We do not need a pandemic to get us involved in volunteering. People with a myriad of interests and skills volunteer for many reasons.

Volunteering can take many forms. It can vary from walking a dog, to being part of an election team to delivering meals to seniors. Or perhaps telephoning and saying hello to someone who is alone, helping run an event, or teaching elderly people how to operate a computer. The list is endless. Here are 21 reasons why people volunteer.

1. Some people wish to give back to their community.

2. Working with a volunteer organization can provide one with a sense of community.

3. Volunteering helps to build a community.

4. Volunteering is a way to meet new people.

5. Someone in their family or a friend was helped through a difficulty by an organization and they want to ensure others do not have this difficulty.

6. They want and need social contact.

7. Because of their children’s activities.

8. To do something meaningful as their job does not provide this.

9. They are at a stage of life and want to do something meaningful.

10. Because they have spare time.

11. Because their school required it.

12. Because they are moved by an injustice and want to do something about it.

13. They want to change the world.

14. A natural disaster propels their community into action, and they become involved.

15. They were asked by a friend or family member.

16. To learn skills.

17. Because volunteering plays a major role in healthy aging.

18. Volunteering makes you feel better.

19. Belief in a cause.

20. A release for someone who has lost a partner or gone through a marriage breakdown.

21. Wanting to leave a legacy.

Volunteering can be done at any age. I have a 97-year-old friend who is ACTIVE in raising money for an outreach program at his church. I also read recently about a 93-year-old woman, Helen Macdonald from Orillia, who until her final days knitted teddy bears, with the proceeds going to local charities.

In spite of, or because of, challenges from COVID-19 there are still many choices to get involved and help others:

• Ask a friend for ideas

• Go online under COVID volunteering activities or

• Join a service club such as Rotary which is a volunteering organization

Whatever you choose, volunteering will be both good news to you and for whom you volunteer.

Editors note - this is an excerpt of a longer article. To read the full article, click here.

Cover photo by OCG Saving The Ocean on Unsplash

Chris Snyder, CFP, RFP is one of the early pioneers in the Canadian financial planning world. Chris understands that while much of life revolves around money; life is about much more than that. He has been a founder and/or board member of many charitable organizations including Project Mainstream in India, Street Kids International and Bakong Technical College in Cambodia, the Canadian Landmine Foundation, Toronto's Youth Employment Services, the Nature Conservancy of Canada(Ont) and Alpine Ontario. A long-time member of the Rotary Club of Toronto, he leads groups of Rotarians to the developing world to build schools and lead other valuable community projects. Most recently he has been working on First Nations initiatives and is the founding chair of HIP (Honouring Indigenous Peoples). In 2018, Chris was awarded the Sovereign’s Medal for Volunteers in recognition of his many contributions to volunteering in various communities. You can buy his book  "Creating Opportunities - A Volunteer's Memoir," published by Hilborn's Civil Sector Press. He can be reached at snyder@eccgroup.ca