December 5 – today – is International Volunteer Day for Economic and Social Development, as declared by the United Nations General Assembly per its resolution 40/212 in 1985.
This is not a day to honor only international volunteers; the international in the title describes the day, not the volunteer. It’s a day to honor, specifically, those volunteers who contribute to economic and social development. Such volunteers deserve their own day. Such volunteers are part of the reason I bristle at all the warm and fuzzy language used about volunteers.
I think it’s a shame to try to turn the day into just another day to celebrate any volunteer — there are plenty of days and weeks to honor all volunteers and encourage more volunteering; why not keep December 5 specifically for volunteers who contribute to economic and social development, per its original intention?
And just to be clear: by volunteer, I mean someone who is not paid for his or her service, and if he or she has a “stipend”, it covers only very essential expenses so the volunteer can give up employment entirely during his or her stint as a volunteer, rather than the stipend being as much, if not more, than some mid and high-level government workers of a country are making. Yes, that’s a dig.
Here’s how I volunteer.
Jayne,Exploratorium volunteers gathered Dec 5th to learn about service beyond what they do to support the museum. Ed Gallagher is Commodore of BAADS – a sailor with a partner on land. His glasses have a camera/sensor mounted at the bridge, and wherever Ed turns his head, his partner can take wind readings and guide Ed to turn the boat port or starboard as needed. Ed’s out there sailing on San Francisco Bay – and he’s blind. This kind of co-ability is inspiring; of course, some of us geeks were equally excited by the technology. As one Explo vol said, "every time I start thinking what I do makes a difference, I realize how much more CAN be done, with team work and ingenuity. Pretty cool." http://tinyurl.com/2wr6j8gI think the UN language was broad enough to incorporate volunteers like these.