~Kalynn Dobos
For the last two years Maddie and I have volunteered out time at a local animal rescue, FURR (Feline Urban Rescue and Rehabilitation). We go into Petco (where FURR cats are displayed) once or twice a week, and for about 45 minutes we clean cages, socialize with the animals, and make a difference in the lives of not only the animals that were abused, neglected, and strays, but in the people who adopt them. One of the directors named a small feral cat after Madeline because she was FURR's smallest volunteer. With everyone's help, including Maddie, Madeline the cat was rehabilitated, and now lives a pampered life with a family who loves her.
Maddie doesn't do the heavy work. I clean the litter, prepare all the food, drag away the garbage. She cleans the insides of the windows, puts the food in the cages, and loves them until they want to squirm away (get used to it cat, you might have come from a place with no love, but you're in for it now.)
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| Cleaning Emmy and Palmer's cubby |
On adoption day, each Saturday, she helps me set up cages that will display animals that come once a week from foster homes. I set up the cages, and Maddie prepared a little litter box for each, a water dish, and a blanket for them to sleep on. When people start to arrive to look at our cats, Maddie has no problem telling anyone and everyone how wonderful it is to have a cat. She'll also lay on the sob story. "Sugar's owner died and no one in the family wanted her." True story, but coming from an eight year old with a frowny face it's far more heart tugging.
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| Maddie with Emmy |
Why volunteer? Because you should. You need to teach your children that we're apart of this world and responsible for it. Social conscienceness is decidedly lacking in today's society.
Definition: Social Conscience: an attitude of sensitivity toward and sense of responsibility regarding injustice and problems in society..a knowledge or understanding of what is morally right in society.
If you want to find the right volunteer activity for your child, you need to decide what your child likes the most. Do they like animals? Do they like grandma and grandpa? Do they like other kids? Let them decide and you do the work finding something to match their interest. Here are two areas that are always desperate for help.
Animals
If
they like animals, volunteer opportunities exist with many rescue
operations. While not all children will be able to work directly in animal care, there are other options: volunteering during fundraisers,
helping to sell raffle tickets, and animal care if they are old enough.
Make sure if your child works for a shelter, you let them actually see
the animals they are helping. Go to adoption day. Encourage to learn
about the organization, and the process of helping these animals. In school, Maddie wrote a book called "Madeline's Rescue" about the feral cat she helped. The director of
FURR read it and was not surprised that Maddie wrote about FURR, but was surprised her was how completely and totally Maddie understood the
entire process for the minute we pick up a stray until the moment it goes to a
furrever home: pick up, vet check, spay or neuter, foster home placement and rehabilitation if necessary, adoption day event, adoptee application and approval, furrever home. That's a long process, and a lot of hard work that most people don't know about.
The Elderly
If
your children are comfortable around the elderly, every single long
term nursing facility will have a place for you and your child to
volunteer. Things such as passing out BINGO cards or letting the
residents read to them. Children, in no uncertain terms, enhance and
enrich the lives of the elderly, and in return enrich the lives of the
child. Some of the greatest conversations I've had with anyone were
with WWII vets. After striking up a conversation with a gentleman in McDonalds, I learned firsthand what the soldiers felt storming the beaches at Normandy (he survived the assault and went on into Germany with the Allied armies to help overthrow the Fuehrer). I feel privileged to learn from such a direct source, and was overcome with emotion when I thanked him for telling me. He thanked me for listening...and more importantly, he thanked me for being interested. The Greatest Generation is almost gone...don't let yourself, or your child, lose the opportunity to be a part of these people's lives before they are no more. These people are walking encylopedias and it is our responsibility to
care for those who cared for us. If you're very lucky, your child will
grown through the program and perhaps become a true working volunteer
when he/she is older enough (around 15-16).
Not sure what you want to do, or you are sure and don't know where to go? Take a look at "Volunteer Match." Volunteer Match takes in the criteria you give it and matches you to organizations that need your help. This is by far one of the best volunteering information sites I've come across in a long time.
This blog originates in the Lehigh Valley, PA region. The following links are mostly for this area. If you are out of this area, the first three links, plus Volunteer Match above, will be more apropos.
Please take a look at these links:
Lehigh County Volunteer List This is a VERY inclusive list!
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