In every community there is work to be done. In every nation there are wounds to heal. In every heart there is the power to do it.
- Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love

It is Saturday, and I am at the Shelter of Hope in Cobourg helping my daughter, Sian, and her friend, Juliette, volunteer. We wash out dirty litter boxes, scrub off caked-on cat food, fold towels and sweep litter-sprinkled floors. We take a short-legged pug-faced pooch for a putter about the facilities. In between all this, we cuddle and snuggle every purring bundle of fur so many times that we lose count. Margaret, a long-time volunteer turned staff-member, lets the girls take each cat out of its cage for a play, and I watch them toss jingling balls for the kittens who scurry behind garbage-pails of cat food.

"I don't want to go home!" the two pet hair-covered girls say, but after three hours of kitty litter cleaning and too-small a breakfast on my part, I must insist. Before we go, Juliette begs for one last hug with her already-favourite cat, a pear-shaped calico called Cuddles, who circles her paws around Juliette's neck, and licks her ear until Juliette explodes into a fit of giggles. Cuddles sure knows how to show appreciation for volunteers.

What, I ask them, did they enjoy most? Juliette grows serious. "Getting to help make cats happy that don't normally get attention and love." My daughter nods in agreement. "And helping people," she adds. She doesn't mind cleaning out cat poop, she explains, if it helps those who love the animals.

In a world saturated with media images of school shootings, terrorist threats, foreign debts and plundering corporations, it's easy to forget about the almost 12 million Canadians that contributed almost 2 billion hours of volunteer service to their community in 2004 alone. And while some contributed their time as part of mandatory service, an overwhelming majority (92%) did so because they wanted to "contribute to society" and "to make a difference."

That was also the reason my husband and I started looking into volunteering. We were both in our early 30s and had spent our 20s shifting from continent to continent, building careers and nursing infants. Now we were settled, happy, our kids in school, each of us working at jobs we loved, and we both felt a desire to do more. To reach out and do something for the community. But what? Neither of us wanted to miss any more time with the children or each other - it felt so short as it was.

That's when I discovered "family volunteering", a concept I decided to take a closer look at.

"It's not a new concept," says Marlene Deboisbriand, president of Volunteer Canada. "For years people have been volunteering as couples and sisters [for things like] Meals on Wheels. What we're seeing now are parents wanting to use volunteering as a way to transfer [community] values to their kids."

Community values, like service and caring for others, were something that kept cropping up with almost every parent volunteer I spoke with. Traditionally, these values were learned in three places: church, school and at the family dinner table. With fewer families attending church, never mind the dinner table, and schools being stretched thin as it is, family volunteering is another way to get the "do unto others" adage across to the next generation.

"It's important to me as a parent that I teach my children that we're all responsible for one another as community members," says Judy Malfara, who often volunteers with her two daughters, Jessica, 15 and Marissa, 12. Their latest project was Tag Days for the YWCA, where the girls collected donations and handed out information on shelter services.

But the girls get more than value lessons out of collecting donations. "They get a sense of accomplishment," says Malfara. "They feel good about what they do for others." In fact, her daughters love volunteering so much that they now search out opportunities to do more. Malfara says her youngest daughter saw a poster for a yard sale to raise funds for breast cancer and asked her mother if she and her sister could take part. The family agreed, and the girls dropped off flyers, organized donations and priced everything.

"I'm so proud of them," says Malfara. "They're growing up to be socially responsible. And that's what it is to be a human being. It's not about how much money, or other things you have, it's how you treat people."

Wendy Mather, a mother of three girls, has also been volunteering with her family for years. Their most recent project was the Shelter Valley Folk festival, a grassroots music festival held every year in Grafton. While Wendy fundraised, her daughter worked in hospitality and her husband did administrative technical support.

Mather says that when it comes to volunteering, "there's nothing better for youth. Every child is filled with idealism and purposefulness; they need to have something to do. Through volunteering, not only are they making someone else feel good, they feel good too."

