POEMS, QUOTES AND SONGS TO CELEBRATE VOLUNTEERISM -- Niki Nestor McNeely

[Authors of the following poems, quotes and songs are unknown. If anyone can identify the author(s) of a particular
item, they should contact the web site so that a proper acknowledgment of authorship can be added.]

Ode To A Volunteer
Many will be shocked to find
When the day of judgement nears
That there's a special place in
Heaven set aside for volunteers.
Furnished with big recliners,
Satin couches and footstools
Where there's no committee chair
No group leaders or carpools.
Telephone lists will be outlawed
But a finger snap will bring
Cool drinks and gourmet dinners,
And rare treats fit for a king.
You ask,
Who'll serve the privileged few
And work for all they're worth?
Why, those who reaped benefits
And not once volunteered on earth.
- Author Unknown

Leadership
Leadership poses the problems of persistently prodding pokey persons to perform prodigious projects,
promote personal performance, pacify petulant people, and prevent parasitic practice and passive
performance and partisan politics while pursuing perpetual progress in projects, public and physical; plus
postponing piscatorial pastimes, picayunish pleasures, and parental pleasantries -- to perpetuate
participation in planned programs -- (piddling or planetesimal) procreating productivity and profuse,
potentials profound in proportion to participation. Prolific production proposes public permanence and
prevents paralysis of personnel -- pertinent perhaps prohibitively to progress. To summarize -- leadership
prods pooped people to produce.
Thoughts Of A 4-H Member
"Guess I'm not very good in 4-H. This was my first year, and I didn't seem to do too well. The kids like me
OK, but the leaders and junior leaders seem to like the other kids better."
"Seems like the leaders don't think you know anything unless you get an A at the fair and have perfect
writing and spotless paper on your records ... guess they don't understand about little sisters and writing
with crayons." "Last week, I was supposed to give a demonstration at our meeting. Boy, was I scared! I
was making brownies. I was kind a afraid at first, but then I started telling about the day I made some that
had dog hair in them. The other kids enjoyed hearing about it, and I thought they'd learn to be careful like
I did ... but Susie, our junior leader, gave me a dirty look so then I just read from the project book.
Afterwards, Susie said I should have used glass bowls and trays and posters and things like that. Guess
you just about have to be perfect to be a good 4-H member. I wish Susie had helped me before I gave
the demonstration and showed me how not to be afraid."

"We had a special achievement program for our 4-H Club. I'm really good in art and wanted to help
decorate ..., but this group of girls who are the president's friends wanted to do that. So I had to address
the invitations while Steve, another junior leader, kept checking on how we were doing and telling us to
hurry."
"Last week we had a 4-H tour. Since it was several miles away, I needed a ride. Mr. Kent, our 4-H leader,
finally gave me a ride, but he didn't seem very happy. Guess he thought Mom or Dad should have taken
me. I wish they would ..., but they don't think much of 4-H. The kids who have parents who are 4-H
leaders are lucky."
"I don't know if I'll stay in 4-H or not. I just don't seem to very good. When someone explains what I'm
supposed to do, and reminds me of the meetings, I usually try to do it... And some of my friends from
school seem to have a lot of fun on those afternoons that we have our 4-H meetings. Since I don't live on
a farm like some of the kids, may be I should just forget it. Wonder if anyone will miss me?"
- Author Unknown
(Found in the Ohio 4-H Newsletter from Ashland County "Clover Courier", June 1992. It was suggested
that this special story be shared with 4-H groups as they do their program evaluations.)
4-H Leader's Creed
I BELIEVE:
...The 4-H member is more important than the 4-H project.
...Learning how to do the project is more important then the project itself.
...4-H'ers should be their own best exhibits.
...No award is worth sacrificing the reputation of a member or a leader.
...Competition should be given no more emphasis than other fundamentals of 4-H work.
...Enthusiasm is caught, not taught.
...To learn by doing is fundamental in any sound educational program and is characteristic of the 4-H
program.
...Generally speaking, there is more than one good way to do most things.
...Every 4-H member needs to be noticed, to feel important, to win and be praised (leaders, too).
...Our job as leader is to teach 4-H members How to think, not What to think.
Source: anonymous
Volunteer's 4-H Pledge
I pledge my head to give children the information I can, to help
them see things clearly and to make wise decisions.
I pledge my heart to encourage and support children no matter
whether they have success or disappointments.
I pledge my hands to help children's groups; if I cannot be a leader,
I can help in many equally important ways.
I pledge my health to keep children strong and well for a better world
through 4-H, for children's groups, our community, our country and
our world.
adapted from Washington 4-H Volunteer's Leadership Handbook.
sent by: mary lee wood, idaho

4-H Leaders
Somewhere between the sternness of a parent and the comradeship of a pal is that mysterious creature
we call a 4-H Leader.
These leaders come in all shapes and sizes, and may be male or female. But they all have one thing in
common - a glorious twinkle in their eyes!
4-H Leaders are found everywhere - at judging contests, fairs, square dances, and talent shows. They
always are preparing for, sitting through, participating in, or recuperating from a meeting of some kind.
They are tireless consumers of muffins, expert at taking knots out of thread, peerless coaches, and spend
hours on the telephone.
A 4-H Leader is many things - an artist making a float for the Fourth of July, a doctor prescribing for an
underfed calf, a counselor at camp, a lawyer filling out reports, and a shoulder to cry on when that dress
just won't fit. Nobody else is so early to rise and so late to get home at night. Nobody else has so much
fun with so many boys and girls.
We sometimes forget them, but we can't do without them. They receive no salary, but we can never repay
them.
They are angels in aprons, saints in straw hats. Their only reward is the love of the kids and the respect
of the community. But when they look around them at the skills they've taught, and the youth they've built,
there's an inner voice from somewhere that says, "Well done."
Author Unknown

VOLUNTEER AND GIVING QUOTES

The purpose of human life is to serve and to show compassion and the will to help others.
--Albert Schweitzer
A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other
men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have
received and am still receiving.
--Albert Einstein
This is our special duty, that if anyone specially needs our help, we should give him such help to the
utmost of our power.
--Cicero
Service is the rent you pay for room on this earth.
--Shirley Chisholm
When you cease to make a contribution, you begin to die.
--Eleanor Roosevelt
We are here on earth to do good to others. What the others are here for, I don't know.
--W.H. Auden
Just as the wave cannot exist for itself, but is ever a part of the heaving surface of the ocean, so must I
never live my life for itself, but always in the experience which is going on around me. It is an
uncomfortable doctrine which the true ethics whisper into my ear: You are happy, they say therefore you
are called upon to give much.
--Albert Schweitzer
You have not done enough, you have never done enough, so long as it is still possible that you have
something to contribute.
--Dag Hammarskjold
Life is mostly froth and bubble, Two things stand like stone, kindness in another's trouble, courage in your
own.
--Adam Lindsay Gordon, "Ye Wearie Wayfarer" 1833-1870
To keep a lamp burning we have to keep putting oil in it.
--Mother Teresa
Wisdom is the power that enables us to use knowledge for the benefit of ourselves and others.
--Thomas J. Watson
If my hands are fully occupied in holding onto something, I can neither give nor receive.
--Dorothee Solle
We are rich only through what we give, and poor only through what we refuse.
--Anne-Sophie Swetchine 1869
by Mary Ellen Aamot, State 4-H Youth Development Specialist, South Dakota, used with permission from
We Give Love -- Giving is Such a Selfish Thing: Notes and Quotes on the Joys of Heartfelt Service by
John-Roger & Peter McWilliams. Prelude Press, Inc. 1993.