Freckles and Fingernails

If you didn’t know, you're no longer living. At least not on the surface. Everything that meets the human eye is dead—from your freckles to your fingernails, everything people see has passed on. Except for one part. Your eyes. And since your eyes are the only things really living, have them watch closely. I want to show you something.

According to Jane Allyn Piliavin (a sociologist at the University of Wisconsin,) volunteering has positive effects on a person’s psychological well being and their self-reported health. Meaning this: those who volunteer feel better about themselves, both in their mind and body. So if you're not feeling well, you know what might help? Focusing on others, and taking your eyes off of yourself for a while.

Isn’t it strange that the one thing about humans that is both readily visible and actually living is meant to look outward? Unless you’re looking in a mirror, you can’t see yourself. And if you’re looking at others—if you see where they’re hurting and do something to help—you’ll actually be helping yourself. A little backward, maybe. But that depends on how you’re looking at it.

It’s sort of ironic, isn’t it? Possibly the best way to help yourself is to help others. And it runs even deeper than that. Think about it this way: like the individual human, society can look dead on top. What we mostly see are the things—places of employment, grocery stores, restaurants, theatres—but the part that’s really living is the one thing staring back. There’s no such thing as waitresses, valets, or even the homeless. They’re just plain old people; still living, same as you and me.

           What I’m getting at is simple. Just like the body relies on cells for support and health, a society relies on individual people in order to function properly. Helping others does more than make you feel good—it really does good, for you and for them. Let's stop living like we’re dead. At the risk of sounding trite: let’s open our eyes and live.

Helping Self by Saving Others

When most people volunteer, they think they’re helping others. While this is true, few stop to consider the positive outcomes for the volunteers themselves.

There are a lot of positive outcomes brought about by volunteering, for everyone involved. By helping out at the Salvation Army or another benefit organization, you are not only assisting those in need, but you are also helping yourself in several ways. While the benefits are life long, I believe college might be the best time to get started.

When you volunteer you become part of something bigger—a community of people who all have one goal in mind.  As a student you go through so many changes, and often times it can be difficult to find a place to fit in. Volunteering can help you find a place, and make the transition into adulthood a little less nerve-racking. You develop relationships with people who can help you as you help them. 

Another great way volunteering will benefit you involves another potentially scary aspect of being a student: your future.  By volunteering you start to create a resume for yourself to carry through school with you and eventually give your employers something positive to look at (amongst the terrific grades and jobs you have also acquired, no doubt.) 

There are so many reasons to get out and volunteer, so why not start today? You could change someone’s life, and you just might transform your own.

Every Little Bit

Tsunamis, earthquakes, poverty and lost souls; the news is plagued with examples of the ways that the world is falling apart. But there are some people trying to put it back together.

The Salvation Army provides many people with food, shelter, and recreation centers for children, both at home and abroad. In addition, The Sal helps with rehabilitation of prisoners or drug and alcohol abusers. They help provide disaster relief; the list goes on and on. There are any number of ways that ordinary people can help with regard to any of the previously mentioned areas, as well as many other efforts that might better fit the volunteer. Anyone can help—people like me. People like you.

It goes without saying that everyone needs all of the help that they can get, but every little bit counts. You could involve friends and set up a group volunteer day, or even just an hour or two to get a break from homework and other obligations.

Volunteering helps, whether it's a little or a lot. You don’t need to travel across the world to find people in need. They’re right in our backyard. And so are organizations, which already have a system, set up to help those people both near and far away. Even if you can only lend a hand here and there, it will help to carry the load.

The Work of Thieves and Prostitutes

The Salvation Army is up to great things! Recently, the Sal lent many hands to help sort out the disarray caused by the March 11^th earthquake in Japan.  Further, the Salvation Army aids in programs aimed to make the world we live in a better place.

This betterment started around 1852 when William Booth left the traditional pulpit and set forth as a traveling evangelist in England. Preaching and converting willing ears to Christianity were Booth’s first priorities, and by 1874 he had about 1,000 volunteers under his guidance. His pursuits were not without strife. Many congregations were unwilling to accept Booth’s efforts because great sums of his converts were “thieves, prostitutes, gamblers, and drunkards”.

Regardless, the Hallelujah Army (a name given to “General” Booth and his followers) spread the message across London. During the years of 1881 and 1885, 250,000 people converted to the cause and Christ under the new namesake The Salvation Army.

Overseas in America, the Sal didn’t gain a foothold until 1880 when Lieutenant Eliza Shirley stressed a call to action, sending word to Booth back in England. That same year, Commissioner George Scott Raiton and company held a meeting in New York. Lo! The mockery didn’t end in England! The Salvationists were met with bitter reluctance upon arriving in America, yet they overcame adversity and arrests, eventually expanding operations to a handful of states.

Credit is not properly given without mentioning Booth’s wife and co-founder of the Salvation Army, Catherine. Today, The Salvation Army is active and participating in charitable work in 124 countries. The organization pays it forward tenfold by helping the less fortunate and making meaningful contributions to communities all over the globe.

So do like Kevin Spacey and pay it forward! Volunteering in the smallest ventures is better than not volunteering at all! A little help can go along way and putting a smile on another’s face is better than any form of material compensation.

**Historical information is credited to The Salvation Army website. For more information check it out!