Category Archives: VOLUNTEERING

I get a new puppy every week.

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In 2008 I was looking for ways to volunteer in my community.  Puppies Behind Bars (PBB) was the answer.  It’s a non-profit that trains prison inmates to raise service dogs.  The dogs are then selected for work in law enforcement as an explosive detection canine, or as a companion dog for a war veteran with PTSD.  PBB needs volunteers to socialize the puppies.  So once a week I take out a puppy to run my errands.  When I started volunteering, I was single and thought it would be a great way to meet guys.  But I ended up meeting 11 year old boys.  Oh well.  I didn’t stop volunteering.

And I didn’t stop after embarrassing moments when puppies acted out or when a puppy pooped at the Shoprite.  I kept volunteering after a 65-pound puppy dragged me a few feet as I tried to hold him back from running into the road after a deer.

PBB helps people in so many ways – the inmates learn a skill and possibly unconditional love, some puppies sacrifice their olfactory system to prevent people from getting blown up, other puppies help soldiers who are serving our nation.  As a volunteer I meet incredible dog lovers and curiosity seekers.  And let’s not forget, puppies are adorable.

I love water.

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joyOFwaterDrinking it, letting it splash across my body in a hot shower, watching it bubble over rocks and reflect sparkles of light, hearing it roar down a canyon or babble in a brook.  I show water my appreciation by participating as a river monitor in Hunterdon County.  The EPA collects data about water quality every 10 years.  The Raritan Headwaters Association collects data every year.  This non-profit org monitors the 470 square-mile area that makes up the headwaters region of the Raritan River Basin.

Towards the end of June, volunteers kick up the bottom of the river in designated testing sites.  At certain sites, the current can be treacherous, especially after a Spring rain.  With a net just below their feet, the volunteers kick up the riverbed for a designated period of time.  They haul out a net of tiny squiggly macro-invertebrates.  Into the formaldehyde they go and they’re shipped off to be analyzed.  The greater the number and diversity of macro-invertebrates, the better the water.  Thank heavens people are monitoring our water supplies.

(and thank you for the photo, Kathleen)