Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.
~ Desmond Tutu
When people move into town one of the things we encourage them to do is to “get involved” in the community, often by volunteering with one of our many special district or nonprofit organizations. Last weekend’s Septemberfest celebration in Rangely and this week’s Meeker Classic Sheepdog Championship Trials are perfect examples of the power, purpose and positive results generated by volunteers. When people volunteer, either out of the goodness of their heart or in exchange for some intangible perk, they become the engine that drives events and programs that contribute to the common good.
One definition for the act of volunteering reads like this: “To choose to act in recognition of a need, with an attitude of social responsibility and without concern for monetary profit, going beyond one’s basic obligations.” (By the People: A History of Americans as Volunteers by Susan J. Ellis and Katherine H. Campbell.)
Ironically, our “pay to play” system (I may be permanently scarred by hearing a lobbyist describe our modern American government that way) is dependent on volunteers for everything from festivals to natural disaster relief. America, for all it’s noisy hollering about capitalism, has a history of volunteerism that extends all the way to the nation’s deepest roots.
In 1736, Benjamin Franklin started the first volunteer fire department in Philadelphia. In times of war Americans have volunteered as nurse’s aides. During the Great Depression, Americans stepped up to serve at soup kitchens that fed the poor. Folks volunteer to read books to kids, play ball with underprivileged youth, and walk dogs at shelters. Volunteering in America, and around the world, is limited only by one’s imagination. Even grabbing a bag and picking up trash on a walk is volunteering.
Maybe, and I’ll just throw this out there as a wild idea, instead of our government officials getting paid massive amounts of taxpayer money with lifetime benefits and spending billions of dollars on campaigns, maybe we should go to a volunteer system. Think of what a fiscally conservative decision that would be!
By NIKI TURNER – editor@editorht1885.com
