“And this is how we can make that happen. See how it works?”

When I did an online search for “senior” and “volunteer,” I came up with an amazing number of projects and programs that seniors—both women and men—can get involved in. My search generated actual organizations throughout the USA and Canada but I won’t list individual contact information here. For example, the Canadian projects and programs I found are mostly centered in Toronto but I’m certain every city or town or village has something along these lines. If they don’t, why not start one?

I will list what I found with a brief synopsis for those that had synopses to synopsize. (Can’t do the actual copy/paste of what they posted because of copyright.)

I recommend contacting the City/Town/Village Hall in your area to see what they are offering. There are also Community Centers that, I’m certain, would welcome volunteers of any age.

Deep Breath!

Best way to do all this searching and contacting is, of course, by using a computer.

Nooooo!

Yeeeees!

Now that we have whittled down our “busy” lives to have time for ourselves, we don’t want to spend all that time on hold. Do we! No we don’t! We aren’t going to spend hours on the telephone now, are we! No we aren’t!

I hope my next post will alleviate some of the abject terror females of our generation seem to harbor about computers; as well as the crazy idea that “girls” are too stupid to be able to operate one, with or without efficiency.

Now, off we go into the wild, blue yonder of the volunteer world.

Volunteer with Children, Teach, Or Coach Sports

Whatever we learned along the way about sports, either from what our own children learned in school—and rubbed off on us—or from what we ourselves learned doing our own thing, is more than some kids know when starting out. Think about it. We can help, if only to encourage.

Construction Volunteering

This is something I never in my wildest dreams would have thought about doing even though I am inclined that way. It’s a rare occasion when I have to call in the troops to help out with any projects in my home, so yes, I know how to wield a hammer. I’m sure most of us old ladies do.* If not, we can learn. Right? At least we could hand out lemonade to the workers.

Women’s Empowerment Volunteering

Maybe this is what I’m doing with this blog? Attempting to “empower” us old ladies to get out there and believe in ourselves again? Like we were allowed to do pre-puberty? Before all the “rules of society” kicked in to smother our spirit? I’m sure we know how to empower younger women to do this, so I’d say, all we need is practice. When we teach, we learn too.

Public Health Volunteering

Once again, contact City/Town/Village Hall to see what programs they have.

Wildlife Conservation Volunteering

This can involve walks in the bush, birdwatching, photography… Or even learning how to walk in the bush, birdwatch and photograph wildlife in the first place.

Marine Conservation Volunteering

This involves diving. Those who’ve gone traveling and went on a scuba jaunt will know what’s involved here. I don’t. I’m not a traveler. However, when I would attend girls camp every summer as a kid, I loved to swim underwater. It was more interesting under there. And I could cover a lot of “ground” because I have big feet that doubled as flippers.

We can help with coral reef conservation research and marine plastic pollution prevention by getting involved with something like this. (I saw a TV program about this a few weeks ago, so it looks like it’s getting to be a “thing.”)

Other Ideas

Collecting, serving, preparing, or distributing food.

Fundraising or selling items to raise money.

Driving seniors to appointments.

Engaging in general labor, like helping build homes or clean up parks.

Tutoring or teaching.

Mentoring the youth.

Collecting, making, or distributing clothing.

Writing that book.

Canadian Association for Retired Persons (CARP)

From what I understand, this is a lobby group. Or, at least, a group that lobbies? According to the posted blurb, there are 26 chapters across Canada that focus on “improving health care and financial security for aging Canadians.”

Other Ideas

These are mostly Toronto-based but we can approach our own City/Town/Village Hall to see if anything similar is available.

Native Canadian Centre of Toronto (NCCT)

Special Olympics Ontario

Nanny Angel Network

Girls Inc. York Region

More Suggestions I Found Online

Act globally.

Be a foster grandparent.

Volunteer at a national park.

Lend a hand at your local library.

Run, walk or cycle for a good cause.

Walk dogs (Humane Society and SPCA, etc.).

Join the Peace Corps.

Become an activist.

Assist older citizens. (I guess this would be citizens our age? Younger?)

Provide a hot meal.

Help out at a favorite museum.

Volunteer virtually.

Organize your own fundraiser.

Join a mosque/church/synagogue group, a choir.

Work at shelters to hand out food.

Cook for shelters if you’re good at mass producing.

Work at a hospital “store.”

How to Find out What’s Available?

As I said, the best way for finding out many things these days, is, of course, with a computer search. I hope my next post will ease some of the fears associated with using computers.

A Note of Caution

When we were born, the population of the world was… Oh, wait. They jumped from 1927 (at 2,000,000,000, which looks like a guestimate to me, eh?) to 1951. There are no data for the years between 1927 and 1951. For 1951, the world population is listed as 2,584,034,261. The world population for 2020 is listed as 7,794,798,739.

(I did a search but the site cited: “Source: Worldometer (www.Worldometers.info ) From 1950 to current year: Elaboration of data by United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. World Population Prospects: The 2019 Revision. (Medium-fertility variant).”)

This means:

• there are about 5 billion more Earthlings looking for ways to make a living;
• there are many of these who will do just about anything to make that happen.

That said! Not everyone on planet Earth is bad; not everyone on planet Earth is good.

Bottom line? When you find a group to volunteer your valuable services with, double check with the authorities to ensure they are legit and not some female (or male, either) sex-trafficking outfit, or a fake baby adoption center, a group that goes out there collecting people’s organs, or a drug cartel. Yes, these groups exist. But so do the good ones.

This week’s tip: Ways to volunteer.

Until next time.

*REMINDER: This blog is geared toward pre-Baby-Boomer gals. That is, “girls” born before 1946.

Illustrations from https://www.needpix.com/ Photos by Sherrill Wark