# do you volunteer?



## lcjaynes (Jul 25, 2014)

Do you volunteer in organized or non-organized community projects? 4-H, FFA, school, political parties, other organizations, other ways?

I'm not asking you to call attention to your efforts, I just am interested in what farmers do in that regard. And thanks in advance.

Lynn


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## stack em up (Mar 7, 2013)

I like to lector in church, as I really enjoy public speaking. With the farm and a family, there really isn't time for me to volunteer as much as I would like. When someone needs help though, I'll be the first one there.


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## luke strawwalker (Jul 31, 2014)

Nope... help folks out at church sometimes, usually disappointed when i try to help folks out, sometimes even church folks... (sometimes ESPECIALLY church folks!)

Run the scoreboard for Keira's softball, rather than work the stinking concession stand (did enough of that crap in HS when I was in FFA).

Other than that, forget about it...

Later! OL J R


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

I coached American legion baseball for 10 years.....that purity much wound me up, had several shanks in my back when I left 
Now, I just donate money, they all seem to like it......


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## stack em up (Mar 7, 2013)

somedevildawg said:


> Now, I just donate money, they all seem to like it......


I want to invite you to donate to our non-profit disorganization, also known as our farm.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

The wife and I are officers in both the American Legion and VFW auxiliaries. Was also on the gun committee at the VFW. Come thanksgiving we'll both volunteer at the V to deliver Thanksgiving dinners to the homebound. Also getting ready for the food drive/spaghetti dinner/live band night at the Legion to raise funds/food for our Christmas basket for the needy.

Pretty much between the V and the Legion we can get spread pretty thin.


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## Thorim (Jan 19, 2015)

In the past I have been an assistant den leader, den leader o.w.l. trainer with cub scouts. Assistant scout master and committee chairman with a boy scout troop. Currently doing some fund raising for a 501 c 3 that is trying to start a program that will help veterans suffering from post traumatic stress disorder through equine therapy using wild mustangs....


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Oh yeah, the head of our SWCD keeps hinting he'd like to see me run for supervisor, just can't do it, plenty of other folks out there that can do it as well or better than I can.


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## endrow (Dec 15, 2011)

Volunteered on quite a few boards but not all at the same time. All the years I had kids in 4H we built a float in our farm shop and put it in the local Memorial Day Parade always the busiest week of the year height of first cutting hay Making.Taught Sunday school for 18 years. Served on our local church Council and regional Church Council. Served actively on several building committees ..Served on a NO-Till Alliance committee.. Served on 2 AG Related Cooperative boards. For the municipality I live in served on the planning board and still serve on the zoning hearing board. Did two terms on the county Farm Bureau board. Served actively about half my living life as a volunteer firefighter. Spent numerous hours responding to emergency calls and fires and maintaining Fire Equipment. The wife and I actively participate and a couple fundraisers each year. Would have never been able to do that and farm also without Family Support especially my wife


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## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

I coach youth and high school sports. Some I volunteer, high school I'm paid.
(Sorry to vol. I know it's offensive to you)

It's a great way to keep at risk youth from bad behavior. 
Lots of guys I have coached have come back and thanked me. Some have even worked for me.


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## haybaler101 (Nov 30, 2008)

Volunteer fireman for 25 years (17 as treasurer of department), in my 20th year on rural water board (6 as president), current president of church council. That is more than enough for me, but my wife is a sucker for volunteer work, she is always into something.


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## PaMike (Dec 7, 2013)

Between a fulltime family business and the only family member that farms the "family farm" I don't have much of any free time.

We do donate time/materials at our business for local nonprofits. Built some bingo stands for the local fire company and just completed some repairs on some band equipment for the local marching band.

I wouldn't mind getting into our local government but the township knows I am opposed to their progressive ways, so I haven't gotten appointed to the planning to zoning commissions. That might be for the best...

My wife volunteers in the nursery at church while I take care of our 3 and 5 year old so that she is available. Time wise, that's about all I can muster at the moment...


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

JD3430 said:


> I coach youth and high school sports. Some I volunteer, high school I'm paid.
> (Sorry to vol. I know it's offensive to you)


I have no idea what you mean or what you are talking about JD.

Regards, Mike


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

I did the coaching thing when the boys were growing up, also the volunteer stuff in the schools, some community ...but the last 15 years I have been focused at being a Gideon. We give out Bibles and Testaments at schools, area colleges, and just alot of one on one when the opportunity arises...I enjoy doing that and if I can just help one person change his/her direction it will all be worth it. We are very low key, we don't drag in politics or views when doing a distribution or solo work....we are charged with doing just one thing....delivering the Word of God to the lost.

Regards, Mike


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## FCF (Apr 23, 2010)

Served on the Farm Bureau board back in MD for 2 terms and now serving on 2 different boards here. One as the second term as president after 2 years off from that office, but still on the board. Get a lot of lip service from people saying they would/should serve but not too many follow through.


