“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others. “ – Mahatma Gandhi

Service needs to become a more regular part of the daily life of youth. Students should be aware of the benefits volunteering can bring to not only the community, but the individual as well. Involving oneself in community service creates a feeling of purpose and belonging; it can make one feel as though he or she is working toward a greater cause, one that would not be possible with one body. The individual volunteer does not accomplish much in scale to everything else. But, think of communal life as a machine. Each citizen is a cog in this massive machine. For each individual that gears (hahahah puns) his or her efforts toward the functionality of the machine, the cog starts to turn and contribute to the machine’s final outcome. A cog without a machine is meaningless; all the while, a machine without cogs is not functional.

Service gives life to the definitions of community. It is easy to live in a community, but to work to be a community, is a whole other thing.  Man can live next door to one another and commute to work and come home.  They can shop in the same grocery store and go to the same school, but this is not being a part of a community.  Working with one another and building each other up is communal living– and communal living is what should be strived for.

Getting involved is not hard if looking in the right places. Delphi offers many service based clubs, such as Key Club, Club 365, NHS, and Interact Club. Also, many businesses and churches around Carroll County accept volunteers or interns. The Delphi Public Library accepts volunteers, for example. Another fantastic way to get involved is to find a need, fill a need. Upon visiting the park, one notices there are weeds growing around the play area. The weeds will not affect how the park goer lives his life from day to day, but in order to make the community more presentable, he pulls them.  Find a need, fill a need is one of the easiest  ways to get involved because a committee is not needed, and it doesn’t have to be an event.  Most of the time, this is the best way to make a difference.

Among many other benefits, volunteering looks impressive on college, job, and scholarship applications. A desire to help others with time that could be spent recreationally and a willingness to work without pay will demonstrate that  the applicant is not money-oriented and appreciates hard work, which can be exactly what will put him ahead of other applicants.

As Gandhi says, there is something special about being a part of a community that serves beyond the individual as the intended benefit. The volunteer benefits just as much as the party receiving the fruits of their labor.