Why Volunteering at Meijer Gardens is Important to Me. . .
Okay, yeah, on the face of it, it may seem selfish of me to donate my time and energy to a place that, to many, may not seem like as "worthy" a cause as others that are more political, or humanitarian. There was a time I might have agreed with that. But after having spent considerable time at 'The Gardens' my belief in the validity of the mission there grows stronger every day. Oh, most definitely there is a selfish element to it. It's fun. So many interesting things happen there and so many fascinating people visit. Then there's the fact that nearly everyone who is there WANTS to be there. Occasionally a guest will visit and you can tell they joined in under pressure from the rest of their group, but chances are just a short time after arrival they'll have changed their mind and will be enjoying themselves along with the rest of us. From time to time staff members might become a bit disillusioned. But for them it's a job and jobs have a way of doing...