Love thy neighbor.
Do you? Do you go out of your way to help someone, to offer your time, or your expertise? Community service and the decision to make a difference impacts so much more than service you are helping, it impacts lives. Consider yourself a philanthropist.

A pessimist, they say, sees a glass of water as being half empty; an optimist sees the same glass as half full.
But a giving person sees a glass of water and starts looking for someone who might be thirsty.
– G. Donald Gale

Philanthropy is defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary philanthropy as:
PHILANTHROPY noun phi·lan·thro·py \ fə-ˈlan(t)-thrə-pē \
1 : goodwill to fellow members of the human race; especially : active effort to promote human welfare
2 a : an act or gift done or made for humanitarian purposes
b : an organization distributing or supported by funds set aside for humanitarian purposes

Becoming a philanthropist does not necessarily require a lot money.
But it does require a passion and desire to help promote the welfare of others within your community. Volunteering is not eligible for monetary payment, however you will be rewarded in many other ways. Community services has a plethora of various activities and opportunities. Your community can benefit in so many ways with not only your monetary donations, but the giving of your time through your work experience, your talents and your life skills.

Giving back to your community is where you become a humanitarian.
Your service impacts the society, the economic structure, the social structure as well as touching the lives of those you meet. In this article from “2011 Social Impact of Volunteerism” Some of the Key findings were:
Based on previous research on volunteerism, we found that:

1. Volunteering makes a significant contribution to the global economy
2. Volunteering enhances the social connections between different sectors, builds the bridges for governments, enterprises and employees
3. Volunteering helps build a more cohesive, safer, stronger community, increase the social network between communities and neighborhood
4. Volunteering promotes people to be more active in civic engagement and concerned of citizenship
5. Volunteering delivers some part of public services, encouraging more people work in public section, helping raise the educational performance of youth, leading environmental movement and adapting to climate change risk
6. Volunteering also have positive effects on volunteers as individuals, increase their self-esteem, enhance various skills and capacities, expand career paths and be healthier physically and mentally

How can you become more involved?
First you need to find your passion. There are so many organizations and opportunities looking for humanitarians, just like yourself, to step forward. Here are just a few opportunities that are in need:

1. Meals on Wheels
2. Patient volunteer at VA Hospital and other local hospitals
3. Children’s shelters
4. Family shelters
5. Pet shelters
6. Pet Foster
7. Oliver Gospel
8. Harvest Food Bank
9. Habitat for humanity
10. Hospice
11. USO

There are so many others. Check out this link that can help you locate your next volunteering adventure.

Community service can be successful through the assiduity of a lot people, will you be one of those people?

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