Speech on Volunteering

As Henry the 8th said to one of his wives, "I won't keep you long".

Good evening, members and guests.

The average American high school student is in school 7 hours a day, from 8AM to 3PM and is asleep 9 hours a day, from 10PM to 7AM. Over the years, I have noticed that San Mateo County high school students are not your average American high school students. Most of us are at school from sunrise to sunset, club meeting here, track meet there, "mom! I'll be home for dinner by six!" That's 10 hours a day at school! Thank God I'm graduating soon. And 9 hours of sleep a day? Who sleeps 9 hours a day? I know I don't, I'll be lucky to get 6. And now they're asking us to do community service? On weekends?

Over the years, interest in community service has slowly declined. People are hesitant to give their time and are more likely to point fingers and say, "community service? That's their job." Whose job?

Some will say that community service is the government's responsibility. They have the funds and the manpower. However, we see that the government is slowly abandoning the country's needy by such actions as welfare reform. In 1996, the states were allowed to cut welfare benefits to those who need them most. Professor Coffin at Harvard University, believes that "governments are not good at creating a fabric of care in communities" anyway, and that THAT should be where the churches come in.

And by some estimates, churches spend a total of $12 billion dollars a year on services for the needy. That number however, does not include the volunteers and their countless hours of service. Yet, community service is still declining. Why?

Some say its because the kids aren't helping out. Kids these days don't care ab...

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...is in them."

I'd like to end with a n analogy from Henry Emerson Fos*censored*'s 1920 book on the "meaning of service". It is an analogy from the Holy Land that talks about rivers, rivers that run parallel to human life.

The Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea are made of the same water. It flows down, clear and cool, from the heights of Harmon to the roots of the cedars of Lebanon. The Sea of Galilee makes beauty of it, for the Sea of Galilee has an outlet -- it gets to give. It gathers in its riches that it may pour them out again to fertilize the Jordan plain -- but the Dead Sea, with the same water, makes a horror. For the Dead Sea has no outlet -- "it gets to keep". Notice especially the phrase "it gets to give". It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.

Thank you for your time, I wish you ladies good luck, have a wonderful evening.