Why Volunteer?

By Linda Biedermann

One of my favorite movies is “It’s a Wonderful Life.”  Surely you’ve seen it, it gets shown on television during every Christmas season.  The main character, George, played by Jimmy Stuart, is facing financial ruin and thinking about jumping off a bridge.  Along comes Clarence, an angel in training, who shows George what his town would be like if he had never existed.  He finds out that little things he did here and there throughout his life had a big effect on the whole town.  It would have been a very different world without this one person.  Of course, George decides he wants his old life back, and in the end a bell rings, and George’s little girl announces, “Every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings.”

The other day someone asked me why I was running for an office with SDP.  I guess I have to answer that in the form of a question:  What if no one was willing to do anything?  There wouldn’t be a Society of Decorative Painters or painting chapters.  I wouldn’t have gone to all those seminars.  I wouldn’t have become the painter, or the person, I am today.  I wouldn’t have made all those lifelong friends.  If I hadn’t had the enjoyment that comes with painting and learning, would I have ended up on a bridge, like George? 

So, knowing how much so many people have done to help me in my painting journey, I am uncomfortable in complacency.  And I would urge you to feel the same.  Do you say you would be willing to do something if you were asked, or do you actually do your portion?  Do you have skills or do you use them?  Knowing what a paintbrush is for and actually painting are very different things.  To be willing is not enough, we must do.  Evaluate how much being a decorative painter means to you, how it has affected your life.  Wouldn’t it be a little ungrateful not to want to keep our painting organization  running smoothly?

If you feel even a little bit like I do, how about this?  Next time the call goes out for members to work on a committee, run for an office, or just to bring refreshments to a meeting; don’t wait to be asked.  Step forward, get off the back row, and stop being a spectator.  Every little thing you do makes a big difference to more people than you realize.