Learning compassion
Published 12:00 am Saturday, June 7, 2014
- Christina Nase, front left, was 4 years old when she and her family took a trip to Mexico. Now 16, Christina remembers her family teaching song lyrics to children in an impoverished village.Photo courtesy The Nase Family
Family bonding can take place in a number of different ways — think game nights, trips in the family trickster or hitting the links or slopes for a day of fun.
But many local families are finding that volunteering also bonds them together while also benefiting those people, animals or causes that they serve.
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Volunteering has many benefits and can be done with children as young as age 3, said Betsy Warriner, executive director for Volunteer Connect, which connects volunteers with organizations throughout the region.
“I think it’s really important for a young person to get a sense of being able to give and be part of the community at an early age,” Warriner said. “It’s a wonderful experience for a family to do something like this together.”
For the Nase family, volunteering every third Tuesday of the month at the Family Kitchen in Bend has become a tradition they all enjoy.
Steve heads to the kitchen before the rest of the family, arriving around noon to start preparing and cooking the food. His wife Carole, an elementary school teacher, and his daughter Christina join him after school. They help with the final food preparations and serve the hot meals together.
“It’s kind of like a machine,” Carole said. “Everyone knows what they have to do.”
Doing volunteer work has its challenges, Steve said. Because his daughter is young and the homeless population can be unpredictable, she does not serve meals directly, he said.
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“You’ve got to monitor them for safety,” he said.
For Christina, volunteering started on a family trip to Mexico at about age 4. The now 16-year-old Bend High School student has vivid memories of teaching song lyrics to children in an impoverished village, she said. By age 5, she had started serving desserts at the Family Kitchen in Bend. She and her family were hooked, she said.
“Ever since I was born, it feels like I’ve had a lot of fun seeing people get warm meals,” she said. “It’s very touching to me and makes me feel good.”
Volunteer Connect’s Warriner says families should talk about concerns and expectations before volunteering, and to talk together afterward about what the family members saw, heard, felt, and learned from the experience.
“When starting out, there might be some fear going into a different environment and connecting with different people,” she said. “The best way is to acknowledge that and talk about it.”
Warriner encourages parents to find age appropriate activities that they can do with their children. Kids as young as 3 can do things such as write greeting cards for veterans, work in a community garden or put together activity boxes for hospitalized children, she said.
By age 7, kids are usually OK to help people more directly. And by 12, they are often ready for volunteering in more challenging situations, such as feeding people who are hungry or doing environmental restoration projects.
Volunteering with animals is another opportunity that can be challenging, yet highly rewarding for kids.
Susan Meyers volunteers with her two children, ages 11 and 16, at Equine Outreach Inc., a 20-acre horse rescue and sanctuary located west of the Bend Airport.
Many of the horses being cared for at the sanctuary were seized from a Powell Butte property in January 2012 after being severely abused and neglected. Some are being cared for and rehabilitated to the point where they can be adopted; others are in hospice, receiving compassionate care and attention as they die naturally in their stalls.
“I’m trying to instill in my kids that there’s more that we have to give back,” Meyers said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s summer, spring, winter or fall. We’re there on Saturdays.”
Her 16-year-old daughter, Christa, who wants to be a pediatric nurse, goes out into the pasture with the horses, making sure they are getting exercise and all the love and attention they need, Meyers said.
Eleven-year-old Hannah works in the Sanctuary Row, feeding grains and keeping the area clean. She’s too young right now to work with the animals in the pasture, Meyers explained.
“They see a need — they see the effects of abuse and neglect,” Meyers said. “It hits their heart of compassion. I think kids need to learn compassion. They need to have an opportunity to understand what compassion is.”