The Family Of Volunteers

Marge, don’t discourage the boy! Weaseling out of things is important to learn. It’s what separates us from the animals! Except the weasel.

—Homer Simpson

We don’t usually derive inspiration from the words of Homer Simpson, but next week is National Volunteer Week, and in our quest to understand why more people don’t volunteer, we thought it might be worthwhile to consult America’s slacker laureate.

The National Bureau of Labor Statistics (NBLS) recently reported that in the year ending September 2006, both the number of volunteers and the rate of voluntarism declined from the previous year. About 30 percent of women and 23 percent of men did volunteer work in that period, down from 32 and 25 percent the year before. Perhaps we aren’t the only ones who have been consulting Homer Simpson.

Homer almost had it right. We do distinguish ourselves from many other species, weasels included, not by evading responsibility and service to others, but by seeking it out. Sacrificing one’s time, energy, and resources for the sake of those in need, who are often vulnerable and weak, doesn’t fit the evolutionary scheme for most species. And yet, one in four of us continue to do it, year in, year out. What does one quarter of the population know that escapes the other three quarters?

The statistics suggest an answer. The NBLS found that married persons volunteer at a higher rate (32.2 percent) than those who have never married (20.3 percent) or who are no longer married (21.3 percent). Parents with children under 18 are far more likely to volunteer (34.4 percent) than those without children (23.6 percent). Another survey on giving and volunteering in the United States, conducted in 1999, showed that families with two, three, and four persons volunteered together at a rate of 26.8 percent, 30.6 percent, and 37.5 percent respectively. It is clear from these numbers that families create volunteers. Families are where we learn that taking care of each other, without conditions or compensation, has long-term benefits, not just for our security and physical well-being, but for our emotional well-being as well.

What the volunteers in these surveys seem to understand is that the notion of family is a flexible thing that can be stretched to include even strangers. National Volunteer Week, April 15–21, is an invitation and an opportunity for us to expand the horizon of our concern beyond ourselves and our close relations to encompass our community, our country, and our world. Homer Simpson is right. It is important to teach our children by example — our own example, not the weasel’s. For those wishing to start close to home, we offer a listing below of volunteer opportunities here in Newtown.