Volunteering

"The reasons for giving vary as much as the people who do it. Compassion, duty, love, guilt -- all these motives prompt us to share our time, our money, and our energy. But new research has revealed a surprising fact about what we get in return, whether we're supporting disaster relief or giving Grandma a hand with the groceries. It's more often the giver -- not the receiver -- who reaps the biggest payback.

The take-away, say scientists, amounts to much more than a passing feel-good moment: It's literally your health that stands to gain. In one study of 2,000 people conducted at the Buck Institute for Age Research in Novato, California, those who volunteered for two or more organizations had a whopping 44 percent lower likelihood of dying compared with those who didn't -- and that's after adjusting for other factors such as health, exercise, and marital status. Volunteering even beat out exercising four times a week (30 percent) and going to religious services (29 percent) when it came to promoting longevity. Another study of 427 women found that those who did any kind of volunteering had better physical functioning 30 years later. Next to quitting smoking, giving is the best possible thing you could do for your health -- making virtue truly its own reward."

I thought this article was Good News! I can say that volunteering helped us keep busy at a bad time in our life and perhaps keep our sanity. I just got through spending two weekends filling out United Way Funding paperwork though and I'm wondering the benefits of preparing 696+ printed pages for them. It's fun working at the Coffee House and volunteering our time there with the kids but there is a lot to running a non profit organization that is a big headache. The photo above is one of the reasons I do what I do. Rachel has already completed two pieces for the Art Competition at the Coffee House.