an idea to supply cuddly teddies to help distressed kids when they have to visit an Accident and Emergency Dept. (ER in the US). Through a charitable organisation I'm involved with we have raised the necessary funds to keep up a constant supply to a number of hospitals and todate we have delivered just over 80,000 teddies free of charge. It really helps the A & E doctors and nurses in their treatment of the kids. The teddies are used to comfort, reward, bribe the kids during treatment. I could tell you some real life stories that would bring tears to your eyes. Initially we set out to fund this appeal for 3 years but have now extended it indefinitely and it's spreading to other hospitals. It's one of the best things I've ever been involved with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tightloop Posted July 29, 2004 Share Posted July 29, 2004 I am sure they appreciated your help ..... they'll miss you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidwiz Posted July 29, 2004 Share Posted July 29, 2004 My father's church has been delivering donated bears (stuffed, not live) to about 6 area hospitals for at least the past 5 years during Christmas. It's pretty sad to see people in the hospital, more so children, especially on Christmas, but they seem to brighten up when they get a bear. I think last Christmas we handed out close to 500 bears. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiG Lady Posted July 29, 2004 Share Posted July 29, 2004 80,000 bears....... my God..... that's a lot of, well, kindness......! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidwiz Posted July 29, 2004 Share Posted July 29, 2004 Not quite that many. The first year we handed out maybe 200 or so in total, and added maybe 50 bears each year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
short_round Posted July 29, 2004 Share Posted July 29, 2004 Unfortunately volunteering seems to be a past time for the older generation. If you have the time make it part of your life. I don't think I'm part of the older generation yet but I get out and volunteer whenever I can. I prefer the Habitat for Humanity type projects. I had to skip shooting one saturday to work on one project with my alumni association. Another shooter of my generation asked what I was doing instead of shooting that day. When I told him "community service" he asked what I had gotten in trouble for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vince Pinto Posted July 29, 2004 Share Posted July 29, 2004 Today is my last day volunteering at the hospital here in St. Paul. Hey Denise, Read your tagline. It might be your last day at the hospital in St. Paul, but this means you'll just have more time for your duties as a Nurse at the IPSC Centre for Mentally Battered ROs. Now quit wasting time and give Arnie his damned sponge bath Jokes aside, volunteer work is extremely fufilling. I'm a Past President of my Rotary Club (much younger age group than you usually get in the US), and we've done some incredibly satisfying stuff over the past 15 years. It doesn't matter whether we're raising money to pay for cleft lip surgery for kids in the Philippines, or painting the homes of the elderly or putting on shows for the mentally handicapped, or building schools in China, nothing will touch your heart more than a smile on the face of a beneficiary. Find something new to do. There are just never enough volunteers to go around, and somebody, somewhere needs you (besides Arnie). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hoser Posted July 29, 2004 Share Posted July 29, 2004 It might be your last day at the hospital in St. Paul, but this means you'll just have more time for your duties as a Nurse at the IPSC Centre for Mentally Battered ROs. Now quit wasting time and give Arnie his damned sponge bath Yeah, what Vince said, Denise! I want my sponge bath. There are just never enough volunteers to go around, and somebody, somewhere needs you (besides Arnie). That may be so, Vinnie, but I need her a lot. Arnie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiG Lady Posted July 29, 2004 Share Posted July 29, 2004 Rotary International here in Eugene (several chapters) has done countless things for the community and has raised countless dollars as well. Each fall they do the "Rotary Duck Race" where they sell small rubber ducks for $5 each, pile them into a huge dumpster, lift it over the Willamette River (near a major public park) (dumpster, crane and labor fully donated) and let them go float about one mile down the river to the main city corridor bridge. They fish about about five to ten of the first ducks to funnel their way thru the awards trap at the end of the route and hand out ritzy prizes to those. Then they spend six months cleaning up what is usually about 50,000-60,000 rubber ducks off the riverbanks. I have pictures of the startup from two years ago. Awesome lots of ducks. Awesome crowd, usually, too. But it's usually one of the bigger fundraisers of the year here for Rotary. The Lane County Sheriff's Office is dwindling in paid staff but not in volunteers: There must be AT LEAST 400 volunteers connected in a big way to the LCSO. Virtually ALL (but one) of the Search and Rescue staff (over 150 people) is volunteer. Yes, we use the agency boats, helicopters and our paid pilots for certain operations, but the folks with the jeeps, the all-terrain stuff and the horses and the dogs--all are trained volunteers using their own livestock and their own rolling stock. And they go thru a year or so of rigorous training before they even get put ON the staff of S&R. There are zillions of volunteers at our hospitals, public entertainment events, sports events, etc. There are zillions more who work inside the school system. There are many more who volunteer in adult literacy programs, domestic abuse programs... not to mention the doctors and all who volunteer to see low-income patients at clinics that specialize in that sort of treatment. And they're good people. I've been there a time or two in the past. There's no END of volunteer opportunities in any community. Your local newspaper may list some regularly, and your chamber of commerce may have lists of volunteer opportunities. Heck, even the chamber will accept you as a volunteer (they love freebies) for their events and stuff. No one can call you a slacker if you're a volunteer. And it looks good on a resume. And it offers experience. And it even offers spiritual credit that no one can take away from you. It's a win-win. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vince Pinto Posted July 29, 2004 Share Posted July 29, 2004 (Apologies to Denise for temporarily hijacking her thread) SigLady, it's a small world. I'm ashamed to say I've forgotten her surname, but the person who inspired me to become a Webmaster (initially for my Rotary Club, but later for my own company), was a wonderfully helpful lady called Beth from one of the Rotary Clubs in Eugene (but I forget which one - God I'm feeling old today) Anyway, waaaay back in the dim, dark ages (circa 1996!), Nice Lady Beth From Eugene helped dozens, possibly hundreds, of aspiring Webbies like me around the world grasp the intricacies of HTML and web publishing, and she provided us all with loads of useful information, downloads and what-nots. I actually wanted to look her up on my last (and only) visit to Oregon, but I didn't have enough time, because the reason I went to Oregon was to meet some IPSC shooters who wanted to hurt me. And they did. For dinner, we had pizza with pineapple but without anchovies!! YUK! I should've invoked my 8th Amendment rights, but I was outnumbered (Apologies AGAIN to Denise for temporarily hijacking her thread) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiG Lady Posted July 29, 2004 Share Posted July 29, 2004 <temporary hijack in progress> jesusmaryandjoseph, don't get me started on pizza with pineapple!!! Same as chocolate syrup on steak. Maybe worse. [insert barfing emoticon here] VInce-- Maybe if you had the chapter name (I could dig them all up somehow if you felt you needed to pursue this), the lady's name could be dug up in some way, I'm sure. Up to you. <temporary hijack concluded> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
short_round Posted July 29, 2004 Share Posted July 29, 2004 <temporary hijack in progress>jesusmaryandjoseph, don't get me started on pizza with pineapple!!! Same as chocolate syrup on steak. Maybe worse. [insert barfing emoticon here] <temporary hijack concluded> <temporary hijack continued> How about french fries dipped in a strawberry shake? <temporary hijack concluded ... again> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiG Lady Posted July 29, 2004 Share Posted July 29, 2004 <indulgent-but-temporary hijack revisited> It all adds up to about the same bad taste (literally and figuratively)!!! [puking icon again] <indulgent-but-temporary hijack concluded> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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