Not to much really.....

I help the people in my neighborhood. I have a few I help regularly. One is Amanda, I take her food and drive her places, she has no car and and she is mentally impaired, but very religious. I just keep my mouth shut on that subject. The other is a recent widow, I've been taking over food for her and her husband for about a year, and then last week he died. I just took over potato soup to her so she would have something easy to heat. While I was in North Carolina, I volunteered at the senior center and meals on wheels. I also have donated 4 gallons of blood. I do what I can, I think we all should.

Well, we live in a street with a cul-de-sac at the end (that's where our house is). I've met the people living on the cul-de-sac, say hello, and that's pretty much it. I have met a few people in the street having a small talk out of the car's window. For the rest no contacts. Since last year we subscribed to a neighborhood app, which keeps us posted for stray dogs and cats. Runaways, need for assistance, by which we gained one contact. A young student as a pet sitter. So, not really part of a community, but that's how we like it actually. We did not leave the community in the Netherlands to get sucked in here again.
Actually, this site is the best community I have had since a long time.
But, if people need help, I'm willing to give it when they ask me directly.

I actually live in a really good community of just under 10,000. Most probably are not involved heavily due to work and family commitments though many are. So I am not alone in the effort I put in. Yesterday set up community pantry, opened 2nd hand book stall, moved fences in toddlers playground, organised community gardeners, gave pep talk to our distance ed high school kids, sorted a scholarship for one of them, gave 2 lessons in the tech centre, played with and patted many dogs then went and packed everything up. I spend at least 2 days a week here, I get paid $200 a week for 2 days, rest is voluntary. some weeks can include traveling and work at night. I have various nomenclature with "Sustainability Coach" being the most visible current one. We have many such organisations in our region and I would like to see many more.
[pottsvillebeachnc.org.au]

Every time I take a walk in my neighborhood, I am disgusted by the trash laying along the sidewalks, so I pick up a few pieces of debris and put them in the trash cans with every walk. If every person walking would pick up even one piece of trash and put it in the cans , there would be no garbage on the ground. Of course, it would be great to keep people from littering to begin with.

I donated money to my local library and I've visited/helped an incarcerated person who requested our organization's assistance. I'm in the process of moving cities, but my positive experiences volunteering in criminal justice reform efforts here have really encouraged me to do more volunteering in the future.

paid my taxes....... not much else this week, I'm ashamed.

Lol. I've just been fired from a volunteer job that I never had. I was trained to talk to people about elder abuse. World elder abuse recognition day came up last July so I contacted them asking for a copy on DVD of some videos they put on YouTube plus a 100 pamphlets be sent out so that I could take my computer and show them at the local supermarket which I would organise with the manager. Oh no came back the response. Copy it yourself and do your own printing. And we haven't insured you because we haven't done a police check on you ... this being the first time that it had been mentioned. Track forward to last week and I received letter telling me that I had been fired citing as one of the reasons my opinion on their failure last July. The organisation is sponsored by the State Attorney General's office. They also refuse to acknowledge that the greatest elder abuse occurs from government departments and quasi departments.

Nothing. And thanks for reminding me.