Volunteerism

It started when I was young, watching my mother volunteer to run the church CCD program, be a den mother, etc. etc.

Naturally when I had children I started to volunteer as well. Actually it was while I was pregnant when I volunteered to help coach the little girls softball team here in our small town. Since then it has been PTO, Girl Scouts and in the past few years 4-H. This year I decided I should give back to the Music Boosters as well, as they have sent my daughter to camp numerous times and paid for buses and rooms to cart her tush around the state to different competitions.

Volunteering kept me busy when the girls started school and I needed to be here when they got off the bus. I would volunteer in the class room and even started a reading program for a few years.

The organization that drains my energy at this point is our county 4-H program. The president of the leaders organization wasn't able to full fill her duties so they fell to the vice-president, who just happens to be moi! Our county agent moved in July, so now we are without direct leadership and certain things he/she would have handled are now also falling to moi! I understand that when you agree to fill a position you are responsible to stay in the position for the amount of time you agreed to do. I have instilled this in my kids as well. No quitting. You stick with something for its allotted time and then consider if it is what you want to continue to do.

The question I continually debate in my mind is at what point does the volunteerism start to become such an overwhelming force in your life that you don't have time for your family?

Tonight both my girls have games again. I will be able to watch N for an hour, and then will have to leave to go to a 4-H meeting. There is no getting around it, it is what I signed on to do. Meanwhile I will have to miss S's volleyball match. I have yet to see her play in a game. Granted this is only her second match and she has more to play this season, but in my heart I know it's not right.

So, as I had to do with Girl Scouts, and PTO, when my term is finished in a year, I will again have to step down from an organization and turn inwards towards the family. The saving grace this time is that I can continue to work with-in 4-H as the co-leader of our local club. I look forward to that day next year when I can hand my binder in.