My Most Meaningfull Volunteer Work

I have always loved children. Children are the most innocent, generous people on the planet, and we entrust our future to them. So when I heard about an opportunity to work with kids at my church, I took it. It was an unpaid position, of course; and really, who needs money when they're doing what they love?

My work was simple. I helped keep charge of a dozen children, 1st and 2nd graders, every Wednesday evening. The other volunteers and I played games with the kids and taught them lessons such as "Do Unto Others" and the Pledge of Allegiance. We had story time, snack time, game time, and so on. Everything was wonderful.

But several months into the program, I was in a car wreck. My vehicle was totaled and I was taken from the scene in an ambulance. Shortly after arriving at the hospital, I found that my shoulder was broken, and I would be unable to work for at least a month. Upon impact with the other vehicle, my seat-belt had jerked tight, snapping my collar bone clean in two.

Even so, no injury will keep me from my kids, and I believe that their cheerful faces does more good than anything a doctor can prescribe. So it was only a few weeks later that I returned to my volunteer work, to be enthusiastically greeted by my little angels. Of course they wanted to climb up me and play games to welcome me back; the other workers warned the kids to be gentle, but I really didn't mind. Playful spirits shouldn't be hindered. I was as glad to see the children as they were to see me, and we goofed off to our hearts' content.

I suppose all things must come to an end, as did that program, which lasted the better part of a year. I miss the children terribly, of course, but I still see some of them from time to time. Those were days that will not be son forgotten, and it remains my hope that every one of those children will live a life filled with faith, hope, and love.