I was raised by a Mom who was basically a professional volunteer. She was a Girl Scout Leader, and very active in school and at Church. The church we joined when I was in 8th grade was a very new church, and the youth program was non-existent. Mom headed the Youth Committee and she and Dad basically ran the show with youth events until the church had grown large enough to hire a full time youth pastor. Timing was good for them, they slowly stepped out of being so involved with church events and spent most of their volunteer hours with my sisters in Marching Band (I had graduated from high school by this time.) So I had a strong role model for being a volunteer with youth.
I taught Sunday school for two years – when Erik was in kindergarden and first grade. The church has grown so large, they have dedicated youth staff for all ages from birth thru 12th grade – they still need volunteers to do the Sunday School prep work once a month and teach Sunday School, but no real planning or anything like what my Mom did. The Volunteer Coordinator at the Elementary school was one of Erik’s Sunday School teachers at the same time I was teaching (I didn’t have him in my class because I know him. He would not have listened to me in Sunday School if I had been his teacher.) She tried to get me to be a volunteer at school and come either do teacher prep work or work with the kids one on one for reading/spelling/math. She wanted me to commit to a weekly schedule, but I had to say no once Andrew and Emily went to school. When Erik was in Kindergarden, his teacher would send things home for me to cut out or assemble and return to school, but that was tedious and boring…
So as I started my “volunteerism” I was talking to my Mom. Her response was baffling at the time, but now with Erik starting fourth grade, I finally understand. She told me “Be careful how much you volunteer, because it’s a thankless job and no one really appreciates the work you do.” It sounded kind of bitter to me, but now I’m starting to understand.
Emily started girl scouts in kindergarden as a daisy. I really didn’t want to be a girl scout leader, but the mom of one of Erik’s “girl friends” was looking for a co-leader and although our troop has two grades in it, we still fall within the guidelines for levels, even though Emily will forever be the youngest in the troop. The first year we had 6 girls, second year we had 10 or 11, last year we had 16, and this year we have 18. We have only lost one girl, and that was only because the family moved out of state. My co-leader does the technical/science stuff, I do the artsy/creative stuff. She’s very type A detail oriented, so my more laid back almost slacker attitude is a good counter balance. We had some growing pains in the first year – mostly about who was running what and once we figured out we should alternate who runs the meetings, girl scouts is actually quite fun… as long as we stay away from the Service Unit. Our Service Unit manager can’t figure out what we’re doing that we have a waiting list to get in our troop most years, and we aren’t losing girls when the other troops aren’t faring well.
Erik started Cub Scouts that same year. I thought it would be a good father/son thing for him to do with Keith. First year, as Tigers, the boys are required to have their parents at the meetings. The cubmaster and treasurer took turns leading the Tiger year. The second year, the Cubmaster’s wife took Erik’s den, and Keith went back to Tigers with Andy. The assistant cubmaster’s wife took that den. Emily and I got to spend that year with Tuesday evenings being Mom and Emily nights if I wasn’t getting things ready for girl scouts the next night. Keith got sucked into being the Pack Committee Chair, and basically was supposed to just handle the paperwork and detail stuff. Last year, we lost the Cubmaster and the Assistant Cubmaster both to jobs out of state, so Keith found himself in the position of being Pack Committee Chair and acting Cubmaster. Neither of the boys had den leaders, and I kept asking Keith which den did he want me to take because obviously he needed leaders. He really didn’t want me to take either den, except no one would step forward in Erik’s den, and there was one mom who reluctantly volunteered to take Andy’s den. Working with Erik’s cub scout den was fun – sometimes frustrating – but definitely worth me stepping outside of my comfort zone. Erik’s teacher at spring conferences told him he should be thankful that we care enough about him and his siblings to be as involved with them in outside of school activities – a lot of his classmates don’t have that.
So here we are at the start of a new school year. I’m still co-leading Emily’s Girl Scout troop, and I’m still Erik’s den leader. I’m feeling a little discouraged from the turn out at our first den meeting, only about half of the den was accounted for that night. I had three boys (out of 9) show up for the meeting, 2 I knew weren’t going to be there because their parents had contacted me to say they had conflicts, and 4 are MIA. I sent emails out to everyone with a summary of what we did and a schedule of upcoming event and activities, and haven’t heard a peep from anyone. But the girls are excited and raring to go, and it’s going to be a wild year with them.
And I’m being sucked into the PTA, I guess. One of my cub scouts’ mom’s is on the PTA and they are in desperate need of people to be on the PTA. I told her she could consider me on the PTA and if they needed to vote on things, I could help out on that but because the PTA meets on Tuesday evenings, I wouldn’t be able to attend the meetings due to Cub Scouts. Her husband told me last night they were looking to change the night of the PTA meeting to another night because there were a couple people who couldn’t meet on Tuesdays. Yay….
The kids started Sunday School, and I ran into someone I knew who wanted to know why I wasn’t volunteering to teach Sunday School this year. Hmm… I’m already very active with Girl Scouts and Cub Scouts, and I’m a member of the Prayer Shawl ministry at church (I take the summer off). I work part time, shuttle kids to dance and swimming, not to mention keep house, do laundry constantly, help with homework and whatever else the kids need. We (meaning Keith and I) rarely go anywhere without the kids. Last year, we might have had three true date nights when my parents took the kids for an overnight, otherwise our date time is scheduled when the kids are at school and we can coordinate our work schedules to be off at the same time. Past years, the church has “parents night out” and would schedule a Friday evening about every 6 weeks or so for the Mission fund-raisers, but we didn’t have any last year because the church was being added onto and it just didn’t work. This year is our last year of being able to participate in PNO, because Erik is in 4th grade, and that’s the last year he can attend. Not sure how old he has to be to be a helper, I’m hoping 5th grade 🙂 in which case we can continue to go to PNO for many years to come. Once they can be helpers, we still benefit from PNO while they earn service hours, and we don’t have to pay since they will be working instead!
I looked at the person and said, “I’m spread pretty thin with other volunteer opportunities at this time. Maybe next year?”
I seriously don’t think I could do anything else and keep my sanity!
stitchingdoxie 