Like Jessica and Marissa, Mather's daughters also find ways to help out on their own. Her daughter, Emma, asked guests invited to her 7th birthday party to bring donations for the Shelter of Hope in lieu of presents. Her sister, Aislyn, plays violin for residents of nursing homes.

And these children are not exceptions - they are the general rule; studies show that children whose parents volunteer are much more likely to volunteer themselves, which is one of the reasons why Volunteer Canada and other non-profit organizations are promoting family volunteering. "Eleven per cent of Canadians are doing 77 per cent of the volunteering work," Deboisbriand tells me. "That's a thin base. It's to our advantage to look at all ways to increase that base."
And Deboisbriand, a single mother of two, understands how difficult it can be to find the time to volunteer in today's hectic world. "We're so stressed as families between the speed at which life happens and school and work, and - in some cities - commuting. That's all time away from the family." But despite the long hours inherent in working in the voluntary sector, Deboisbriand made sure to volunteer at Christmas time with her son, serving meals at a local soup kitchen. "It was important," she says, "for him to see that there were a lot of people that weren't doing as well as we were."

So how do you squeeze volunteering into an already chock-a-block life full of ballet lessons, hockey practices, continuing education and Simpson's episodes? "The key to volunteering is finding a fit with your life," says Alexis Smith. Smith, 24, is communications coordinator for the Northumberland Big Brothers Big Sisters, an organization that includes many volunteering families. A community volunteer since grade six, Smith comes from a long line of volunteers. Her mother, father and siblings all help out at various events, and her grandmother volunteers at the seniors' centre, helping out at yard sales and bake sales.

"It's important to volunteer in what you're interested in," adds Jessica Spors, a volunteer coordinator for the Peterborough YWCA. That way, you'll find the time. Both Smith and Spors also note that volunteering doesn't have to be a weekly or monthly commitment. There are plenty of one-off events, such as fundraising walks, bowl-a-thons and golf tournaments, that are looking for people to help out.
Volunteering doesn't have to be formal either. Just going out with your kids and picking up chocolate wrappers from the local park, or visiting an elderly neighbour for 15 minutes are acts of service. Christmas offers lots of opportunities to help out as a family, either by preparing Christmas hampers or buying a gift for a needy child.

"It's about making conscious choices," says Wendy Mather. "Instead of [heading to] Blockbuster, maybe we should see if the shelter needs support or the elderly lady needs her leaves raked."

So, taking all this advice to heart, my daughter and I decided to try the Shelter of Hope. After all, I come from a long line of unabashed dog-lovers; my brother and mother both foster abandoned dogs, and my own dog is a rescue from the Louisiana floods. And my daughter is the only eight-year-old girl I know who will pick up a live centipede in her hand and carry it outside the house to 'set it free.' So it just felt like a good fit.

And it was. Hours after volunteering at the shelter, my daughter was still elated, still chattering to her father about the cute, smokey-grey kitten, and the calico with the extra toes. That night, as I kissed my future veterinarian good night, she hugged me extra-tight and thanked me "so much" for letting her volunteer at the shelter. And I thanked her, too, for showing me how cleaning out a half-dozen kitty litter boxes could be so worthwhile.

Nerys Parry is a freelance writer and mother of two who lives in Port Hope.

International Volunteer Day
December 5, 2006 is International Volunteer Day, a day in which "volunteers around the world are recognized and celebrated for their contributions and dedication."For more information, visit Volunteer Canada's website at www.volunteer.ca/volcan/eng/content/dec5.

Volunteer Opportunities
For information on current volunteer opportunities and volunteer groups in Haliburton, Northumberland, Peterborough and the City of Kawartha Lakes, check out the Four Info website, www.fourinfo.com or call 905-372-8913. (To reach the United Way in Peterborough, email volunteer@uwpeterborough.ca or call
705-742-0393.