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Volunteering... We
are always looking for people just like you
to fill some vacancies.
Volunteers help sports happen for kids Lorne
Gunter
They
are not famous. Unless you know them, you’ve probably never heard of them. But
if you have school-aged children playing sports you’ll know a score of people
just like them. And you’ll be just as indebted to the ones you know as my
family is. They’re volunteer coaches, managers, and treasurers of our children’s sports and school teams, volunteer instructors at sport camps, and the executives of sports clubs and leagues. They put in hundreds and hundreds of hours – unpaid – every year recruiting, organizing, adjudicating and patiently dealing with parental complaints and endless “helpful” suggestions. They
sooth wounds and massage egos. They teach, train, mentor, and motivate. And
all for the love of the game and satisfaction of helping young people grow as
players and individuals. They
show up before everyone else, stay until the last equipment bag is packed, until
the last player has left the dressing room. They devise the drills for practices
and plays for the games, make sure the balls (or pucks) are ready, fill water
bottles, collect the player cards, fill out the game sheets and ensure every
player and all the parents know when and where the next event is. Then
they answer phone calls and e-mails all week from those of us who have
forgotten. And
when they’re not doing that, they’re attending classes and clinics to
improve or raise their certification levels. If
they’re team or league executives there are all those meetings, too. Who
manages team funds and registers for tournaments? Organizes road trips? Year-end
parties? The
bulk of the work, the stresses and the mundane chores that make any team hum
fall on those who volunteer for the official positions. Imagine that, giving up half a weekend day every week for
nearly three months just to teach fundamentals to other people’s kids. Imagine
what that says about your commitment to kids and to your sport. Most
coaches have their own kids in sports, usually on the team they coach. But they
often have other kids involved, too, in different sports or at other age levels.
So the time they spend with our kids is far from the time they devote to
children’s activities. Imagine
having to do all you do for your own kids’ activities and coach a team
on top of that. Talk
about dedication. These
volunteers build character, develop skills, try to win as often as possible and
yet somehow still manage to keep things fun and interesting. Our
kids are not only better athletes for the time and energy they give, but better
people too. _________________________________________________________________________________________
Some of the areas you can help:
Contact
our President for
more information. |