What I Love About Volunteering

Even though I have a full time job outside the home, I definitely feel compelled to be involved in my children's school as much as possible.  I am currently the Membership Chair on the PTA board in charge of signing up families to help the state and national PTA advocate for school children across the country.  I feel good about being a member of an organization that does so much for children, but it's basically a paperwork job that I do after my kids are in bed or while they're in school.  It's great for lots of kids, but mine directly?  Not so much.

I do, however, find the time, because I think it's important, to be involved in activities for the school that directly help my children learn something.  This year, I'm working on the holiday craft fair, an afternoon in December where children can make art projects for gift giving for family members.  This year, we're teaching them quilling and pointillism a la Georges Seurat.  

I will get to be an integral part of my kids' education in a hands-on activity.  What I love most about this kind volunteering, though, is working with the amazing other moms whose artistic minds and inexhaustible creative energy inspire me.  Today, we got together, 3 of us, with all six of our kids, and while the kids played, we created crafts and art projects as samples for the craft fair.  Imagine Grandma's pride when she receives something like this made by her own 9-year-old grandson.

I made this sample by attaching ribbon strips to a stryfoam ring with straight pins

Getting to volunteer to do something that I love, that benefits my children, with women who I admire and enjoy--that's a dream come true.  This is what volunteering should be about.