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## Grateful11 (Apr 5, 2009)

I do most of the photography and some of the videography for our church, annual cruise in and BBQ, vacation bible school, etc. Wasn't able to do vacation bible school this year due to personal illness. My wife, myself and our son took on the flowerbed in front of the church last year and continue to keep it up.


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## Tim/South (Dec 12, 2011)

I serve as a supervisor on the county Soil and Water Conservation board.

Also got elected to serve as our county rep with the FSA.

Secretary/Treasurer of the county cattlemen's association.

Have a little round I make to help the home bound elderly.


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## lcjaynes (Jul 25, 2014)

The variety here is humbling. So many ways to serve, and it's heartening to hear that so many are involved in some way. Your farms may be in non-profit mode, but your hearts are rich.


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## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

lcjaynes said:


> The variety here is humbling. So many ways to serve, and it's heartening to hear that so many are involved in some way. Your farms may be in non-profit mode, but your hearts are rich.


Making a difference in someones life for the better is all the pay you really need.

Nothing much better than coaching football and watching a skinny immature 9th grader turn into a strong, tough ass-kicker of a young man, unafraid of anything by his senior year.


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## Thorim (Jan 19, 2015)

I have found that the people who have an attachment to the land whether you farm full time or you farm and have a job off the farm to make ends meet even the folks who call themselves hobby farms have a greater sense of giving of them selves, of caring about their fellow man, doesn't matter if its a neighbor or a stranger passing through that is in trouble and needs a helping hand. I don't mean to imply that folks who live in cities don't care they do. It seems to me the American farmer reaches deeper and gives more disregarding there own personal problems to help others in need. They don't wait for the government to help, they step up and do what needs to be done. That spirit needs to be spread, not diminished....

I'll step down from my soapbox now thank you one and all


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## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

No Thorim, you can keep going. You're right, farmers give so much more than the average person!


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## OhioHay (Jun 4, 2008)

Currently serve as supervisor/chairman for the county soil and water district. Help with the k - 5 children's church on Sundays. Also on church finance committee. Help with senior high youth group on Wednesday's. In the past have served on county farm bureau board and state young farmer committee.( I don't qualify as young anymore) I believe that God has blessed me and I am to bless others by helping out when the opportunity presents itself.


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## luke strawwalker (Jul 31, 2014)

Forgot to mention but we host several different rocketry clubs so they can fly rockets on our farms. Finding open space is the biggest challenge to hobby rocketry nowdays. The main club flying off our place used to fly in a county park in Katy, Texas, but they turned most of it into soccer fields, dug ponds on a big part of the remainder, and planted a lot of trees on what was left. Didn't leave much landing space-- the soccer hooligans will usually stomp your rocket to pieces just for kicks if it lands anywhere near them, landing a cardboard rocket in a tree and having it hang there 20 feet or more up til the wind and rain finally brings what's left down (by that time the rocket is ruined anyway) or have it land in the pond, waterlog, and sink, just sorta ruins the fun. Even if the rocket lands on the parking lot, if the wind is blowing it will usually catch the parachute and start dragging it and give the thing road rash and ruin the paint job and grind balsa off the fins... So they were thrilled to pieces when we offered to let them fly off the farm...

Course you always have some complainers... griping because they have to drive 30 minutes or so to get out here "in the sticks". Oh well... can't win for losing sometimes. Usually the more they spend on their rocketry hobby activities, the more they gripe about having to drive to a rural launch site. Figures...

We let a guy and his wife move into my passed-on mother in law's house in Indiana... Well, my wife, her sister, and her brother discussed it and we all agreed to help them out. They were coming to her sister's church and had recently moved into the area, he was a Gulf War vet with PTSD to the point he had a "service dog" to help him calm down or snap out of it or whatever. They'd been volunteer firefighters and she'd been an EMT and were sorta down on their luck and lost their job and lost their home in Kentucky and all that, so we figured that since the house was sitting vacant, better to help someone out. We offered them the house rent-free until they kinda got back on their feet-- pay the utilities and when they could, start paying a hundred or so a month in rent just to help pay the taxes, when they could. Well, they never could. Folks got them jobs lined up, they'd work a bit, be unreliable, and either quit or get fired. One guy gave them an old pickup to help them out, they piddled about a month or two then sold it! We went over to get some stuff out of the house and they burned an old couch in the yard... piled firewood up 8 feet high against the house along the entire breezeway... just really stupid stuff. The church was paying their utilities and ended up paying my BIL some rent toward expenses on the house, but it got really old. They were there over a year and then I guess when the charity started drying up they just up and moved in the middle of the night to who-knows-where. Oh well, good riddance. I've been down this road MANY times before. We used to have a guy that went to our church down here-- he had his leg mashed off under an 18 wheeler when he was like 18 years old and he and his 3 kids went to our church. His wife had left him years before. He had an artificial leg but never used it, went everywhere on armband crutches. He couldn't work-- or WOULDN'T work... people would get him a job lined up at the mini-mart or something, just sit on a stool and run the cash register, but he'd be unreliable and quit or get fired. ALWAYS looking for the church to pay his utilities, rent, and buy them food. Folks did whatever they could to help, but after a year or two it started wearing VERY thin-- ya know you don't actually take these folks to raise-- you're trying to give them a helping hand SO THEY CAN GET BACK ON THEIR FEET, get a job and get some money coming in and take care of themselves, but NO, they want freebies, nothing more. When the charity runs out, they split, which is what this guy did... go to a different church and start pumping their well dry...

