“I never did a day’s work in my life. It was all fun. “
— Thomas Edison
When I speak, everyone jumps. At least today they did.
We ran an office evacuation drill, but since the building managers wouldn’t sound the fire alarm, we had to improvise. I was asked to give the announcement over the PA system. Since the system does not work very well, I had to to be loud. Very loud.
When it was time, I walked over to our facilities manager’s desk, took the phone from her and with my absolutely loudest, most authoritative voice proclaimed,
“This is a drill!! We are evacuating the building immediately …”
After finishing the rest of the announcement, I looked up. There were about 50 engineers scrambling for the exit. Dawning my yellow hat and orange vest, I joined my fellow emergency responders and swept the building and shooing people outside. The rest of the drill was routine. We learned a few things and will be better prepared next time.
Had this been a real emergency, the fire alarms would have done the announcing for me. But at least for this one time, I had the pleasure of being the alarm.
The point? None really. It was just an enjoyable volunteer job.
Volunteering is fun. Alarmingly so.
Volunteered to be a fire alarm. I may add that to my resume.
Give Our Time 
All good. I am amazed at how much volunteering you do — you and Mr. Edison are on the same page about having fun no matter what.
Honestly, finding time to volunteer isn’t really very hard. What I wrote about today took about 30 seconds (yelling into a PA) and the whole drill took about 20 minutes.
Another example that I didn’t write about was being the line judge last night at my daughter’s volleyball game. I was going to the game anyway, and I just said that I can help out while I watch the game. So, it really didn’t take any extra time.
I think the key is just to look at what we’re doing, and try to bend it so that what we do helps more people.
(And, yes – find ways to have fun while volunteering.) Thanks Natalie!