Are we just money mad?

Why is that some people end up volunteering or being volunteered for a lot of projects and other people just focus on themselves? I have always wondered about that.
Ever since I was a teenager I would volunteer for lots of worthy causes from sports events to charities and community happenings, so this approach comes naturally to me.
At this point in life there are weeks and I suppose especially the last number of weeks that I have had to or better thanks to my involvement in various organisations gave a lot of time free of charge to great causes. For most of my friends it's something they can't understand and for most of my business acquaintances it's well outside their realm of understanding. People just think I was born with surplus energy or time, so I can give freely.
Yet, this is not true, but I do plan for it and because I enjoy the fun that also comes with these projects and overshadows the negatives. To give you a flavour of my involvement in various things and the time reality, here is an outline.

On the May bank holiday weekend the Cork Choral Festival took place and here I am a Failteoir (welcomer) for a foreign choir. It means that for the days that they are in Cork for the Choral competition I make sure they are looked after, arrive at performances on time, schedule buses, etc and generally make sure they have a wonderful time. This typically takes 1 or 2 workings day and the weekend. Last November the choir I hosted 2 years ago from the Rigsbergska High School in Sweden asked whether I would please be their host again and that was lovely. For me it was great fun to meet them again and be their friendly face away from home. As a group of volunteers we also have a great time together and some of the people I would only meet once a year at the Choral Festival. For those 3 or 4 days it is full-time and after hours and party hours etc., yet the feelgood factor more than pays back for it. In terms of time commitment we are only talking 3 to 4 days for a whole year!

I am also the chief liaison officer for the Cork City Sports, which is an athletics event that takes place every year in July and is ranked amongst the top 10 athletics meetings in Europe. This is my first year in this role, so in terms of time -commitment to date I probably have given it about a working of which most of it has been scheduled after hours or during quiet time. My job is to make sure athletes have accommodation, food and transport. I am looking for a team of drivers and welcome staff at the airport and in the accommodation to answer athletes questions. Because of my involvement at committee level I would estimate this role taking a week of preparation work and 4 days around the actual event, which is 2 working days and 2 weekend days. Because of my interest in people and sports, especially athletics I do enjoy the interaction and I have great pride in making something run as smooth as possible.
Again I am not talking months of time, just a few hours here and there and the more intense time-commitment around the actual event.

For the past 3 years I have been a member of my local Rotary club and this year I was asked to become youth officer for the club and hence organised all events to do with young people. Now here the group consists of about 30 members, a lot of them retired or in large organisations, who like the idea of being represented in Rotary. Members join specifically with the intent of giving back to their community and the wider international community, which is very noble, however when I go looking for volunteers it is not that easy to even receive support for minor projects. I organised the Club Youth Leadership Competition, where young people are interviewed about their leadership potential and a team of judges selects a school and club winner for this one I managed to find 3 judges other than myself. Then our club at very short notice took on the idea of organising the Regional Final for the same event, which meant that was all left up to me. Seeing the calibre of students and hearing their stories made it interesting, but whilst I should have had club support for this event I spent about a week all working days on this project, as well as one day at the weekend. This is where I start questioning the noble commitment of other members and wonder why it only up to one person, whilst technically there are a good few others.

In addition to this project we also had a young chef competition at club level, which only took a few hours to organise and unfortunately I couldn't thanks to work commitments go the final, and also couldn't find anyone from the club to go on my behalf.

What was a great idea and is an ongoing saga is the set-up on behalf of my club a schools interact (i.e. Rotary for secondary schools) and a Rotaract club for young people between 18 and 30. Because I couldn't get support at club level I let a lot of this go for some time, however I still have a group of young people in the second age group that would be interested, so what do you do? Do you let it go and hide or do you stick to your original commitment? In my case I am only committing to it when I have some spare time, because it is a little disillusioning that for a club this size you are the most active in getting things done and whilst everyone is full of praise, actual time or support is not available, because they all have work to do (hello, I don't even have a family or partner in this country that I can fall back on when the money runs out and run a business on my own).

I have no problem investing time and effort when I am appreciated and have fun doing it, but when you are taken for granted it becomes a different story. What I really don't understand though is why less and less people are willing to give a little bit of their time to something that can be fun and also helps someone ahead whether it is for charity, music or sports. In this day and age more and more corporations like to be seen to do their bit as a socially responsible entity, yet ask an individual for even a couple of hours a year and they run the other way.

Have we just become so money oriented, hedonistic or selfish that all we can think about is our own pleasures and well-being? How else do large events such as an Olympics get organised if it wasn't for the thousands of volunteers? Am I just one of the few idealistic ones? Donating money is a start, but donating time can give you a lot more, having travelled to Peru and Cambodia on charity projects it's not the money that you remember, but what you can actually achieve with only a small effort.

I hope my rant may inspire you to take some action on behalf of a voluntary cause and do remember to inspire others to follow suit, at worst they may even have fun or a feelgood memory.