Community Service
Generally I don’t blog about work, that’s just one of my rules. Not because I’m embarrassed about my job, not at all; I love it! But because I think it’s irrelevant what kind of work I do and where I work at. But for now I’m making an exception to this rule; albeit without mentioning the name of my employer.
Every year my work organises a day to get us to volunteer for community work. Last year, I was involved in gathering food for a local food bank. Which was a lot of fun to do, and it made for good discussions with the people I met on the streets. Some where really encouraged by the idea of buying a simple thing such as a can of soup and donating it, that they came out of the store with small toys for kids and baby products. Even though those products weren’t on the lists, they really helped a lot. After all that stuff is also needed by people who are depending on the food banks. Others didn’t feel inclined to help out, they have that right of course and I respect their decision. But most of the people showed surprise about the need and dependency on food banks. They had no idea this was going on in their community.
It’s a big misconception that food banks are only used by people who don’t have jobs. Whether they want to work or not. It’s generally used by families who have a hard time getting by each month, even though they work and try to support their family. I’m not saying there aren’t any people abusing this system; there will always be people abusing systems but for the most part it’s used by people that genuinely need the help.
So when this year’s community work day came up, I decided to help again. I had a choice of what I wanted to do this year; paint the walls of a floor in an elderly home in another state or help out again with the food bank. Because doing something for the community I live in appeals to me more; I’ll be helping out with the food bank again, along with some of my colleagues.
I’m sure it’s going to be fun doing it and hopefully we’ll get even more food in than we did last year! I think it’s great that you can do something back for your community by just spending a few hours of free time helping out.
7 Comments on "Community Service"
I think its great that your workplace does that – it opens up the eyes of a lot of people at the same time, I suppose… and it’s always easier to do community service when you have buddies, rather than trying to step out alone. 
it’s always fun running into another Dutchie on the web! nice blog…
i once helped out with a charity event my company organised and had so much fun! it’s nice to get involved with these type of things…
Last year my school participated (as they always do so near Thanksgiving) in raising food for the local food bank. We used a movie with the admission being a donated can and a prize (Blockbuster Movie Gift Certificate) going to the one person who brought in the most cans. Everybody got really into it. Maybe you guys can arrange something similar.
I think it is awesome that your employer encourages things like this.
I am sorry, I don’t know why I haven’t been here before. I love your site design. I adore butterflies, lol.
Have fun helping at the food bank. I give every month to ours, but every time I try to help out, I just wind up sobbing my eyes out so they told me to just donate the food. Oh, I hate being tenderhearted some times.
I’ve never done any extensive volunteer work, at least not in the community. Extracurriculars and schoolwork in general really eat up a lot of free time. It’s always something I’ve wanted to do, but never found a real drive.
It’s good that your work has this day. Not only are you helping those who need it a lot, but also the hard workers who are there every day helping these families.
Wow, that’s really awesome- your company sounds cool and it’s great they’re dedicated to the community, and overall, sounds like a really rewarding experience
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That’s great.
I feel so horrible as a human being sometimes because I have never voluntarily volunteered before (that’s silly right, but they’ve all been for school or whatnot).
I think I just haven’t found the kind of community service project that really speaks to me. I’d like to get involved with the ACLU or some other type of human rights organization…