Volunteerism Results in Being a Valued Community Member

Over the years I have found that the rewards of volunteering, whether it be for a non-profit charity, a sports organization or in the community, are many.

They extend far beyond the rush you get from helping others. I have found over time, many people may find themselves on both sides of a volunteer exchange.

For example, a senior may be a volunteer tutor at a local school and also benefit from volunteer transportation services during the winter months. My family volunteers a lot with many different endeavors, but when we needed assistance with our nephew’s liver transplant fundraising efforts a year ago, it was other volunteer organizations and community volunteers that came to our aid.

My thanks still goes out to the people who came rushing in to assist. This mutual assistance reinforced my great reasons to volunteer.

Volunteerism not only feels great, but a bunch of scientific research suggests, it actually improves a person's physical and psychological health.

"One of the best things we can do for our health is to learn to be more caring, compassionate and to act altruistically. Studies show that if you volunteer only once a week you can live a longer, more active life," says Stephen Post, director of the Center for Medical Humanities, Compassionate Care and Bioethics at Stony Brook University.

The effects of charitableness on mental health have been fairly well documented. Volunteering has also been shown to have a positive effect on people's mental state at any age. My son started his extreme volunteerism at age 12 as a pre-cursor for his Bar Mitzvah Project at East Meadow Jewish Center, an activity that the Jewish Center, as well as other area houses of worship, promotes with their members heavily today.

Volunteerism also serves as a way to keep older adults active in the community and prevents them from becoming socially isolated. It's thought that volunteerism also enhances older adults' sense of belonging, increases their sense of purpose and improves their perception of their own self-competence. I know that as I get older, and my family gets more independent, I relish the time spent helping those in need. They always vocalize their appreciation to me for my assistance.

Philanthropy and humanitarianism in any form don’t seem to come naturally to everyone. A select few individuals are clearly more inclined to reach out and involve themselves in charitable activities than others. Research seems to suggest that the proclivity may be, at least in part, genetic. Perhaps more important is a person's social environment, particularly when growing up.

Children, whose parents or mentors volunteer often, at an early age seems to be excited to follow in their footsteps. Over the years I have seen the ball boys and interns of the Long Island Lizards professional lacrosse team eagerly follow the coaches, management and staff into the fray of volunteering for an assortment of worthy charities.

It is the “Lead By Example” concept. The same goes for The East Meadow P.A.L. As former players get older they are asked to volunteer to teach the newbies and recruits, the skills that they learned years ago, which my son and his friends still relish in doing and demonstrating at clinics and camps.

Dipping into ones savings to make monetary donations at these difficult financial times is one thing. It must be a personal decision of what a person is willing to sacrifice, but to donate an item that one is no longer using is another. Donating your time and effort is also another. The later two are actually methods with minimal costs. This week I traveled to a home in Nassau County of a sweet lady, whose mother passed away at 90 years old, on New Year’s Day.  My heart went out to this dear lady, whose main concern was that needy elderly adults would get the wheelchair, walkers, canes, commodes, monitors and other medical equipment that her dear mom would never need again.

As I carried each item out the door, I couldn’t help thinking of the great helping hand that this woman was giving, by donating these important items to those in need. Yet she was kvelling (Yiddish word- meaning to overjoyed and verbally gush) over the fact that a couple of guys showed up to cart those items our her doors and onto the truck to see them on their merry way to the needy. Both Gary Hudes and Franklin Roosevelt refer to this as a win/win/win situation —one where everybody is happy and benefits.

A wise man once said, "I believe that a society cannot be truly successful with a mentality that every individual should only worry about themselves and in the end things will work out for the best. Community service is about building a stronger community whether on campus, in your neighborhood, city, state or any other type of community.” That person was my dad.