Holidays Aren’t the Only Time to Give

Not a year goes by that I don’t read a few more letters from well-meaning but late volunteer wanna-bes. Please, get involved earlier and throughout the year if you really want to help. Register with a volunteer center. Go to a library or walk into a social service agency and ask to look through their Resource Directory of Social Services (well over 3,000 entries in Orange County). Contact one or two and go in with a prepared list of things you can do for them.

You want to help during the Christmas/Hanukkah season? Go down in October and learn the ropes! Think Easter at the soup kitchen would be rewarding? Check it out in February. As a “year-rounder,” I avoid these times, since many people will pitch in a day or two around the holidays.

A couple years back I read a letter from a lady who was indignant that she and her husband went down to help in the veterans hospital Christmas Eve--and were treated less than honorably. For crying out loud, by that time they have everyone set in place, they’re trying to get home to their own families if possible and often get stuck handling eleventh-hour prima donnas who want to save the world-- tonight !

These agencies are not able to tell you that you are really in the way at the wrong times--and they need you at the right times.

PATRICIA BRYANT

Garden Grove