A statement made by a local resident a few weeks ago on social media about volunteering, brought back memories of what we once heard from a very experienced teacher saying to her students: “you have to promise me you will do well on your exams. Not because you wanted to please me or your parents, but because you’re convinced it‘s the right thing for you to do”. She then explained to us that saying that to her students was the way she had to ensure that in the future they could become the kind of members of society that will make them proud wherever they would go and also the only way she could guarantee that her students would always work hard for the right reasons.”

 

So we wonder, could this explain why volunteering has survived through good times and bad and has proven what another resident said in response to the initial statement: volunteering is the backbone of our community?

 

Volunteering must be a very gratifying feeling, similar to the one experienced by athletes who participate in a competition and see all their efforts rewarded with a victory that gives them the push to start again the next day. Would that explain why another contribution later stated: “This parish has some really fantastic people in it, you see the same faces, giving up time, helping others and trying to make our place the best it can be?”

 

When we look for the definition of volunteering, even in other languages, everyone agrees that volunteering is an action where individuals decide to provide a service to the community without expecting anything in return: they do so for ethical, ideological or spiritual reasons. As a noun, volunteer refers to the subject who decides to provide a service or perform a job of his/her own free will, without being obliged to do so for legal, contractual or economic reasons.

 

Just like the students on our account, a volunteer works hard for the right reasons. A volunteer, by the above definition, does not seek public recognition, which is all too often the mistake made by well-meaning outsiders who think they should publicly praise them. A volunteer does it for that intimate moment shared between donor and recipient; for that happy smile on a child’s face; the tear in the eye of a lonely old man; the gentle handshake of someone who only has a few seconds to live; but never by how those who have not been part of that magical moment, will judge them.

 

As a group, we’ve often praised volunteering at Ottery in our column with headlines like “The word volunteer has Ottery written all over it” noting that our popular pub The Volunteer was a recruitment centre for the Napoleonic War. Because we believe there is a hidden volunteer within each one of us, our survival instincts and our feelings of caring and compassion are always there, perhaps dormant and ready to awaken at the right time.

 

It was demonstrated during the last pandemic when people realised that they had time to satisfy that desire to help others without constrains of time or work. We saw many cases, such as the Toadpit Medical Services events Ltd Team, where they were forced to diversify due to the halt of all public events, signalling an unexpected kind of help brought about by the situation created by the war in Ukraine

 

During the festive season that incredible feeling returned to manifest itself. If you think that what you’ve read today has inspired you to follow in the footsteps of many who have responded to the needs caused by the current financial crisis, please do not hesitate to contact the many volunteer groups we have in Ottery. Today more than ever your help is needed. In the same way that getting fit, drinking less or eating healthy are some of our New Year’s resolution lists, volunteering should also have a special place at the top of our list.