"Only when we give joyfully, without hesitation or thought of gain, can
we truly know what love means." —Leo Buscaglia

We are very fortunate at the assisted living community I run to have been recently blessed with a renewed energy in our volunteer program.

A couple of weeks ago, members of the three baseball teams from the local high school walked over to our community and offered us a hundred volunteer hours in one fell swoop! This visit encouraged additional students to volunteer that visited that day because of the meaning and value they got (not to mention the community service hours!) from giving of their time.

With National Volunteer Week here and in Canada around this time, we are celebrating that we know that the act of volunteering not only provides variety and options for our Aegis residents, it gives them added socialization opportunities and it creates a synergy of learning is with the volunteers.

There is a whole other side to volunteering that has value. The benefit experienced by the volunteer is immeasurable in my opinion, but now a study being conducted by Baycrest, an academic health science center in Toronto, is looking at whether volunteering can boost health in retired boomers. They will try to measure whether specific volunteering activities can actually improve cognitive functions such as memory and attention.

I commend Baycrest on taking on this endeavor. Anything that can persuade others to volunteer more is aces in my book. But I can tell you from my experience in assisted living and memory care, volunteering benefits all involved…without question.

So I ask you to consider donating a little of your time and ask someone you know to do the same. Do it together. You will probably get even more out of it than the residents do...and they get a lot!