Volunteers

I come from a family of volunteers. Volunteering provides a worthwhile service and a wonderful opportunity for the volunteer. My parents volunteered at the hospital and church when they both retired. My oldest son began volunteering the summer after his freshman year in college. I told him he could not sit around the house all summer doing nothing. He had to find a job or volunteer. So the next day he went out and came home with a volunteer job at Shipley’s Nature Center. Every morning he got up at eight and was at the Nature Center by nine o’clock. After two weeks, they hired him! The following summers until he graduated, he volunteered at the science lab at his college. Now, he has received a $200,000 grant from the government to do at PH.D program in chemistry.

I have volunteered at camps and children’s homes starting at the age of fourteen. Room and board was provided and I loved doing the work. I’ve always loved to travel and this was a way I could do that. One children’s home was in Appalachia and another was in Colombia, South America. One camp was in Arizona and another was in Hawaii. I did receive a minimal stipend at several places. In Colombia I received $12 a month and at the summer camps I received from $25 to $50 a month.

Where do you find these volunteer jobs? Back then it was the library. In January, I would head for the library, find the addresses and in February or March send out my applications for a summer position. In Appalachia, I enjoyed the summer so much, that I asked about an overseas job and was referred to the home in Colombia. Now this information can me found on the Internet. Bill Clinton has a Volunteer program.
 
As a teacher, I have wonderful parent and grandparent volunteers in my classroom. These parents provide an excellent service to the children. Many libraries provide literacy programs where volunteers teach teens and adults how to read. Literacy programs have used my series English Reading and Spelling for the Spanish Speaker. This series provides a very systematic, structured and explicit approach to teaching reading and spelling. The two series: English Comprehension for the Spanish Speaker and English Writing Composition for the Spanish Speaker follow this first series English Reading and Spelling for the Spanish Speaker. English Vocabulary for the Spanish Speaker series reinforces the vocabulary presented in the first three series. You can find out more information about these workbooks on my website www.Fisher-Hill.com.