Why should Teens Volunteer, Anyways?

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Nathalie Lussier

Nathalie Lussier is known as the Raw Foods Witch & helps people live an enchanted life by eating more raw food. I spook the fears of raw food away so you can enjoy the magick!

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You’re in high school and you might be lucky enough that you are already volunteering in one way or another. But what’s the big deal with volunteering, if everyone else is doing it too? Volunteering has so many advantages both for yourself and for your community and the people you are helping. Find out why you need to step up and help out, right now.

First of all, what counts as volunteering? Volunteering can be anything from offering to baby-sit your neighbor’s kids for a few hours, or from opening up your own soup kitchen for the homeless. Some more examples of great volunteer ideas are as follows:
-Visit the elderly who get very few visitors, when they are in a retirement home.
-Go to your local elementary school and help teach kids how to use computers, how to read, or just be a great role model who listens to them.
-Help out your local animal shelter to clean the animals, feed them and make sure they are in a good condition.
-Visit your local hospital and offer to chat with recovering patients who are lonely. You can also help out by signing up to work at a desk or to help with sorting of supplies.
-Go to your local youth center on a regular basis and provide younger kids with a great influence by talking to them about controversial issues like smoking, drugs and safe sex.
-Offer to serve food to the homeless at a local soup kitchen, and if your area does not have one, get your friends together and set one up.
-If you have any interesting hobbies, ask your teachers to let you start a club in your community to teach others about your passion. This can be about anything such as knitting or building model airplanes.
-Give back to your community by organizing a food drive, a bottle drive, or garbage pick up activities. Food drives are a great way to get your community to bond and to help those in need in the process. Getting a bunch of people to pick up the trash around your school, the local parks and play areas is a great way to spend your time! You help keep the environment safe for children and you make the earth greener.

Now all of these activities are great because they will make you feel so much better at the end of the day! You might think you’re busy with your classes, but an extra hour per week of visiting elders in their homes is not going to make a difference to your grades or your social life. Consider volunteering for the good of the community as well as for your own personal gains. Volunteer work can be placed on your resume and will reflect well on you when you apply to College or University. Managers who hire for paid work also look favorably on those people who have demonstrated a strong community spirit.

So the next time you’re about to sit down in front of the TV, even though you know there is nothing valuable playing, change your mind and go volunteer. Volunteering is easy and it doesn’t take that much time. You can of course make volunteering a bigger part of your life by making it a daily activity, or by encouraging others to volunteer with you. So enjoy the love and comfort that you can bring to your community and don’t forget to smile when people thank you for all of your hard work.