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Articles
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| Locals find peace and perspective through volunteering |
VOICE writes, "By CAROL ABERNATHY
Current Correspondent
In the mad scramble of the holidays, many locals find peace and perspective through volunteering their time and talents to one of many charitable organizations in the D.C. area. That serenity must be a hot holiday commodity this year; many volunteer coordinators are finding that their significant holiday demand for volunteers has been met.
"I can't believe I'm able to say that!" said Matt Siemer of Bread for the City, a nonprofit group that provides food as well as medical and other services to locals in need.
Doesn't that make us feel better? Everything's taken care of, all's well that ends well and our thoughts turn to the next ritual on the calendar of self-improvement: a New Year's resolution.
This year, why not commit to a resolution that will be more fulfilling than a diet, more relaxing (and cheaper) than that hip yoga-cum-Pilates-cum-tai chi class, and more enduring than, well, other New Year's resolutions? Why not volunteer on a regular schedule?
Volunteers are rarely as thick on the ground as during the holidays, but it is often a sustained engagement with an organization that offers the greatest rewards. "We have people that have been with us for years, and we're just so appreciative of them," said Courtney Arnold, program director for Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic, which records material for students in particular and all who cannot access the written word."
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Following, therefore, is a tiny sample of opportunities designed to take the one-day volunteer out of his comfort zone. Keep your particular skills in mind when choosing, and remember that it's OK to be a selfish volunteer: use these opportunities to make new friends, explore a new area of the city or practice that new stand-up routine -- just keep it clean, please.
• Shantal Williams of the Washington Center for Aging Services needs volunteers to visit residents of its long-term care facility in Northeast Washington. Entertainers are welcome, as are those who have pets that are suitable to visit residents. Call 202-541-6269.
• Bread for the City has openings for intake positions. "These are people who volunteer to sit down with clients one-on-one and explain to them the different ways that Bread for the City's programs can help them," Siemer explained. Visit breadforthecity.org or request a volunteer application by calling 202-386-7606.
• Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic needs volunteers to make recordings. For information and upcoming training sessions, call 202-244-8990. "We ask for a commitment of six months to one year," noted Arnold.
• Food & Friends needs help delivering meals Monday through Saturday to clients who are living with HIV/AIDS, cancer and other long-term illnesses. Drivers must have a vehicle. Contact Don Pitz at dpitz@foodandfriends.org for more information.
• Covenant House Washington -- perhaps the only nonprofit in the District seeking both woodworkers and law students -- needs those skills and more for its wide array of instructional programs to help at-risk teenagers and young adults. Call 202-610-9630 or visit covenanthousedc.org.
• Horton's Kids needs volunteers who want to lounge in the halls of power while doing a good deed. Sign up to tutor kids from Anacostia in the Rayburn House Office Building on Tuesday nights. Visit hortonskids.org/volunteering.html for information on orientation sessions or call Brenda Kvernen at 202-262-2590.
• The Alzheimer's Family Day Center needs volunteers to visit participants or help with office work. Particularly welcome are entertainers: "We've had pet therapists, musicians ... . We recently had one young lady come and do origami," said Tori Adams at the center. Contact her at 703-204-4664 or tori.adams@alzheimersfdc.org.
For those who can offer specific skills -- grant writing, for example, or tutoring in advanced physics -- the Internet helps to match those abilities with nonprofit organizations in need. Try volunteermatch.org or dc-cares.org.
Go on, give it a year -- or even six months. Connecting with the city and its residents in a new way will do far more for your self-esteem than will any treadmill. A year of volunteer work, moreover, offers a guilt-free holiday next winter. Such charitable derring-do is particularly handy when hit up by co-workers for ever more communal gifts, or pressed to take just one more shift at the mall's charity gift-wrapping table, or browbeaten to bake just five-dozen more cupcakes for the office holiday party. The volunteer, rather, is impervious to these holiday manipulations, confident in his record of helping fellow Washingtonians -- all year long.
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Posted on Dec 23, 2007 19:23pm.
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