Why Community Service Matters - A Personal Leadership Journey

Why Community Service Matters - A Personal Leadership Journey
We are living in a society that has become more inward-looking. We live busy lives - raising children, building careers, tending to ageing parents, enrolling in adult education, travelling to exotic locations and trying to stay fit and healthy. We face rapid technological change, falling for the latest gizmos and then struggling to figure out how they operate.

The recent economic and financial events have exerted enormous stresses on individuals and organizations. What we are starting to realize - and fear - is that we will not be returning to what was. But what will be the new normal? We're increasingly a more mobile population. Our society has become more polarized economically as income distribution has been skewed towards a smaller share of high income earners.

These trends and issues are steadily reshaping North American society. And what may fall in the cracks along the way is a critically important aspect of what has helped define Canadians and Americans as caring and compassionate people: service to our communities.

My belief is that community service matters: that it plays a vital role in helping create strong, vibrant and inclusive communities. And at the level of the individual, it can contribute enormously to one's leadership growth. In this paper I'll share some of my diverse experiences in community volunteer work, what it has meant to me, and how it helped me along my personal leadership journey. And I will conclude with a call to action to stimulate the reader's personal reflection on community service.

My volunteer community service work was never done by design. That's to say, I didn't have a grand plan in mind when I began volunteering my time to various groups, or even as I proceeded along. I simply seized opportunities as they arose. But when I look back, I do feel a sense of pride and accomplishment - that I have made a positive difference in the communities where I lived and touched the lives of people.

This reminds me of a quotation from Deepak Chopra:

"I embrace the unknown because it allows me to see new aspects of myself."

Chopra's message is an invaluable tool with which to keep us open to outcome and not attached to it.

Let's begin. Before I moved to Ottawa several years ago I lived in New Brunswick where my wife, Sue, and I raised four kids. I've never quite understood what propelled me into doing volunteer work shortly after I graduated from university. My parents certainly never did much in the way of volunteer work. So I didn't have them as role models. But my earlier efforts included serving on the boards of directors of a credit union and, later on, cooperative housing. However, I realized after a few years that I didn't particularly enjoy the politics that underlay much of this volunteer work. I had to deal with enough of that at work. I decided, as a result, to direct my attention to what I'll call frontline community service work.

That opportunity came when my son Michael, now 26, was five years old. As a former Cub and Scout in Montreal (where I grew up), I urged Michael to get involved in Beavers (ages five to seven). I became a Beaver Leader, and for the next eight years followed Michael along the Scouts Canada program until he was 14. There were many work nights when I felt too drained, after wolfing down a quick supper, to head off to Beavers, Cubs or Scouts with Michael. But I can honestly state that within a few minutes upon arriving that my battery was recharged. Engaging with the other leaders and leading the kids through their program was a lot of fun - and rewarding.

Taking the boys on hikes and camping trips was especially rewarding as you watched them put onto practice what we had taught them at our weekly meetings. Of course, there were times when one's patience as a leader was tested. And there were some weird experiences with the boys. For example, I took our small Scout troop on a camping trip to Fundy National Park. It rained a lot and everyone was getting pretty squishy, and I instructed the boys to change their socks regularly.

On the third day, some of the Scouts started complaining about sore feet. One of the Scouts was in quite a bit of pain. Upon inspecting his feet they looked like swollen prunes. He was in the early stage of developing trench foot, a malady common with soldiers during the WW1 who spent a lot of time in wet trenches. My solution was for the boys to air out their feet for an afternoon, while drying out their footwear. A lesson learned for the Scouts! But it meant delaying activities while we dealt with the problem.

My years in Scouting produced one very pleasant surprise many years later. By sheer coincidence, the fiancé of my oldest daughter's best friend turns out to be one of my former Beavers. Robert is now 27, and a fine young man who works in Ottawa. I still vividly remember his grinning face as a six year old, who was a good sport and team player with the other boys. After a two-decade gap, it wasn't just a surprise to meet him again but it was wonderful to see how he had matured and become a contributing member to society. One of the rewards of leading youth.