It's really sad...

Later! OL J R


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## r82230 (Mar 1, 2016)

luke strawwalker said:


> Folks did whatever they could to help, but after a year or two it started wearing VERY thin-- ya know you don't actually take these folks to raise-- you're trying to give them a helping hand SO THEY CAN GET BACK ON THEIR FEET, get a job and get some money coming in and take care of themselves, but NO, they want freebies, nothing more. When the charity runs out, they split, which is what this guy did... go to a different church and start pumping their well dry...
> 
> It's really sad...
> 
> Later! OL J R


Use to volunteer more, but have 'slowed down' some, now. Have to admit coaching 5-6th grade flag football, then officiating it was one of my favorite times.

But Luke, reminds me of when I was volunteering with my local Habitat for Humanity chapter. It was our first or second home built, people lived there only a couple of months, when they called up and needed more help. It seems she was flushing the dirty diapers (just the one's with sh...... in them), down the toilet. Needless to say with a septic tank (was brand new, so it took awhile), it plugged up. HH, paid to have it fixed, she thought HH was like her landlord, responsible to 'pay' for all fixes. Did not understand, that the water from the toilet overflowing (see why above), holes in the walls and mice where HER problems. I did not vote to pay for these things, BUT when you are on a board with a bunch of liberals.  I almost forgot, she let the toilet problem continue for a couple of weeks, because "it still worked in the morning".

Larry


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## luke strawwalker (Jul 31, 2014)

r82230 said:


> Use to volunteer more, but have 'slowed down' some, now. Have to admit coaching 5-6th grade flag football, then officiating it was one of my favorite times.
> 
> But Luke, reminds me of when I was volunteering with my local Habitat for Humanity chapter. It was our first or second home built, people lived there only a couple of months, when they called up and needed more help. It seems she was flushing the dirty diapers (just the one's with sh...... in them), down the toilet. Needless to say with a septic tank (was brand new, so it took awhile), it plugged up. HH, paid to have it fixed, she thought HH was like her landlord, responsible to 'pay' for all fixes. Did not understand, that the water from the toilet overflowing (see why above), holes in the walls and mice where HER problems. I did not vote to pay for these things, BUT when you are on a board with a bunch of liberals.  I almost forgot, she let the toilet problem continue for a couple of weeks, because "it still worked in the morning".
> 
> Larry


Yeah, sounds familiar...

Some people are just too stupid to help or to deserve to have anything...

Like renters who rented our old farmhouse at Shiner... constantly whining about how their child support was too high and they couldn't afford to pay the rent, with a cigarette in one hand and a longneck in the other... Sorry, but I don't feel one damn bit sorry for you! "Talk to the judge and get it adjusted down, because you won't be paying much child support when you're living under a bridge!"

Meanwhile, I hauled off a pickup load of beer bottles the renters left behind-- loaded them with a corn scoop and when I was done, I couldn't have thrown one more bottle on the back of that 8.5 foot pickup bed without it rolling down the heap in the bed and falling off the side... just ridiculous...

The septic tank story reminds me of something "funny" that happened at the school in town I used to work at (as a bus driver). The Administration office used to be one of the houses on the north edge of the high school property that used to be a home provided to the superintendent or principal back in the day 50-60 years ago or so... of course that went out of style and several of the old houses were torn down, but one survived and was transformed into the Administration building, and the other was left much more shabby and became the maintenance and operations building. Seems that the old septic tank stopped working over at the Admin building, and the M&O guys were called in to fix it. After digging up the septic tank and finding the lines plugged, they cut into the pipes and found them full of used condoms. Turns out the married superintendent was screwing his secretary, a well known old whore, who was also married (to someone else) and he was flushing his spent love gloves down the crapper. When confronted with the 'evidence' their story was that they had flushed some "old balloons" down the toilet... yeah, right! LOL Caught red... well, RED *SOMETHING*!!! LOL

Later! OL J R


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## treymo (Dec 29, 2013)

I volunteer to go on a date with the lady every once in a while!


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## lcjaynes (Jul 25, 2014)

Thanks everybody, for contributing to this post. Here's the editorial "you" wrote with your contributions (and some from others...)

Have a great Thanksgiving. We have so much to be grateful for.

Lynn

http://www.progressiveforage.com/blogs/editors-notes/we-the-people


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

Thanks Lynn....that was a special article from a wonderful publication and very kind of you to recognize some of our responses from the hay talk community. We all hope that you and your family will have a cherished "Giving of Thanks".

Best Regards, Mike


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