Do Good In Your Community

OK - I'll admit it - I'm a Server.  You know, the person everyone goes to if something needs to be done.  The person who can never say no.  I'm the one you see setting up before an event, and the person cleaning up after the event.  Well, you get the idea.  I volunteer.  A lot.

But in the organizations I volunteer with - especially the women's club I belong to (The General Federation of Women's Clubs - Bristol County Women's Club - GFWC-BCWC), I see fewer and fewer women stepping up and helping do those things in their communities that they know need to be done.  Feed the poor.  Help battered women.  Create book drives for under-privileged schools.  Raise money to help prevent child abuse here in RI.  Why is that?

I know it's not that women have lost their empathy.  I meet caring, empathetic women all the time.  And I know that women have the ability to help others.  I see strong, competent, useful women all over the state.  So what is it?

The answer going through your mind, I'll bet, is that no one has the time to help.  Everyone is so caught up in their own lives, with so many things pressing on their time, they just can't arrange things so that they can give time to help.  Well, that's the only answer I could come up with, too.

And here's my response to that answer.  Rethink your time. 

If you care about the people in your community, then you have it in your power to help them. 

How do you find the time?  Give yourself a social media moratorium one day a week.  Heck, even one day a month would do it.  Take that time you would be surfing the internet and do something that will make you proud of yourself.  That would make your mother proud. 

Don't know where to start? 

• Get 10 cans and boxes of food out of your pantry and take it to your local food bank (TAP IN is behind the Barrington Library). 
• Pull 10 books off your shelf and donate them to the library while you're over there giving TAP IN your cans.  Now you've helped 2 charities!
• If you're a woman, go to www.gfwcri.org and hook up with your local GFWC club.  They only meet once a month - and they do something for a different charity every single month.  One 3 hour meeting a month will get you 12 good works.  That's value for your time, don't you think?

Computers, smart phones, the internet - they can take over your life.  Don't let them.  Interact with your community - do some good in the world - make yourself proud.