VOLUNTEERING: MAKING A DIFFERENCE

Volunteering is a great way to give back to the community. It positively impacts the environment and the people around you. The importance of getting volunteer hours is not just for achieving the required hours for school, but it is for helping others. Helping others can create many benefits for students, such as making new friends and relationships. Giving back to the community not only builds it stronger, but it builds students stronger as people.

Many students struggle to find time to get volunteer hours, and some people do not know where to go to get these hours. Students can get volunteer hours in many different ways. Students can earn hours from helping others like tutoring or mowing their neighbor’s lawn. They also can earn hours doing their favorite hobbies: walking dogs, working at an animal shelter, visiting patients at a hospital or even being a score keeper at a basketball game. All these ways to get hours are easy and fun to do. Your local library or park, like the Mandel Public Library of West Palm Beach and Westgate Park and Recreation Center may have volunteer events for anyone who wants to join. There are always places that need people to help for volunteer work.

A great time to earn a lot of hours is during the summer because students have a lot of free time. Even though students might not want to use some of their summer time to do volunteer service, some places that provide hours can be quite fun. Since it is the summer, students can join summer volunteer programs. In these programs, students travel to different continents like Asia and Africa. While the students are on the trip, their project is to help the area that they are assigned. The projects can  include wildcare, teaching english, medical and healthcare, and wildfire. These summer volunteer opportunities are a great way to take advantage of your break. Volunteering might not be fun for some people, but it can be if they are focused on making it meaningful and enjoyable for themself.

Schools offer students many opportunities to get some hours. There are wide varieties of clubs that students can join which give volunteer hours. These clubs can make a big difference in the community if students give a hand. Not only does schools have clubs that give hours, but there are field trips that students can go on that can give hours. These field trips take students to places like a hospital to cheer up patients and make them smile, or maybe they are taken to a litter filled beach where they pick up trash. Either way students are helping the world become a better place. While students are getting their hours by cleaning or helping someone, they are making the community better. This is a win-win situation.

Ask family members, friends, neighbors and teachers for opportunities to get volunteer work. They can give you advice of where and how you can receive these hours. The more people you know the more connections you have. If you ask them, they can either give you volunteer work or suggest someone or someplace that can give you hours for community service.

Ultimately, getting volunteer hours not only benefits the community and the people around you, but it helps students. It builds their character and gives them experience that can help students in life. It also opens students eyes on how to make a difference in the world. Many people are encouraged by their actions to do better and follow in their footsteps.