Volunteering is so much fun~!

1 May, 2009

Volunteering is so much fun~!

Assalamualaikum wbt….

I just got back from Jolimont train station in Richmond for a very good cause. I’ve participated as a volunteer to sell merchandise to the public in the awareness of collecting the money to brighten up the seriously ill children in all around Australia. It was organised by the Starlight Children’s Foundation Australia and the event was called ‘Starlight Day’ . It was my second volunteering experience. The first one was on April 5th; Run for the Kids (Citylink-Herald Sun) as the finish line drink station assistant.

I would like to share my experience of getting to know the community. At first I was kind of hesitate to be at the event (even I enjoyed filling up the online forms – as always). I was thinking of ‘how am I going to sell things?‘, ‘I’m not good in english’, ‘how about if they ask me things that I can’t answer them?’, ‘I know nothing about Starlight Foundation‘…and the list goes on. But, after I received a  call from my station leader, I had to do it no matter what. No turning back~! I was scared and nervous…

Took off to the station at about 6:20am and reached there 15 mins later, I met Andrew Barcellona – my station leader. He was very nice, good looking young man and he’s my age~! But he’s working now at the EnY-Flinders St. He went to MelbUni and graduated last year in Bachelor of Commerce & IT – he’s sure a very good student..good on him. Having a chat and preparing for the day, he handed me a yellow t-shirt, a cap, a merchandise box and some change.

At about 7am (suppose 7:30am – early start), we started to collect the donation (sell things). After my first sale, I got so (I mean very very so) excited and confident that I can do this. I never thought of selling even a single item (low self-esteem – not good). After a while, people got so many and I went ‘good morning, how are you? want to buy and donate for the kids?’….standard procedure. I was enjoying the moment.

There were also kind-hearted people who gave donations without taking any items. They even gave us uncounted change – practically everything in their wallet/pockets. Among the people I met, some were saying some unpleasant comments such as ‘I don’t have stray change for you guys!‘ or even worse ‘the govt should provide the money, keep the pressure on!‘. Andrew and I took it easy…It was nice to have it straight to your face…Then u’ll know there are many kinds of mentality towards charity campaign.

There you go…I’ve told you earlier…volunteering is so much fun~!  Apart from nice t-shirts, caps, meal vouchers and new friends…u’ll never know what to expect..it’s like a box of choc..(is it really?..naaH)…..Next up, would be Run for Melbourne which scheduled on June 28th and iA The Sound of Light Concert 09. Am looking forward to volunteering again~!

All in all, I remember this one hadith;

Hadith Ibn Umar Radhiyallahu ‘anhuma

“Seorang mukmin yang bergaul dengan orang ramai dan bersabar di atas kesakitan yang timbul akibat pergaulan itu, adalah lebih baik daripada seorang mukmin yang tidak bercampur gaul dengan orang ramai dan tidak sabar di atas kesakitan akibat pergaulan itu”

(Al-Tirmidhi 2507, Ibn Majah 4032)

Wslm.

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