Big time. Most related to native plants. A lot of it is manual labor but there is a fair amount of conceptual work too.

I started out fostering cats (mostly kittens) a few years ago. I switched to a different organization a little while back, and started also volunteering for a variety of administrative tasks in addition to fostering. I love the cats, but would like to get more regular in person human interaction.

Volunteer firefighter.

Drive the 3000L truck or 1000L tender. Run hoses to hydrant. Use mounted water cannon, or run hoses out. Put out, scrub, bush, and vehicle fires. Rescue puppies from drains.

Getting plenty of training, learning lots of different equipment, have a good team currently.

Eg. Last week at training, I tried out the ‘Hot Stick’ high-voltage detector. For finding live wires, beeps when high current closeby.

Similar to this one.

While not really a volunteer position, I do spend a chunk of my free time picking up litter in my area. From snack wrappers to cigarette butts to midnight ditch tips, I’ve done it all.

I check JustServe to see what’s available in my area. I do a monthly volunteer thing at a food pantry 30 minutes away. I’ve been wanting to look more into what volunteer stuff my town offers and possibly do more usher volunteer work like I did for the local community college.

Tool libraries rock! Have volunteered with our local one for years.

Also book libraries often can use volunteer assistance!

I volunteer usually doing horticultural related work on restoration projects and in urban farm spaces.

This includes everything from planting to weeding and even sees construction of things like garden beds and other platforms for growing

I volunteer on the board of an arts nonprofit

It’s not quite volunteer work, but still donate to food banks seasonally, or monthly when I’m able to. I don’t make a lot of money but I still donate what I can.

I had some crashes in life, I had to rely on food banks. I now give back. It feels amazing. I think a lot of people are afraid of the feelings involved honestly, it’s a strong emotional ride when you donate stuff and see the faces of the people waiting in line for food, toiletries and things like socks and underwear.

I volunteer at a small music festival. We’re trying to help keep the village alive at a time when more and more facilities are closing. I run the website and social media, and take photos over the weekend.

Taking the photos is probably the most fun, as you get to be part of the festival and watch everyone enjoy the event you set up, as well as watching some of the acts. It’s exhausting though, as you don’t stop for the better part of three days.

This year I had a lot to do with booking the acts and liaising with the acts and the venues. That was really interesting, but it nearly killed me. I’ve got a chronic illness that tires me out, but I thought this would be ok as it’s mostly emailing and messaging. I had no idea how many random things have to be organised and rearranged in the run up, or how much can go wrong on the day!

I’m sticking to photos next year!

I volunteer at an “intergenerational meetup” and try to explain to older folks how computers and the Internet work. Every two weeks for 2 hours.

Did door knocking as a child to collect money for war memorials in Germany.

I volunteer at a wildlife rehab clinic. I don’t get to treat the animals, but we get to do all the other work. I feed them, clean their area, check them to make sure their recovery is going well, we weigh them, prep various food mixes and formulas. There’s a ton of housekeeping like dishes, laundry, and sterilizing crates. I’ll also greet people that arrive with animals and grab one of the staff to get the intake started.

We also have events where I’ve directed cars where to park, ran games for the kids, and answered animal questions. I got put on the open house planning group so I will help plan and build new activities, and if we we’re able to get a new owl ambassador by then, I will run meet and greet things with it. I also got asked to help design some new shelters due the various raptors.

Our shifts are 4 hours, one day a week, from April through September, but I’ve been participating in random things over the winter.

I like working with animals because most of their injuries are caused by humans, and they are unable to advocate for themselves. I get to work with amazing people and see a ton of rare animals most people don’t even know we have. It can be difficult to see severely injured animals, have a lot die on you, to see people crying bringing in hurt animals, especially little kids, but there is also the reward of seeing animals recover and return to their homes.

I’m mainly there for raptors, but the most touching story was a little boy found a bumble bee with a damaged wing. He took it to his parents and he wanted to help it. They dialed us up and he asked if we could fix his bee. We can often fix butterfly wings, but bees are too tiny, and he was near the end as it was, but we set that bee up in a terrarium with soft bedding and half an orange, and for the rest of his days, we took care of that bee like any other animal we’d get through our doors.

I’ve only volunteered for things that don’t require directly working with or talking to people. Dealing with people directly gives me panic attacks. I’d happily work in a soup kitchen, as long as I am in the back making the soup and not the front serving it.

At the moment I’m not involved with any group of volunteer, but I was a volunteer at a homeless reach out group for almost a year up until a couple months ago.

We would walk around a spot known for housing a lot of homeless people in the city and “door knock” until we met somebody who wanted to talk with us. It was very interesting, I had a lot of fun and we were more or less successful in helping our regulars get a step up. It being a new job, health check ups or getting them in contact with some social workers for some tricky situations (irregular immigration status).

We stopped because most of the regulars left and we lost contact over the winter. The group I was in also started fading due to all of us being students unable to find a compatible schedule. Some times I feel remorse in not continuing, I might have to try to find the contact of one of our oldest regulars and check up on how he is doing on his new home.

I am a founding board member and the treasurer for my regional timebank. I also have done custom software development and IT work for my county and city food bank. In the past, I was a founding board member and technology specialist for the local food co-op. I also used to own and operate a community bike shop where I performed free repairs for anyone who said they couldn’t afford it.

I prefer volunteer work that directly shores up my communities, promotes food security and social equity, connects local food producers to consumers as directly as possible, and empowers non-monetary exchange of labor and skills. For me, timebanks are the sweet spot for these goals. Everyone’s time is valued equally, and everyone has something to offer their communities on an as-able basis. More than that, a timebank promotes members to see all in their community as peers and neighbors despite any superficial differences.