The Virtues of Volunteering

My column on fulfilling ways to spend retirement (“Living in Retirement,” April) continues to generate inspirational responses from readers, many of whom have sung the praises of volunteering. You also volunteered the names of additional service groups that you have found rewarding. I’ll cite a number of them for those of you in search of a cause that strikes a chord.

- By Janet Bodnar

Many of your efforts focus on children. After working for more than 40 years as a registered dietician in hospitals and nursing homes, reader Linda Hall volunteers for Operation Christmas Child, a project of Samaritan’s Purse (www.samaritans purse.org), which delivers gift-filled shoeboxes to children around the world. “I am using my marketing MBA and my organizational and people skills,” writes Hall. “Sometimes I think that my training and experience were meant all along to be applied in my volunteer work.”

Nila Whitfield, who describes herself as a “teacher wannabe” who always wanted to work with kids, has donated time to Make-AWish (www.wish.org) and A Kid Again (www.akidagain.org), helping families with children facing critical illnesses.

Reader Jodie Black requests that I mention her group, National CASA/GAL Association, which has more than 950 local affiliates that train volunteers to work with children in foster care (www .nationalcasagal.org).