Are You Free?

Since I do not have a ton of money to go around, I find myself giving more and more of my time. This is a concept lost completely on those even just 10 years younger than I - simply put by many who do volunteer: "They don't know what they're missing!"
When you give your time for volunteering, you give yourself, your heart, your passion, your enthusiasm, and you can get back so much more than a receipt in the mail.This past weekend was DOOR OPEN HAMILTON - the fruits of my labour. I sat on a small committee, as the volunteer co-ordinator, trying to make a difference in the minds of many, about the importance of history and architecture in my city. Though we were up in visitor numbers (a great leap of %54!), we had no more volunteers to place at the 45 sites we had now expanded to, than we did when we had 35 sites or less in past years.
I took some time in my travels from site to site to listen to 'my volunteers', many of whom made an effort to attend our training event in advance of the weekends festivities. On the day of, some were overwhelmed, some were excited, and some just didn't show up to perform the 'job' they had committed to.
Perhaps that is where is lacks - they want to get something back from it, but don't see all the great benefits that can happen along the way. Many of the volunteers who didn't show were students who are in need of their mandatory volunteer hours to graduate high school. If they had any concept of how little time 40 hours really is, they could have easily met the requirements of graduation with just 10 hours each year in school. Knowing that many of the high school students are also working part-time jobs, making it difficult for them to find time to volunteer, we are an easy target. Do these students expect glowing reports to their guidance cousellors regardless of their attendance? Do they expect that we wouldn't notice an entire person missing from our contingent?
I also took time this weekend to speak with members of the Lady Hamilton club, posted at the Tourism Hamilton downtown office. They are retired, have great stories, extremely friendly, connect with the community of a daily basis, and have many new friends found through the avenues of volunteering.
The down side I can see to volunteering is the eventual 'over-involvement' it creates- once you say "yes", it's hard to remember how to say "no", and before your know it, you are committed (in more ways than one)! This leads to burn-out, and general depression with the system and people around us. If more people actively volunteer for 40 hours each year, we can all have more tie to do the things we enjoy.
A wise person (co-worker Brian Kelly) also told me, "If you are always working for free, pretty soon people will think that's the value of your work." It's awfully hard to change a mind of someone who you have been volunteering for, from free to $$...
Where is it being lost on the youth of today, that volunteering can be so rewarding? Is demanding 40 hours from our students enough? Should it start younger than grade 9? How much of this learned behaviour? Where did I first realize that giving of your time is as valuable, if not more, than give of your money? How can we help everyone to see that volunteering can benefit each and every human, animal, and plant on this earth?
If you want to volunteer or learn more about the benefits of doing so, check out:
www.volunteerhamilton.on.ca
www.volunteer.ca
www.givingandvolunteering.ca
www.canadiancareers.com/volunteering.html