Volunteers

Most of us take volunteers for granted. When there's a community event, do you really notice the people who are taking tickets or directing traffic or cooking hot dogs? If you do, you might assume that it's a chef for hire in Toronto, but actually tit's a volunteer. Volunteers give their time and energy to causes they believe in, often for no reward or recognition at all. If you'd like to learn more about the place of volunteers in our communities and what they do for you every day, read on.

Because we live in a relatively well off society, we don't think of ourselves as needing charities. We think that charities are for helping people far away in Africa or South America, but the fact remains that a lot of the work local charities do goes into helping our own communities. People who are living on the edge of being able to support themselves know this and often when they finally do turn their lives around and get real estate jobs, they start putting their time and money into the charity that helped them.

Even if you don't have any money to donate to a cause you support, volunteers know that you can still make a difference just by donating your time. Charities cannot afford to pay staff to collect donations, do office work, create ads and brochures, deal with customers, assist those in need, or pick visiting dignitaries up in a Mississauga limousine. They have to rely on volunteers. Charities do such a wide variety of tasks and jobs that no matter where your skills lie there's always a charity that can use your assistance.

And it's not just charities that need volunteers, either. There are plenty of community groups, such as recreational sports leagues, clubs, and after school programs that don't have any money to hire staff. Instead they draw their coaches, organizers, referees, instructors and supervisors from the ranks of parents and other members of the community. You might think all your rich neighbor does is make money at his Toronto executive search firm, but if he coaches his daughter's soccer team or makes cookies for the school bake sale, he's a volunteer too.

You may be under the impression that you don't have time to volunteer, but that's not true. Even if you have a job and a family and a horse barn in London, Ontario to muck out, there's still an hour or so a week that you can use to help others. There are a lot of volunteers out there with busy home lives who make the effort anyway because they know they are needed. So if you see a volunteer, the least you can do is take a second to thank them for all they do.