If you volunteer and you like it, tell me about it

[Anonymous]

Looking for some satisfying volunteer work.

Tell me about your experience. Don't want to hear that "X and Such" is looking for volunteers or I can go to Volunteer Match.

[Anonymous]

What are you good at or enjoy doing? I have enjoyed sorting cans at the food shelter, giving pro bono leadership coaching sessions, and helping out at my kids school. I love building our community.

[Anonymous]

Two volunteer things I’ve enjoyed:

1. Free breakfast program: this was a my church but I’m sure there are secular options, too. Basically, I arrived at 5am on Sunday, helped cook a massive amount of breakfast food (I mostly did the pancakes), then helped serve them to anyone who showed up. We usually fed about 30-50 local people and finished cleaning the kitchen around 10. The program organizers both were retired from commercial kitchens so it was a very well run and pleasant organization.

2. Black girls code: teaching kids to program — I like coding and I like kids and I like teaching so this was great fun. It was a daylong commitment when I did it.

Those were my preferences; as others have said, it really depends what you like doing.

[Anonymous]

I like volunteering at my kids school but I’m not actually in charge of anything. Like next week is teacher appreciation and they need someone to go take a snack cart around one day and set up a lunch a different day. If it’s my day off I like doing that.
I also do the food pantry at our Church. It’s every month and spans 3 days total. From food bank dropping off, putting food into bags, giving bags out. My 11yo helps me with this one too.

[Anonymous]

Tutoring at local school

[Anonymous]

KindSoup

[Anonymous]

Citizen's Climate Lobby
There are lot of ways to help and you can pick what you like. (Lobbying, community outreach, helping run the chapter, etc)

[Anonymous]

I have volunteered for my kids activities. This means:
-timing at swim meets
-field Marshall for soccer tournaments and similar for basketball tournaments
-kid wrangler backstage at dance recitals
Also, as a family we have:
-packed boxes and sorted food at Manna
-made muffins, snack bags, and sandwiches for So Others Might Eat
-participated in a clean up day at a local park twice a year

[Anonymous]

College mentor for a high school student. I work with one student a year starting in either junior year or early senior year to help them with the college application process and generally getting through the end of high school and figuring out what's next. This is with a program at a low income housing community in my area.

I like that's it's generally a 1-on-1 relationship, can control when we meet, and feel like I can really help.

[Anonymous]

I volunteer in activities that I'm already good at. I serve as the editor of our community newsletter.

[Anonymous]

My Church changed the name of “Sunday school teacher” to “faith formation mentor.”

Teaching is really fun and satisfying, especially when the kids come back to you years later and tell you how much they learned or how much they like the class.

[Anonymous]

I volunteer teaching ESL at Hogar Hispano. I like it for the most part. I've enjoyed most of my students and their English language skills have improved considerably, for the most part. However, some classes have connected better and had a better vibe than others (most recently, I had a male student who was always speaking over and cutting off female students, that sucked and was stressful to moderate). But you can't control those factors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I like volunteering at my kids school but I’m not actually in charge of anything. Like next week is teacher appreciation and they need someone to go take a snack cart around one day and set up a lunch a different day. If it’s my day off I like doing that.
I also do the food pantry at our Church. It’s every month and spans 3 days total. From food bank dropping off, putting food into bags, giving bags out. My 11yo helps me with this one too.

This is the type of thing I like. I don't love running things, but I love doing hands-on tasks.

[Anonymous]

I like doing volunteer tax prep. The other volunteers are smart and kind, it's interesting work, and it doesn't linger -- I talk to the person, do their taxes, they leave, and I don't have to keep thinking about it. I also like donating blood --very important, but doesn't take too long and can be scheduled and there are snacks after!

[Anonymous]

I volunteer for various kid-related activities but outside of that, I like volunteering at a therapy horse organization.

I don't have contact with the students receiving the therapy, although I could and there are plenty volunteers for that, but instead I focus on the horses. I have a standard shift of every Sunday morning going and feeding the herd and cleaning stalls and their lots. If we do it right, it takes 1.5 hours. The volunteers that I work with are awesome. It's mostly outside and it's chill. My teen comes with me and has his own separate duties. Sure, it involves some shoveling of poop but I wear rubber boots and just muck in.