My Journey With Weight Loss – National Volunteer Appreciation Week

Well I am back to endurance training so this morning I went for a long fun. Because my schedule is very overbooked this week I was up at 4am and hit the road at 5am. I decided to run all the way from the east side of White Rock to Ocean Park (a little over 6k) then down to Marine Dr and all the way along the promenade before heading back up the hill to go home. It was an exceptional morning for a run and no surprise to me that 2 1/2 hours later I had done a 16k. It still amazes me that I can run for that long.

This week is National Volunteer Appreciation Week so I want to start by thanking anyone reading this blog who is a volunteer for the work they do. And please, no one sell yourself short. If you volunteer in any capacity in your community which I will note includes things like coaching kids sports teams then you are in fact a volunteer and you deserve to be thanked for what you do.

I get that many of us find ourselves to be short on free time and that sometimes means it is difficult to find spare minutes to give but I cannot stress enough how fulfilling volunteerism can be. For me it is almost like an addiction in that just one little thank you is all it takes to keep me going. Some of the organizations I work with will occasionally offer a small thank you gift such as a gift card to a coffee shop. I get that most of them don’t have a lot of funds and rely on people like me to help them provide all their services so I am ok with just an acknowledgement.

This time of year is when volunteering means the most to me. My year round volunteerism includes weekly calls to isolated seniors and this year I added leading a senior’s walk each week. However, during March and April I participate in a volunteer income tax clinic whereby I prepare income taxes for low income seniors. This is such a humbling experience as I see how little some of these seniors are able to live on. This is just compounded by the fact that we live in one of the most expensive areas in the world. And yet, none of the seniors I help complain, rather they thank me profusely. Sometimes they want to send me gifts as a thank you but I explain I do this because I want to help those that need it. Their appreciation is more than enough to convince me that I need to do this again next year.

So, you want to get a bit of a mental boost? Find a way to volunteer and help in your community. Trust me, you won’t regret it.