Harry, you changed my life

Last week I met the most incredible man while standing in line at the fish and chip store. His name was Harry and at 67 he is retired with a full time job. That sounds a little funny, I know, but Harry worked every single day from 8am until 5:30pm and he didn’t get paid a cent. Harry volunteered his time that could have been spent playing golf, going to share meetings and having long lunches, working with children from disadvantaged homes as a counsellor.

I asked Harry why he did it and what made him want to give up so much of his time and he told me quite simply, “to see a child go from believing the world is a dark place of unhappiness and taking them on the journey to understanding the opportunities and bright future ahead of them is the most enriching experience”. He told me that you could see it every day: each and every little hint of brightness as they begin to understand that their past will not define their future.

I went home thinking about Harry, and how wonderful he is. And I thought about how nice it would be to know I could be changing a life. The only trouble was that I wasn’t. I didn’t do anything like Harry, not even for an hour a week. And although I thought my life was complete and I was happy, the truth was, I wasn’t.

After about a week of thinking “how nice” it would be to do something for others, I finally decided to do something about it. As a retiree I had all the time in the world to spend entirely on myself and no one else except the family and especially the grandkids. So the fact that I had been selfish enough to not share my time with others until now is a little embarrassing.

I began with a Google search to find what organisations I could help out in my local area. I was surprised with how many I could find. There were the charity organisations: Vinnies, Life Line, the Red Cross and more. Then there was the community services, the school and the library. Then there were the medical services like at the hospital or in home care. And then there were options through the council, meals on wheels, homeless care and soup kitchens. There were hundreds of opportunities right below my nose and I hadn’t ever noticed them!

I had been an assistant nurse throughout my life and although I also helped with in-home care for the elderly, I had another passion. I felt so passionately for the children suffering from terminal illnesses and cancer. Deadly diseases robbed their childhoods and they had no choice but to spend their days in an institution under artificial lights with new faces around them and tubes feeding them. They should have been outside in the sunlight playing with friends and having fun but they couldn’t.

And because of this, I had not a single hesitation in signing up for a volunteer position as a child carer in my nearest hospital. I spend three days each week during business hours, reading to children, playing with them, taking them for walks around the facility and trying to give them back a bit of the fun they miss out on. It isn’t much, but it is something and even though they may not realise it now, I know I am making a difference.

If Harry had never spoken to me, I would never have done this, so to dear Harry, wherever you are, I want to thank you for giving me an experience I would have otherwise never had.

Finding meaningful volunteering isn’t a difficult task, it requires some important things from the individual though.

You need to be willing to invest your time. Not a lot of it, it could only be an hour or two a week but you need to make a commitment to set that time aside.

You need to have skills. Not a degree or qualification, but if you want to work with other people you need to be able to communicate well. It isn’t hard to find something that suits your skill set.

You need to have passion. I found my most valuable experience by going after my passion… Not only what I know. Even though you don’t do it for yourself, it makes you feel that you are making a difference and helps you to enjoy it too.

What volunteering do you do? How did you get started? How does it make you feel?