Established in 1974, National Volunteer Week (held annually on the third week of April) is a time to celebrate volunteers, recognize their impact, and encourage volunteerism in our communities. Community-based organizations across the country celebrate National Volunteer Week as a way to recognize “the power of volunteers to tackle society’s greatest challenges.”
Volunteering has social, mental, and physical benefits for people of all ages; but these benefits truly reveal themselves for seniors, who often have more time on their hands, are less physically active, and engage less with the community than the average resident.
Volunteering can pull seniors out of isolation, even if it’s only for a handful of hours a week. Volunteering at events at local religious institutions, parks, and museums are a great way to interact with a wide range of people in the community. Volunteering provides opportunities to keep conversation flowing, constantly stimulate the brain, and help overall cognitive functions stay active.
If you’re looking for ways to stay active, volunteering can be a great option for that as well. Whether it’s volunteering door-to-door for candidates in your local elections, helping build community gardens, or something in between, there are many opportunities to support the community and stay active.
Retirement is obviously an exciting and freeing time, but you may sometimes struggle with finding ways to fill your time. Volunteering can help get you out of the house a couple times a week and keep your social engagements alive. But the best part? It can be done on your own schedule!
Volunteering also gives you something to look forward to…where work engagements and meetings used to be the reason you got out of bed, volunteering can become a reason to get started in the morning!
According to the Urban Institute’s most recent data, Americans volunteer 8.8 billion hours annually. Volunteers help organizations fill critical gaps in service for nearly every community in the United States. Without our nation’s volunteers, we wouldn’t have some of the programs that many communities rely on today!
Interested in finding volunteer opportunities near you? Call us at 269-441-0930.