I would like to offer encouragement to Lark Marie Roquen, who wrote of her frustration in trying to become a volunteer (“The saga of the unwanted volunteer,” Voice, May 15): Keep searching.
There are plenty of worthwhile organizations that need your help, staffed by professionals who recognize the importance of matching a general spirit of philanthropy to specific tasks.
As a volunteer coordinator for Trinity Medical Center in the Quad Cities, my bias is toward recommending health-care organizations as an ideal starting point for anyone with the desire to experience the personal fulfillment that volunteering can bring.
Incidentally, I hope Ms. Roquen read the two letters that also appeared that day that were responses to the Ayn Rand acolyte who shuns the notion of volunteering in favor of selfishness. Those letters expressed the sentiments of millions of compassionate human beings such as the ones I have the pleasure of working with at the hospital, people who regularly make the effort to empathize with and to comfort those who suffer.
Keep searching, Ms. Roquen, because there are people in need out there waiting for you.
