Starting young: the importance of child volunteers

Experts say that it’s important to start learning skills like math, music, and languages at an early age . . . but what about community service? If a child learns to volunteer at a young age, will he or she be a better volunteer later in life?

Okay, I’m a volunteer coordinator and not a social scientist. I can only report on my own experiences combined with a good dose of common sense. And lately, I’ve had many an opportunity to observe younger volunteers at work.

On Sunday morning I coordinated another gardening project that was billed as a family-friendly volunteer opportunity, so lots of kids and parents came out to help. I was a little taken-aback by how young the kids were (between ages 3-6). I was worried about whether we’d complete the project in time but trusted that the parents knew their child’s abilities better than I did. This definitely proved to be the case.

At first it was fairly obvious that the kids didn’t want to volunteer on a Sunday morning (Sundays are after all prime cartoon time). But over the course of the project, the kids began to be more engaged and less apprehensive.

One of the older girls was in charge of checking every flower to see which ones needed water and I’ve never come across a more enthusiastic waterer! She made sure no plant went thirsty, and sometimes I had to reign in her exuberance for the sake of the flowers. Similarly a three-year old boy was so excited when he was asked to collect the garden tools that he started to take the trowels out of people’s hands!

By the end, the kids were scrambling over who got to do what and totally involved in the project. Although these kids were made to volunteer by their parents, they ended up working hard because they began to understand how good it feels to help others. And in my profession, it’s very encouraging to see young kids loving volunteer work!

So the hypothesis was tested, sort of. I guess to truly test my theory I would need to contact these kids in twenty years to see if they volunteer more than the average adult. This probably won’t happen . . . but tune in to our blog in twenty years to find out! I however feel fairly confident in saying that these kids have started to cultivate a lifelong passion for volunteerism.

Were three-year-olds the best gardeners a volunteer coordinator could wish for? Well . . . they were certainly the cutest. And seeing young kids get their hands dirty to help low income seniors warmed my heart and made me more optimistic about the future of volunteerism.