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What I Love About Being a Volunteer - Kathryn Jurik

"I’ve been here at the Center for a while. I’ve been doing my kind of praying/playing in this building for at least 45 years. I skated here almost nightly up until a month or so before my first was born. But that’s not why I volunteer. I volunteer for lots of reasons, and the reasons have changed through the years. I’m just going to make a list of some of my motivations for volunteering.

1.     To get out of the house

2.     To be with positive people

3.     Because no one would pay me to do what I want to do

4.     I’ve volunteered because I’ve thought I was the only person who could do the job ‘right’

5.     I volunteer because I get to be creative

6.     I volunteer because I have time and I like to contribute

7.     Doing is one of my specialties

8.     Planning is another one

9.     I have achieved all I need through the grace of others going beyond their ‘paid employment’ to offer me a hand when I was down, so now I feel like I have a moral obligation to extend my hand and heart when I can

10.  I like to play

11.  Community working and playing together is just satisfying

12.  I have made lifelong friends and connections through volunteering as a member of the Center

Finally, the hardest part of volunteering is stopping. Sometimes, even when you love volunteering in a public and overt way, you may have to reassess and return to not volunteering. You may have to return to the house and let all the positivity you stockpiled while volunteering carry you for a while. This is called the Law of the Circulation of Volunteering."

Kathryn Jurik

Comments

  1. AnonymousDecember 9, 2022 at 10:37 AM

    Kathryn Jurik, I love your list of why you volunteer, especially doing is one of my specialties and I like to play.

    ReplyDelete

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