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Finding meaning in life
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| H&N photo by Andrew Mariman Kayla Mee, 15, works at Sky Lakes Medical Center with the junior guild volunteers, performing duties such as escorting patients in wheelchairs and taking flowers to rooms. Mee started volunteering at age 14. |
Giving back yields a multitude of rewards
By TY BEAVER
H&N Staff Writer
When the first heavy snows fall in the Klamath Basin, Leroy Cabral receives phone calls from elderly residents, asking for help shoveling their sidewalks. His job is to find people willing to do an hour or two of work in the winter cold.
Volunteering is an everyday task for Cabral. As executive director of the United Way of the Klamath Basin, he helps those interested in volunteering connect with organizations that need help. The local United Way’s annual community campaign collects hundreds of thousands of dollars for local charities and volunteer organizations. This year, the United Way’s goal is $900,000.
Volunteering and community activism don’t just make the world a better place, Cabral said. They also help those providing the help, giving them a feeling of self-worth and injecting meaning into their lives.
“There is more to their life than their little spot,” he said.
Cynthia Bourgeau, a licensed clinical social worker and behavioral science coordinator at Cascades East Family Medicine, said people do feel positive clinical effects from getting involved in their community.
Those with depression tend to benefit most from volunteering and getting involved in a community project. But the depressed often isolate themselves and are reluctant to reach out.
“The smaller your social circle, the worse your depression gets,” she said.
As a private practitioner, she’ll often recommend clients volunteer or find another community activity that helps others. And often, she said, those clients begin to feel better about themselves and their lives. Many find a cause they connect with, such as helping hospice or cancer patients after losing a family member to the disease.
Richard Pohl, a psychology professor at Oregon Institute of Technology, said there are a variety of social reasons people become active in humanitarian causes and community activities, including their faith and upbringing.
There are physiological connections to caring about something outside of oneself, he said. For example, studies indicate that age of death is strongly determined by the number of social connections one has in life. Elderly people who care for a pet or even a plant live longer than those who don’t.
More than money
Both Bourgeau and Cabral agreed it can be difficult to find the time outside of work and family to volunteer. But living a life where one only seeks to “just get by” can lead to problems, they say.
It’s important to provide for one’s family and live comfortably, but money is just a tool, Cabral said.
Those with limitations or doubts should volunteer, Bourgeau said. The disabled and those unable to work full-time benefit from involvement because they can see the fruits of their contributions.
However, Cabral noted people aren’t only thinking about community when they drop money in a collection box or work in a soup kitchen during a lunch hour. The 120 volunteers he works with each year to raise money for the United Way are just one example.
“These people, they keep coming back,” he said.
See Sunday's paper for more stories about local volunteers.
Volunteering is an everyday task for Cabral. As executive director of the United Way of the Klamath Basin, he helps those interested in volunteering connect with organizations that need help. The local United Way’s annual community campaign collects hundreds of thousands of dollars for local charities and volunteer organizations. This year, the United Way’s goal is $900,000.
Volunteering and community activism don’t just make the world a better place, Cabral said. They also help those providing the help, giving them a feeling of self-worth and injecting meaning into their lives.
“There is more to their life than their little spot,” he said.
Cynthia Bourgeau, a licensed clinical social worker and behavioral science coordinator at Cascades East Family Medicine, said people do feel positive clinical effects from getting involved in their community.
Those with depression tend to benefit most from volunteering and getting involved in a community project. But the depressed often isolate themselves and are reluctant to reach out.
“The smaller your social circle, the worse your depression gets,” she said.
As a private practitioner, she’ll often recommend clients volunteer or find another community activity that helps others. And often, she said, those clients begin to feel better about themselves and their lives. Many find a cause they connect with, such as helping hospice or cancer patients after losing a family member to the disease.
Richard Pohl, a psychology professor at Oregon Institute of Technology, said there are a variety of social reasons people become active in humanitarian causes and community activities, including their faith and upbringing.
There are physiological connections to caring about something outside of oneself, he said. For example, studies indicate that age of death is strongly determined by the number of social connections one has in life. Elderly people who care for a pet or even a plant live longer than those who don’t.
More than money
Both Bourgeau and Cabral agreed it can be difficult to find the time outside of work and family to volunteer. But living a life where one only seeks to “just get by” can lead to problems, they say.
It’s important to provide for one’s family and live comfortably, but money is just a tool, Cabral said.
Those with limitations or doubts should volunteer, Bourgeau said. The disabled and those unable to work full-time benefit from involvement because they can see the fruits of their contributions.
However, Cabral noted people aren’t only thinking about community when they drop money in a collection box or work in a soup kitchen during a lunch hour. The 120 volunteers he works with each year to raise money for the United Way are just one example.
“These people, they keep coming back,” he said.
See Sunday's paper for more stories about local volunteers.
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