FINDING TIME TO VOLUNTEER IN A FAST-PACED WORLD

By Jordan Hannan

Brooke does absolutely everything but sleep. She’s a two-sport athlete, enrolled in one of the most rigorous course loads possible, works two jobs, and is the most incredible friend to everyone around her. Not only that, but she was also the first of my friends to inquire about how she could volunteer through Triangle Cares when I first joined the team. Even when her schedule doesn’t allow for rest, Brooke continues to prioritize having a positive impact on others. She’s able to accomplish everything she needs to, as well as everything that the average person makes excuses to get out of. How can this be possible for the rest of us?

Despite its simplicity, the common idea of donating your time, talent, and treasure can be quite difficult to put into practice, particularly due to the rarity of free time. Everybody deems their lives to be busy, indicated by the growing market for productivity apps and time-saving home-automation accessories. If we have convinced ourselves that we’re too preoccupied to even queue up a playlist without Alexa, it must seem even more inconceivable to dedicate hours at a time to cleaning up trash at your local park or serving at the nearest soup kitchen. However, incorporating service into your weekly schedule doesn’t have to be a great disruption or huge commitment:
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1. Find opportunities to serve in locations that you already frequent. Throughout the school year, I was able to easily accomplish this by serving at and through my high school, Cardinal Gibbons. However, I then had trouble finding a solution to my inability to continue this during the summer, as opportunities had become both rare and inconvenient. This led me to become a lector and Eucharistic Minister at my church, a place I already needed to visit weekly. By volunteering in a place I’d already be, I am able to benefit my community without taking up any more of my time. 
2. Add a service element to the events you’re already hosting. As an extremely social person, spending time with my friends is the most attractive weekend activity. However, I’m not actually particularly excited to go to the park or out for lunch; I just want to see my friends and family. Therefore, I would recommend replacing some of these activities with volunteering or fundraisers. If your baseball team is planning an end-of-year team dinner, suggest collecting donations at the door or supplement the event with a service outing beforehand. By adding volunteering to a tradition or event you already participate in, incorporating service is easier, as you have already carved out the time for the previous activity. 
3. Instead of donating your talent, give of your treasure. For high schoolers, this aspect of service tends to be overlooked due to their general lack of means. Having said that, treasure doesn’t only reference checks worth hundreds or thousands of dollars. Old clothes, childhood toys, and canned goods are always needed by our nonprofits, and they can make a huge difference, especially when multiplied by the number of students in your clubs and school. Check out next week’s blog for more information about making donations. 

If you’re in need of some new nonprofits to donate your time to, check out our website here!