Alternative Posting

I wrote a blog for today on Friday. It is/was heartfelt and was to announce a shift in how I spend my time. But last minute events have altered possible outcomes. Here are the events.

Saturday morning I exhibited for SCORE at a community volunteer fair in a nearby suburb. Thirty organizations spent the morning recruiting new volunteers and learning a lot about other groups and their missions. Some of those exhibitors joined the volunteer corps of some of the other exhibitors! The room was abuzz all morning for three straight hours. The environment was intoxicating. All that human power. All that interest. And the energy to share the power and interest with others.

That’s what volunteerism is all about. It is intoxicating. It is empowering. At least I think so.

That morning demonstrated how other communities than mine are helping each other in ways that we do not.  Suicide prevention services (very professional and far reaching regionally), senior housing alternatives services (keeping a special demographic living in our midst), household services help (helping people remain in their homes when doing so is difficult – think changing light bulbs and smoke detector batteries!), services for court appointed guardians of children, emergency housing for the homeless and transition help to self sufficiency. All of these were needs and services we could use in our town but don’t. And our community prides itself on volunteerism!

Sunday I met with the music ministry task force of our church as we struggle with transitioning to a music program that will suffer the loss of two movers and shakers, both volunteers, as they retire and move out of the area. An all volunteer music program will need to find new volunteers to rejuvenate the music ministry at the church. I know we can do it but finding the confidence among our talented church members will be the more difficult task.

It strikes me that volunteerism is a major asset of any society. It takes humility to admit we have needs in our communities. It takes humility to recognize we cannot pay for professional help in all cases. We have to ask others for help. And it takes humility to try to help when we are not at all certain we are capable of doing a decent job.

It takes humility to make do. It takes humility to try and make a difference in the lives of others. And our own!

Stepping out and making something happen that’s good for the community takes courage. Doing so risks failure. Public failure. That’s why volunteering is both humbling and courageous at the same time.

Cities and towns – yours and mine – need to study their volunteer groups and assess their health and success. Which ones need more help? Does our community do enough to support volunteers in the first place? Do we celebrate them? Or do we mistrust their motives? Are we embarrassed that their presence means our community is somehow less successful? Or do we sense the generosity of their spirit in lending a helping hand to those who cannot do everything for themselves?

I lost a special friend recently. Annie O'Connor taught me that people living with disabilities are not takers or users within a community. Their physical handicaps are not self created. They are the victims of tragedy, accident, disease and circumstance. But victimhood goes only so far. Eventually they have to own their situation and move on.

Annie did. Along the way she needed help from her parents (she was 15 when she contracted a vicious form of rheumatoid arthritis that left her a quadriplegic). She got that help to the extent they had the funds to pay for it. Then it was her father’s insurance coverage that assisted in a large way. New York state welfare programs stepped in as well and federal programs eventually lent invaluable support.

Annie died at 81 after giving for over 50 years of her volunteer services to soup kitchens, church service programs and community organizing groups. She was a powerhouse of inspiration and energy. From a wheelchair/bed contraption she did her life’s work. For free. She did it because it was important to her that this work be done. She found the talent and spirit within her to propel an energy most of us would never know we had.

That’s a story to be told. Not a victim but a doer. A helper not a taker. A volunteer that makes a difference. A story of social programs that are a must for people like Annie, and pay huge dividends when we make sure they exist. For all the Annies and those with lesser problems but still just as debilitating.

These thoughts derailed the posting I had planned for today. Maybe I will be back to it tomorrow. Or just maybe I will choose an alternate path?

Stay tuned and see.

February 9, 2015