Volunteer on Vacation

One of the best ways to feel that you make at least a small difference in the world is to take a volunteer vacation. Some people pay thousands of dollars to go to an undeveloped country and help build a school, for example.

Some established tour operators charge less encourage you to live like a local, but your accommodations may be spartan. If you don't have an adventurous spirit, fugeddabouddit.

If you don't mind doing without some creature comforts, but do appreciate the little luxuries in life (a hot shower at a campsite, for instance), a volunteer vacation may be right for you. Decide what you want to do--tutor children, paint a school, etc.--then Google like crazy while searching for opportunities.

DO NOT confuse volunteer vacations with "free" ones. For example, the USDA Forest Service invites applications for archaeology and historic preservation projects nationwide through its Passport in Time (PIT) program. Although there is no participation fee, you usually pay transportation costs to get to a site, your own food, and for lodging. (Sometimes, camping is free at Forest Service campgrounds!) You'll meet like-minded, interesting people with a bit of an adventurous spirit. Swapping stories around a campfire with S'mores is fun at any age!

In 2009 I was lucky to be chosen to participate in a Forest Service archaeological project in the Laguna Mountains of southern California. As a federal government volunteer employee for a week, I helped document sites where native peoples milled nuts and seeds. It was chance to see the land with new eyes. That week changed my life. Since I love history, travel, and and being outdoors, the week passed quickly.

To learn more about that trip, follow this link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/11/AR2009121102131.html

Since then, I've been lucky to be accepted on other Forest Service projects, such as this one

http://www.passportintime.com/summaries/2011/hopevalleyarborglyphs2011.html

and  this one

http://www.passportintime.com/summaries/2011/bendguard2011.html 

With these PIT opportunities, I've slept in a tent in a bear-habitat campground and among cows and rattlesnakes on grasslands--by choice. (I could have stayed in motels.) As work colleagues know, my motto is: What doesn't kill you makes you stronger!