Volunteering Inspiration

I spent a few hours at the Gillis Center this morning wrapping gifts for underprivileged families. The Center provides a great service as the exchange point for incoming donations and outgoing smiles (presents). I'll be the first to admit that my wrapping skills aren't the greatest, but a humble moment never presented itself since all of the families were so overjoyed to have something to give to their loved ones. This is something that I will plan to do for many seasons to come.

This would be a fun blog post if I simply left it at that, but there is much more to tell about my morning. I met a gentleman, a bit disadvantaged in life, but advantaged in other areas, so I was to learn. Towards the end of my time there, he began to frantically write on a piece of stationary once he'd heard that my dream was to become an author. I could tell that he wasn't thinking while writing; he was regurgitating words that he carried with him at all times.

Here they are...

"When is the most recent time I hear the word 'mental'
without the word mental being followed by the word 'illness'
the word 'mentally' without the word 'mentally'
being followed by the word 'ill' or 'retarded'

Mentally Polite Mentally Politely Polite Mentally
Mentally Rude Mentally Rudely Rude Mentally
Mentally Wise Mentally Wisely Wisely Mentally
Mentally Foolish Mentally Foolishly Foolishly Mentally
Mentally Honest Mentally Honestly Honestly Mentally
Mentally Deceiving Deceivingly Mentally Mentally Deceivingly

All people live with mental manners
People being mentally labeled mentally ill
will live with mental manners
in better manners mentally
with better mental manners
than many other persons mentally live
with mental manners mannered mentally."

There is much, much more, but I need to spend some time thinking about his longer writings before I share them with y'all. I'm thankful that he felt inclined to give me such a wonderful gift--unexpected compensation for the time that I'd volunteered.

My thoughts on volunteerism...

Good friend, Roger Craver, and his peer Tom Belford have posted my thoughts on seeking a metric for volunteerism that can be used to motivate people to do more, or at least do something.

Their blog, The Agitator, discusses the latest in donation trends.

My argument is...
It would seem that we really need a conversion factor; a coefficient of contribution, so to speak that allows us to convert dollars and hours, respectively, into another unit of philanthropic measure. How about the "DoneGood?"

Because Americans revel in the chance to collect points; we desire to be the top point collector. Non-profits could take advantage of this cultural premise in their own microcosm or there could be an over-arching reward zone that shows people all of the various opportunities to contribute.

If, for the rest of your life, you need to contribute 4000 hours, then we can multiple volunteer hours by hourly value to get total contribution needed: 4000 hours x $19.51/hour = $78,040 is what each needs to contribute.

With the 2007 life expectancy of an American at 78.1 years (CIA Factbook) and the median American of 36.7 (CIA Factbook, I couldn’t find a reliable mean age), then the average American has 41.4 years to contribute $78,040 of money+time.

For each year, one would have to contribute a combination of money and time that valued: $78,040 / 41.4 = $1885

If 100% volunteer time, that would amount to: $1885 / $19.51 per hr = 96.6 hours/year.

How much time have you put in?