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Volunteerism’s
Value
by Jim Sevy
My family has been working with the Friends of the Library in our town to
build a new library and to fund new books to fill it up. The main project
that we have been involved with has been the "Children's Millennial
Wall". This is a wall that will be filled with hand glazed tiles
created by "children" in our town, the "children" are
ages 0 -99. This project will help the children's library specifically and
will raise a fairly substantial amount of money. It will create a work of
art that everyone in the community, and especially those who participated
in it, will be able to appreciate. Those that have participated will have
wonderful memories that will be available physically in the wall itself.
Participants in the project will be able to find their tiles with a key,
that will be perpetually available in the library.
My children participated in this project by creating tiles, by helping
others create tiles, by helping their Mom organize the tile creation
events and with the counting and sorting of the completed tiles. This
participation has really given my kids a sense of accomplishment and a
real stake in the new library. I loved watching them confidently assist
others in creating tiles and explaining how the wall would go together in
the end. They feel a true responsibility to help make the wall turn out
the way the artist has planned it. This sense of responsibility and
accomplishment, which they will have for the rest of their lives, is the
real value of being involved. They will be able to bring their children
and grand children to the library to show them the tiles that they created
and the wall that they were an integral part in creating.
We owe it to our children to, first of all provide them with an example
of volunteerism, and secondly with the opportunities to volunteer and
serve others. We also owe this to our communities, our country and the
world. A society of individuals committed to serving one another is a
foundational element of many dreamed of Utopias.
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