Parallel to my Scouting adventures, I became actively involved with the United Way through my work in a federal regional office. I started out as a canvasser during the fall campaigns, moving up to coordinating it for my department in Fredericton, New Brunswick. During that very busy period, I began to understand much better the positive impact that organizations like United Way have on local communities. This especially came into focus when people who benefitted from UW programs came to speak to canvassers and coordinators about how they were helped (e.g., disabilities and health problems). In particular, it instilled in me how fortunate I was as an individual, as well as my children.

After a few years with the United Way, I shifted my volunteer efforts to the Red Cross. One of the activities I became heavily involved in was delivering first aid/CPR training. While there was some remuneration for this, much of the training I gave was done voluntarily, such as to those in Scouting, both leaders and youth.

Being a Red Cross trainer over several years was a wonderful learning experience from several perspectives. First, knowing that you were helping equip people to respond effectively to first aid emergencies was very satisfying. And this was reinforced when it involved training youth.

Second, it certainly helped strengthen my speaking skills, and especially how to plan and deliver training sessions. The courses were typically done on weekends involving 16 hours of instruction. By Sunday night I was exhausted, but feeling very satisfied that I had done something constructive for my community.

And third, because I am a big supporter of the Red Cross, delivering first aid training helped create awareness of the organization and its programs.

Tied to my Red Cross work was another aspect, and which would eventually lead to my involvement in the most meaningful volunteer work I have ever done - but first some context.

In addition to being a first aid trainer, I was also a member of the Fredericton Disaster Response Team. This comprised a large group of people who responded to small and large-scale disasters (e.g., house fires, flooding, and supporting search and rescue personnel). Some experienced members of the team also volunteered for assignments in other countries where they provided humanitarian relief following such events as hurricanes and earthquakes.

The nature of this volunteer work with the Red Cross is helping people in times of crisis. The Red Cross has one strategic goal, which I find very compelling: "To improve the situation of the most vulnerable." For me, this statement sums up eloquently what the Red Cross is about.

My most powerful experience I had with the Red Cross, and in fact with any community organization I've been involved, is my work in support of the Kosovar refugees in the spring of 1999. There were diverse views on whether it was appropriate for the federal government to airlift civilians out of a war-torn area in Eastern Europe to Canada. But for the Red Cross and its volunteers, it was a matter of extending a helping hand to those "most vulnerable."

The refugees were flown to Canadian Forces Base Greenwood in Nova Scotia, and then bused to CFB Gagetown in New Brunswick. The refugees consisted of men and women - young and old - and children. The plan was to house them temporarily in the Cadet barracks section of the military base.

Leading up to the arrival of the refugees, the Red Cross identified volunteers from their network. I arranged to take a few days off work since we would be working at Gagetown from midnight to dawn. The Red Cross then arranged briefings for the volunteers to explain our duties and how to conduct ourselves on the nights when our "guests" arrived. I also did some crash first aid training for some of the volunteers.

On my first night I arrived around midnight, and began the wait with the other volunteers for our guests. I definitely felt apprehensive about what was to unfold, especially since this was a new experience for all of us. Finally, around 2:00 am seven motorcoaches filed slowly onto the base, each packed full with people. Each bus had two translators to assist with the transition.

These people had traveled seven hours from CFB Greenwood. When each bus rolled up to the unloading station where a dozen or so Red Cross volunteers waited, we could see the haggard faces of the Kosovars peering at us through the windows. Some young children waved to us; others were very shy, taking occasional peeks, then burying their heads in their mothers' arms.

I vividly recall my first contact with the Kosovars. The first bus rolled up to the unloading area. The door opened and one of the translators stepped forward with his arm around the shoulders of a boy about 16 (the same age as my son at the time). "Hey everyone," the translator shouted to us, "It's his birthday today!" So we did the appropriate thing and sang happy birthday to this young lad. He bounded down the steps of the bus and ran up to us. He had the biggest smile on his face and began pumping each of our hands. It was a very emotional moment for all of us.