Teaching the future generation …
Serving the Community
As I was driving by a church, recently, I saw a sign that said celebrate National Volunteer Week. With our economy and government stretched to the limit, people are finding new ways to fill in the gaps. One of those ways is a national movement encouraging people to volunteer.
While this is a wonderful idea, of course, it’s not new. Volunteer fireman have been filling in the gaps for years in rural communities without asking for anything in return. These men and women didn’t need a national movement, they just saw a need and responded.
Throughout the years, in addition to responsibilities of home and careers, firemen have served their community without pay, doing it because of a love of helping others. Today, they are constantly being trained, keeping up-to-date with current trends, including learning about hazardous materials in homes and new designs or features on cars. This training keeps not only the firemen safe, but others as well.
Even women have been a part of that story going all the way back to the late sixties and early seventies. During those years, men had jobs that didn’t allow them time to volunteer as much, so women volunteered out of necessity. Just like the men, they had to go through training, climbing ladders and even rooftops with a hose on their backs. Communities often worked together to raise money for buildings and trucks through fundraisers such as hot dog dinners after church on Sundays.
America’s spirit and history has been one of volunteering, evident all the way back to pioneer days when wagon trains moved west. Without people volunteering to help each other, that history would never had happened.
For information on how to be a volunteer fireman, check out the following link. If interested in learning more about National Volunteer Week and how you can serve in your community, check out the Points of Light website. There you will find inspirational stories as well as suggestions of ways to volunteer on an individual and corporate level. Why not give it a try today?
Do you have suggestions for ways to serve in your community? Leave a comment, message on Facebook or email dicysm@yahoo.com
Thanks,
Dicy
www.dicymcculloughbooks.com/blog
