Volunteerism Mini Series Episode One: Introduction

I did a twitter poll asking if people would be interested in a volunteerism mini series and the overwhleming number of people voted yes. So I will be doing a small series on my experiences volunteering and hopefully you'll consider becoming a volunteer, continue volunteering or it may give you a better idea of how to best manage volunteers.

Transcript

Russell: All right. And we're back. Russell here with the Canadian conservative podcast, thecanadianconservative substac.com. And today I'm actually going to be deviating from my regular reactionary takes to current political topics, and I'm actually going to try something different. So I put a poll up on Twitter asking people if they were interested in if I did a podcasting miniseries on volunteerism. And overwhelmingly the votes were yes. So I'm going to do a miniseries on volunteering. I'm going to cover the reasons why people volunteer, motivations, what people get out of volunteering, the benefits volunteering has on society, and I'm also going to cover what good practices might look like as a volunteer and what good practices might look like as someone that manages volunteers. Now, so you know that I'm not just talking out my ass here. I have been volunteering with different organizations and in communities since I was probably eleven years old, maybe even a little bit sooner. I was volunteering at my church at a young age. I was volunteering just around the neighborhood. My mother was a very big volunteer in the community, and she would tell us that we were blessed and because we were blessed, we should go and we should help other people that are not so fortunate. Now, while I think she had a bit of a religious connotation to it, I don't necessarily see it as a religious calling per se. Although if you are religious and you do follow the Christian tenets, the third theological virtue is charity. I'm going to call out the Christians that might be listening to the show here and remind them that while it certainly is appreciated by the church, charity far extends beyond putting $20 in the collection basket on Sundays. But that's enough religious connotation to volunteerism. Now, in my lifetime, I've received several awards for volunteering from various organizations. I received a merit award from the one organization that I volunteer with frequently. I received several accolades from another organization. And in 2016 I received the sovereigns medal for volunteers from former Governor General of Canada David Johnston. And then earlier on this year, I also received the Queen's platinum jubilee medal from the Lieutenant Governor General of Saskatchewan. And I'm deeply appreciative of the recognition from the community and from the government. It's very nice of them to recognize me for that, but it certainly was not the intent when I volunteered. Not only was I volunteering because it was something that was encouraged when I was a child, it extends far beyond just childhood volunteering experiences that have carried on. It's a personal philosophy of mine that when you are doing well and even when you're not, you have an obligation that you should try to alleviate suffering in other people. These social justice warrior types, they like to get out in the streets and march and protest and raise a big fuss and threaten people and claim that they're going to make a difference by toppling statues and tearing down monuments and renaming streets and all sorts of very Maoist orwellian things. But frankly, the people that make the biggest difference in their communities are volunteers in various capacities. And to this day I have yet to meet in all my years of volunteering a single 300 pound nose pierced androgynous multi hair colored SJW weirdo out there, volunteering in a significant capacity. That's not just social justice work and I think that says something. Now, volunteering, I've worked with all sorts of people from different social economic backgrounds. I've worked with all types of different people from different communities all across Canada. And everyone has a unique reason why they volunteer. And it's actually quite fascinating because once you start volunteering with one organization, you'll quite often see that there's a network of community volunteers in small towns and big cities that once you see them in one place volunteering, you're going to see them in plenty of other places volunteering. It's a calling. I truly believe that volunteerism is a calling, like many people have callings to different jobs. But to me, the call to volunteer and to be an active community member is one of the most honorable callings because you do have a direct impact into your community. Conservatives are quite famous right now for being very doom pilled about things. But frankly, if conservatives really wanted to take back their communities from the woke and to fix things in their communities, there's lots of work that they could be doing in their communities by volunteering. It could be something like volunteering with a neighborhood watch program, it could be volunteering with the Optimist Club, could be volunteering with your local legion, could be something as big as volunteering with St. John's Ambulance or the Canadian Red Cross. There's all sorts of different types of volunteer activities that can cater to different needs. And many Canadians are volunteering in their communities and some of them are volunteering as coaches, some of them are volunteering on school parent committees. And I think we need to give those parents a real round of applause for being involved in their children's lives and for helping to guide their children and other people's children in the right direction in society. We really need to give them a pat on the back. But I don't think people realize that a lot of these community events that they enjoy happen off the backs of volunteers. Canada Day celebrations, for example, happens on the back of the Multicultural Council and the Royal Canadian Legion and several other nonprofits that get things together and then people go and they enjoy the celebrations generally for free in the park. So whenever you see these community events, unless they're government sponsored or put on by a government entity, quite often there's a team of volunteers behind the scenes that are making things work. And people are quite often quote with saying that, well, there's nothing to do anymore. These organizations aren't putting things on? Well, these organizations are old. There is a lot of old people in these organizations now. Some have been volunteering for 2030 years and they're tired and there's no one coming up the rear to back them up, no one for them to mentor. My question I'm going to leave you with here as I finish this first episode, kind of an introduction is to ask you, the listener, what do you want to see in your society? And is there a way that you can volunteer your time to help achieve that in society? If you're tired of crime, lots of people are. Well, maybe take the time and put together a neighborhood watch program or a block parent program. If you don't think that veterans are getting a fair shake at things, then maybe consider joining the Legion and becoming involved and raising your concerns and then transferring those concerns to the government. If you don't think there's enough events going on in your community, then join your local Shriners or Optimus Club. And when people tell me they're too busy, I just don't buy it. Yes, I get it. We're all busy with work. But the average American, Canadian watches about 2.6 hours of television a day. In fact, screen time is only more and more increasing. So you're telling me that you can't put the phone down for an hour even and go volunteer your time? Some of these commitments, yes, they're days and some of them are involved, lots of committee work. But sometimes some of the volunteering stuff that they might want you to do, let's say the hospital or something like that, is just for an hour. So if you're interested in volunteering, it's about finding what's the right fit for you and then finding something that aligns with your values, pursuing it and making sure, of course, that you are dedicating enough time to it while also not burning yourself out. But that's a topic for another time. So I just want to thank people for listening. I hope you're going to get some value from this. I'm going to do a few episodes here, various different topics regarding volunteering. And I hope that at the end of it, you have a better idea of volunteerism in Canada. And I hope if you're not already doing so, that you might be interested in finding ways to volunteer in your community. Anyways, that's all I got for today. Thanks everyone.