Volunteer Work

I have done my share of volunteer work in my life. I’d even go so far as to say that if everyone put in the same hours of volunteer work that I have, the world would be a better place. I had years when my volunteer activities were a 20-hour-a-week part time job. I believe volunteering strengthens communities. I wasn’t working for pay anywhere, so I had time. Or perhaps I should say I had enough time for that. Looking back I think a full time job would have killed me. I was lucky that we could live on my husband’s salary alone.

My first free work was as Landscape Chair and then member of the Board of Directors in the townhouse complex we lived in from 1984 – 94 in San Diego. Or was it doing interviews for MIT of prospective students? It wasn’t long before I was the soccer team manager and helping out in classrooms. 1995 – 2003 in Maryland, as my kids got older, I continued helping out their soccer teams, and did a lot of volunteer work for the high school band.

In Maryland I also did a lot of essentially disability activism. I didn’t chain myself to the steps of a courthouse building, waving signs about equal rights, but I did work on several committees – some of which actually did change buildings and legislation. I was Chairperson of the Howard County Access committee, a group that the county building department would send architectural plans to for review before making accessibility changes. It wasn’t a huge county like San Diego, but we had libraries, senior centers, community buildings and a community college doing renovations that needed advice. Private groups would come to us from time to time. We were good!

I was also on a couple of state level committees, some were more productive than others. My favorite was one created to change the parking placard laws, and it involved writing legislation, getting senators and congressmen to vote for it, speaking at committee hearings etc. And we were successful.

I like running meetings – setting agendas, sending out notifications, controlling the conversation, writing up summaries and action lists. I feel like I can use some of the skills I learned years ago as a psych grad student intern , to be sure everyone has a voice, and everyone is heard. Oh, there’s always someone in the group who doesn’t quite go by the “rules”, but I didn’t have trouble cutting them off in a dignified way. In general, people want someone to take charge and run things orderly.

So, when I moved to San Diego in late 2004, not having many friends here anymore, I thought I might find some volunteer work to keep me busy and to meet more people. But it wasn’t so easy. In a way, I felt burned out for disability activism, and wanted something different. No kids in school anymore, no opportunities there. I thought about causes I support like Habitat for Humanity, and Meals on Wheels, but the work they want is more physical than I can do. In the end the place I felt the most attached to was the Humane Society, so I’ve been doing some volunteer work for them now for the past 2 or so years.

If you are local, or visiting San Diego, you should check out the San Diego Humane Society on Gaines St. It has got to be a model for the rest of the country. Owing to some generous gift, they have a beautiful campus, with a dozen little glassed in rooms for no more than 4 cats each, filled with furniture and soft bedding, and climbing structures (and even more space for dogs). They will not put a pet to sleep unless they truly are unadoptable, and it is not unusual for them to have pets there for a year waiting. They only take in pets that are relinquished by the owner, not strays. We’ve gotten all 4 of our cats there, and 2 of them were not cats that were easy to find homes for. One has a heart problem and needs daily medication, and his brother sprays his pee. The Humane Society was incredibly helpful and supportive, and I have thought I’d like to give something back – so chose them to do some volunteer work.

Volunteering there has been a little less satisfying though. I wish I could just sit in the rooms with the cats and give them petting time, but I can’t get in and out without someone escaping, and there is barely enough room in there for a regular chair let alone a wheelchair. The best plan is to sit on the floor. I would have liked taking the kittens to Petco on Saturdays to convince shoppers to adopt, but you need to ride in their van and set up cages. So, I volunteered to help out in the development office, where the paperwork gets processed. And every so often, when there’s a large amount of work, most often related to a fundraiser coming up, they put a call out for extra hands to make calls, count money or stuff envelopes.

And that is where I was this afternoon for 3 hours, counting money collected last Saturday at their Walk-a-thon fundraiser. I was told all together they brought in about $300,000, which is pretty good. And all day today people were counting coins, and dollar bills and $20s. One envelope alone had $2000 in it, but many had nothing because their donations were online and those will be counted separately. Checks are added up tomorrow. It’s a big production, and I’m pleased to help out.

I recognize several women (it is usually women at these things) and have even learned a few names. But the nature of the events - holding in your head how many $1 bills you just put in a pile, or adding up as you go a lot of loose change, doesn’t lend itself to much conversation. And these events are only a couple of times a year, so I haven’t really made any friends. When they have the Telethon fundraiser, I’m one of those in the back room who calls the donor when their credit card won’t get processed! You know – someone calls in, pledges X to their credit card, it is taken back to the person who runs the card number. When it fails, someone calls the donor to see what happened. Usually one of the digits was written wrong, once in a while the donor is surprised and even embarrassed. There’s more to the process than this, gifts to be chosen and mailed, competition and matching gifts to tally. Suffice it to say, it’s a long day of steady work with numbers, and free lunch, and later - dinner out because I’m exhausted!

I like to help, and I really believe in what the Humane Society does. I am still grateful that they are there, and know that if I called today, years after we adopted the cats, they would still see if they could help solve a problem. But each time I go, like today, I feel that I wish there was something I could do more directly for the cats.

And from time to time, I wonder if maybe there might be another volunteer project that would be a better fit for me, I just don’t know what right now.