Serving Our Community

588 Words3 Pages
"SERVING OUR COMMUNITY" Oh what a feeling! The feeling of giving back, of being needed, appreciated, and valued by our peers and the community. Rather it is through volunteering or community service, the feeling can be from enthusiastic too downright dreadful. Depending on how a person looks at the situation, service to our community has it’s good as well as it’s pitfalls. In today’s pluralistic society, volunteering has taken on a sense of pride. Remember the “Candy Striper?” The pink and white striped dress with the white smock is what made me as a child want to be a volunteer at the nursing home that my mother worked at. Volunteering is the epitome of giving. Giving of one’s time, wisdom, and expertise to someone or some enterprise in need. When a person volunteers, some of the advantages are being able to choice your own days and hours, work experience and knowledge of perhaps a new career, but most of all the satisfying feeling of giving back to our communities. Maybe you have decided to volunteer at your local community college because you are on the alumni. Tutoring, answering the telephones, or working in the cafeteria. Your choice is independent of any outside influences, thus you’re doing your part to contribute to an organization in need of your skills. Some of the major pitfalls of volunteerism are; not being paid a salary, although you may be compensated with gas and a free meal. At times the work load can be time consuming and feel like real work, and the inconvenience of being finger printed, drug tested, and having a criminal background check performed before you can start. Community service takes on a totally different meaning of service due to the fact that it is usually assigned to a person and is not in anticipation of any reward. A lot of
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