Letter: Why I Still Volunteer at 92 — And You Should, Too
From housework during WWII to delivering muffins to the homeless, one local woman shares the value of volunteering at any age.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
There was an editorial in Owen Sound Current recently on volunteering, followed by a poll on the reader’s involvement as a volunteer. I was about to check a box when I discovered none of the five questions fit my volunteering profile.
I am well past my 92nd birthday. It is difficult to commit to a volunteer position at that age. To even promise you will still be around tomorrow, let alone be able to chair or attend a meeting, drive a patient to an appointment, or any other such activity is impossible.
However, the poll set my thoughts in motion. How many volunteering positions did I hold in the past and when did my volunteering begin?
Well, that question I can answer! When I was a young child in the 1940s, the years of the Second World War, when all young women went off to work in factories while the men went off to fight the fascists, housemaids simply disappeared!
What were women to do to keep the home fires burning? There were few appliances then, to ease the labour of running a household. So my mother trained me well in the art of housekeeping, and loaned me out to any of her friends in need. Especially if they were entertaining and needed serving and kitchen help.
Next, I became a Girl Scout in our northern Ontario town. Our troupe worked at many venues in many capacities, to gain money to buy a local boy with Lou Gherig’s Disease a battery operated wheelchair. It was a very gratifying experience.
From that came door to door canvassing for the Heart Fund, the Canadian Cancer Society, The United Way. By the 1960s, I had earned my caduceus pin from the Cancer Society for organizing a district in the new development of Don Mills.
I worked on for that volunteer organization, serving on unit and district boards, canvassing, and service to patients, until several years after receiving my fifty years of service pin. I also volunteered for our children’s ‘home and school’ association and all school events.
Volunteering is probably the most rewarding thing a person can do for their community, for the needy, and for themselves. That feeling of self worth is so calming, so beneficial.
Now I am old, but still able. Just not as spry or reliable as in the past. I am also somewhat restricted in giving of my time, since becoming owner of an extremely traumatized rescue dog who can’t be left unattended.
So what can I do, I wondered, when I took on that responsibility two and a half years ago?
Well, I love to bake, so every week for that length of time I have baked a batch of something for Safe N’ Sound in Owen Sound. It makes me happy. It makes the homeless there happy, too.
Some of them call me ‘muffin lady.’ I found that out one day when, as I was unloading my baking onto the counter. A fellow called out, “It’s the muffin lady!” As I stepped out the door to leave I heard one person call, “I love you muffin lady.” Then a chorus of voices called, “We all love you muffin lady!”
Now, if that didn’t make my heart sing! It makes that little once a week effort so worthwhile; a smile comes to my face every time I think of it.
To all you bored retirees out there, think what you might do to brighten your day while also brightening someone else’s.
Volunteer!
Suzanne Sloan
Owen Sound
Letters to the Editor do not necessarily reflect the opinions or beliefs of The Owen Sound Current and its editor or publisher.
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