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Searching For Our Inner Volunteer
July 18, 2004, Los Angeles Times

By DANA PARSONS

It was the kind of unsolicited "report" that hits my office mailbox every so often and gets escorted either to a far corner of my desk, a distant drawer or, if I'm especially cranky, a nearby wastebasket - and from which it seldom escapes.

But this time, the title caught my eye: "Reinventing Aging: Baby Boomers and Civic Engagement."

"Hey," I said to myself, "I'm aging."

I'd venture to say no one is doing it faster.

Still, it was the "civic engagement" part that appealed, because I realized they were talking about baby boomers doing volunteer work as retirement beckons.

I know, I know. Seeing the word "volunteer" in print makes your eyelids droop. I'm in the same camp. However, I may have an advantage on you: I've volunteered in recent years and know what it can do for a person's soul.

Trust me, it's good.

Not to lard you down with minutiae, but the 160-page report grew out of a Harvard University conference last year. Referring to the 77 million boomers born between 1946 and 1964, the report says they "soon will have the opportunity to redefine the meaning and purpose of the older years … [they] will have the potential to become a social resource of unprecedented proportions by actively participating in the life of their communities."

I seem to remember a lot of chatter from us boomers about how we could "change the world/rearrange the world." Graham Nash even put those words in a song.

News flash: We still have a ways to go. A lot of well-intentioned dialogue from our youth ended up on the cutting-room floor of our middle age.

We "may need a push" to get involved, the report says, while noting that communities should gear up to tap the keg of baby boomer potential. "New language, imagery and stories are needed to help boomers and the public re-envision the role and value of elders and the meaning and purpose of one's later years."

Hitting us where it hurts, the report notes that boomers won't buy into volunteer activities unless they are "convenient and tailored to their particular individual interests."

In short, will the perception that we're self-indulgent become the reality of our older years, too? Do we have the right stuff to improve our communities?

I'm not the one to speechify on that, but I'll offer a quick testimonial. For several years, I tutored grade-schoolers for whom English was their second language. Until the program ended a couple of years ago, I did it a day a week during the school year.

I complained every day about fighting traffic to get there (the baby boomer in me), but then glowed every time I was there because it was the best hour of my week. You'd be amazed at the bonds you can form within the limited confines of an hour a week. As the commercial says: priceless.

Granted, not everyone wants to volunteer at an elementary school. The Harvard report notes that one of the major tasks ahead is for public and private organizations to refashion a society in which volunteerism flourishes in many venues.

The report is written in language you'd expect from a Harvard conference (you can get it at http://www.ReinventingAging.org ), but there is a bottom line in all of it.

Allow me to paraphrase the Harvard folks: If they build volunteer opportunities, will we come?

Will we rediscover the inspiration and high-mindedness we once sang songs about?

While realizing full well my volunteering made only a small contribution, I'd often imagine multiplying it by thousands of other volunteers and then marveling at what that would do for kids' lives.

You don't have to change the world. At least, not all by yourself.

Dana Parsons can be reached at (714) 966-7821 or at dana. parsons@latimes.com.