You never know

star gazer

It could happen today, it could happen tommorrow, it may never happen, you never know when you might need the helping hand of a volunteer who is giving freely of her/his time to make a difference to your life. Whether it be a lifegaurd dragging you from water or a man giving you soup when your life has fallen apart. It doesn't take that much to do something for money, but when the deciding factor is your community spirit, there is something special about what statement that makes.

Sometimes it can be someone that is going through what once afflicted you like Alcoholics Anonymous where a forum is created to talk about the things that aren't talked about in 'respectable' company; human frailty and how bad things can get. Maybe it's simpler to paper over the cracks in society, but in the long run it simply means that people will suffer in silence and that really those problems are the State's responsibility. It's not always easy doing something for nothing as we are taught to a certain degree to measure things in financial terms, but there are benefits to helping out your fellow human beings.

Contributing to society is not a responsibility, it is a reality. We all live in Irish society, if we choose to go through life day by day walking by the problems that we see then we contribute to the sweeping under the carpet of our society's problems. If on the other hand we can finally bring ourselves to set aside some time to contribute to volunteerism in Ireland, then maybe we can make a difference. You never know when that difference will help you out in a boomerang affect, wouldn't that be ironic

SantaHoe

Originally posted by star gazer
Contributing to society is not a responsibility, it is a reality.

Well with the greatest of respect, the reality for most people is working 40+ hours a week to keep yourself (and maybe your family) alive... economic reality shouts louder I think.
And I'd think 'contributing' consists of paying taxes.
I guess the mainstream thinking is that - "I pay through the nose for everything I have, why should I work for free?"... I envy anyone who has the time, money and energy to volunteer for something full-time I really do.
Maybe if these charities and various organizations received proper funding - volunteerism would be a non-issue.
I'd rather see my taxes being put into these essential organisations rather than sports or government jets, but that's democracy for you...

star gazer

originally posted by Santahoe
Well with the greatest of respect, the reality for most people is working 40+ hours a week to keep yourself (and maybe your family) alive... economic reality shouts louder I think..

Absolutely, putting bread on the table is the top priority for anyone. All i'm saying is that a couple hours a week can make a difference to the community. It does take that extra effort to

Maybe if these charities and various organizations received proper funding - volunteerism would be a non-issue.

The economic rate of paying carers and other volunteers would shoot up taxes quite a bit. The baby-sitting grand mother or the carer for an elderly parent do a job that they could and maybe even should get paid for but usually don't.

I know volunteering for one person on his/her own is like working for free but my central point is that is everyone who can gives a couple of hours a week, it can end up benefiting themselves or their family when someone else volunteers to help out in another way. Money can't always buy a sense of community.