Volunteering

Bluebelle I'm sad you feel like that, I know that I look forward to your posts and though I don't always agree they give me food for thought or make me laugh. Other posters feel the same I know. You are valued on Gransnet.

I do three days a week for a children’s charity shop and love it and then I do lots of irregular bits and pieces like beach cleans, plastics pick up, helping out with anything going really it’s the only time I feel worth anything

I live in a town where there are very many opportunities for people to volunteer and most people I know do something.
Just some of the volunteer opportunities here include:
community orchard
resident's/tenant's associations
charity shops
dog walking
choirs
community cafe
foodbank
carnival committee
hospicecare
hospital friends
visiting elderly folk
community lunches
stewarding big events
scouts/cubs/brownies/air cadets
parent and toddler groups
library assistant
town in bloom

The list goes on and on so I'm sure that whatever your interests there will be something to suit you. Type 'charities in' the name of your town/city and do a google search - I think you're sure to find an opportunity.

I volunteer too, I do 2 shifts in my local Marie Curie charity shop, I lost my husband to cancer in Feb 2018 , it helps me to feel I'm helping in a very small way, and I do 2 shifts in my local hospital, (not where my husband was treated, that would've been too difficult for me). I've met lovely people , I would recommend it, it gets you out of the house and you feel you're helping other people. Life cant always about you can it. Happy New Year everyone x

I don't volunteer for an organisation as such, but voluntarily run community choirs and the village library. Very satisfying.

Suffering from empty best syndrome! I've spent several years looking after my grandchildren before and after school making the daily trips ferrying them back and forth, chatting to mums in the playground and taking part in the usual school events, assemblies, afternoons going to help etc. Now they're both at an age where I am surplus to requirements I'm feeling at a loose end. Having had cancer three years agoand being a sociable soul, I would quite like to help out in a cancer charity shop but am not quite sure how to go about it. Any suggestions please?

Agreed.
I volunteer two days a week. I meet new people, and we have a good rapport and sometimes some banter between colleagues, paid and unpaid. I learn something new every time and am helping others.

I volunteer at our local museum. Our area has an interesting history, and the museum highlights this. I love working on the desk, greeting visitors and trying to answer their many questions. Volunteering is one of the best things about retirement !