Thursday In the Life - Volunteer!

Volunteer – meet new people, build stronger communities.

Is life just about going to work and then going home and sitting in front of the TV?  With the economy being what it is – not good – there is a lot of negative talk every where.  People want to blame someone, something, but don’t seem to want to do anything to change it.

So why not do something positive and volunteer? I have yet to find an organization that says that they have too many volunteers.  The MN Literacy Council has pre-service training for ESL tutors twice a month, I was told that they average about 30 students for each class, and they still wish that they had more volunteers.

Not sure what you could volunteer for?  Check out volunteer opportunities on the internet.   

I looked at http://www.volunteermatch.org/ and found 1716 volunteer opportunities within a 20 mile radius of Minneapolis.  They range from giving manicures to senior residents, letter writing , bingo assistants, Wii gaming experts, sewers to help mend clothes, it seems whatever your skills there is something that you can help with.

It is even more important now when services are being cut due to lack of funding that people get out and get more involved in their communities.  If you have children get them involved too. 

My daughter volunteered at the MN Historical Society* when she was in high school.  She did activities for small children, cataloging & organizing artifacts and other projects. They had a family weekend where we sorted documents from WWI. By volunteering she was able to do go to the exhibits and learn how important volunteers are to organizations like this and got an idea of some of the things that go on behind the scenes in a museum.

VOLUNTEER, have fun, share your skills.
*The Minnesota Historical Society is a non-profit educational and cultural institution created by the Territorial Legislature in 1849 as one of its first acts, even before statehood. Its essence is to illuminate the past as a way to shed light on the future. The Society collects, preserves and tells the story of Minnesota’s past through museum exhibits, libraries and collections, historic sites, educational programs and book publishing. 

The Minnesota Historical Society preserves collections that tell the story of Minnesota through the ages. Some artifacts are thousands of years old. Many items predate the history of the state itself. Included are:

• 176,712 Books
• 70,369 Periodicals
• 166,700 Pamphlets
• 353,178 Photographs
• 1,437 Sound Recordings
• 1,114 Films and Videos
• 19,277 Maps and 2,027 Atlases
• 6,072 Art Works
• 1,783 Oral History Interviews
• 4,139 Newspaper Titles; Newspapers are on 69,484 Microfilm Reels
• 36,538 cubic feet of Manuscripts, 5,922 Microfilm Reels
• 54,743 cubic feet of State Archives, 11,853 Microfilm Reels
• 232,456 Historical Objects
• 1,152,504 Archeological Artifacts

Since 2001, the Society's budget has been reduced by about $5 million per year, or approximately 18%. (In FY 2003, the state appropriation for MHS was $27,395,000. In FY 2005, that appropriation was $22,280,000.)

In 2010 more than 2,300 volunteers contributed 48,335 hours in 32 programs with 129 staff coordinating volunteers.  For the first time, the value of volunteer contributions exceeded $1 million, equivalent to 23 full-time employees. This value is calculated using data developed by the Independent Sector

If you are in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area and have never visited the MN Historical Society I urge you to check it out.  It might be more interesting then you think!  Really!  I am not a big museum goer and I enjoyed it.  I even got to see Prince's purple coat!

Thursday In the Life

"the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute."

Ayn Rand

OK, some diety has granted you your every wish and you can now do what ever you want for the rest of your life.  What would you do? If money were no object, what would you do?  Shopping? Traveling? Watch TV and lay on the couch eating Cheeto’s all day? Would that really make you happy?

I had a friend who retired.  He told me that after six months he was going crazy.  He got a job offer in another state.  He asked his wife, we’ve never lived there, do you want to try it?   Needless to say they are much happier now with their new life.

Some people know what they want, some people do what they do because that is what ‘came along’ or pays the bills.  If what you are doing every day doesn’t excite you, if you don’t wake up every morning excitied to start your day then think about what would do if you didn’t have to worry about money.  What would you do in your fantasy job?  Then think of things that you can change to get there. . .

Thursday In the Life

My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being,
with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with
productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.
—Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

Prossessing free will we must choose our values.  We must choose to think, to act, to live or to merely exist in a semiconscious daze.

Thursday In the Life

Thursday is a significant day in many religions, such as Hinduism, Judaism and Islam which all consider Thursday an auspicious day for fasting.  Thursday morning is also traditionally the day that the Torah is read in public and special penitential prayers are read. 


Early Christians were warned not to fast on Thursdays to avoid Judaizing and so for Christians the day of fasting is on Fridays.  This is not to say that Thursdays do not hold any special significance in Christianity.  The Eastern Orthodox Church dedicates Thursdays to the Apostles and Saint Nicholas, and Thursday is the day of the Last Supper.


For those of you who are Douglas Adams fans, Thursday is the day that the earth is destroyed just after Arthur Dent says "This must be Thursday. I never could get the hang of Thursdays". 


Traditionally Thursdays were the market day in most towns in the United Kingdom and so general elections were held on these days.  General elections have been on Thursdays since 1935, and local elections are normally held on the first Thursday in May.  Some people also say that Thursdays were chosen because it is the day furthest from Friday which makes it a day where most people were sober.


In Australia Thursday is the day for late night shopping and movie openings because Australians usually get paid on Thursdays.

Volunteering

Besides volunteering for CONvergence and GPS (Geek Partnership Society) I am also a member of the MN Literacy Council and am working on being an ESL tutor with the intention of going back to school and getting a degree (and hopefull eventually going to graduate school.)

I am thinking that I want to go to other countries and teach English. You know learn about another cultures and learn another language.  Of course this field is getting pretty competative now I see, so I really need to have a post graduate degree and experience to really have a pick of the jobs.  So the plan is to work on getting experience and schooling.

DS
The tttgoddess

Sewing and costuming

I sew, I like costumes and of course volunteering for CONvergence allows me to indulge and wear them.  I would like to get more involved in the local costuming scene so we will see. Last year I managed to get to CostumeCon and had a great time, met some great people.

Simplify

Yeah, we have too much STUFF!

I am intrigued by the book – The 100 Thing Challenge: How I got Rid of Almost Everything, Remade My Life and Regained My Soul.

Obviously with about 3,000 books we won’t get to the 100 thing point any time soon, nor do I believe that we will want to.  But I think that it is time too look at our stuff and decide if it lends itself to the lifestyle that we would like to have. 

DS

The tttgoddess