Volunteering is sure way to brighten up a dull life.
 |
| Volunteers play a key role in helping maintain the Cotton Tree cenotaph. |
People have myriad wants and needs, but chief among them is
a sense that they belong, they are connected to someone or something, they are
valued and important to the welfare of others. Volunteering answers those
needs.
Thoughts that people have a worthy purpose are not only
personally life-affirming, but through volunteering their community becomes a
better place.
Everything about volunteering is advantageous for both as the
volunteer benefits immeasurably and their efforts can change the lives of
others.
Modern life appears to be about “me, me, me” with
individualism being championed by many corporations and some governments who
camouflage the endless pursuit of profit and growth as democracy.
The idea that people must be beholden to and servant of the
economy has stripped people of the rich, important and intricate beliefs that
can be found again through volunteering.
Our need for a common purpose, the essence of volunteering,
and the sense of camaraderie inherent in groups has been exploited for
centuries by political parties, commercial operators and those in the military.
The power of volunteering and the potent sense of wellbeing
it brings to participants existed for all to see, and feel, at the recent 2014
Volunteer Recognition Awards in Shepparton’s McIntosh Centre.
Some 300 people gathered at the centre to hear who had been
recognised by the City of Greater Shepparton as being among the city’s best
volunteers.
The warmth and humility of these hard-working volunteers was
tangible and so thick in the air, it was almost possible to imbibe it,
suggesting that volunteerism is something that almost feeds upon itself.
An example of how the benefits volunteering brings to
communities can be seen at the Cotton Tree war memorial on Queensland’s
Sunshine Coast, which a decade ago was in rather sad disrepair – today it is wonderful.
A local retired fellow, know to all as “Prickles” and whose
father had died in the First World War, felt his dad deserved better and so
began volunteering his time to tidy the surrounds, making the cenotaph
something of which to be proud.
Prickles worked hard mowing the grass, creating some
flowerbeds and brightening up the precinct until a request to the local council
for some garden soil saw him caught in a bureaucratic controversy that, because
of public risk and similar matters, forced him to become an official, but
unpaid member of council’s staff.
Illness has forced “Prickles” into retirement and for the
past four or five years Michael Powell has trimmed the plants, mowed the grass
and generally kept the memorial tidy.
However, Michael is also stepping back a little and another
local volunteer Bill Shaw is to become the “keeper of the cenotaph”.
