Why do you volunteer? Your answers are a work of art

Nothing in our nation’s laws requires Americans to spend time volunteering.

But still, millions of adults each year give tons of their precious time to the Boy Scouts of America. Why?

In honor of National Volunteer Week, going on now, I went in search of an answer.

Yesterday, I asked our 9,200 Facebook fans a simple question: Why do you volunteer?

The responses included some real gems, such as Todd W.’s thought: “How can I not? If I don’t, who will? Boys will be boys, unless we show them how to be men.”

Or Shay O.’s words of wisdom: “I volunteer because it is important to cast your vote for the kind of world you want to live in. I feel like I am actively contributing to making the world a better place by influencing the lives of children, who are our future.”

And then there’s Mike A., who added some humor to the mix: “The pay is great!”

All of the answers are worth reading, so head over to our Facebook page to see the full list.

As I read your responses, I had a thought: If a picture is worth a thousand words, your inspirational words are certainly worth a picture.

So I edited your answers and loaded them into Wordle, a site that generates customizable word clouds.

You see the results above. Pretty cool, huh?

UPDATE (2:30 p.m. April 14): Thanks for your positive feedback about the word art seen above. Several Scouters have asked about using the art for their own projects, such as T-shirts, posters, or recognition items. To that I say: Go for it! All I ask is that you please tell your Scouting friends about Bryan on Scouting. By the way, I just uploaded a high-res version (1.6 MB) of the art. Click here for that.


About Bryan Wendell 3282 Articles
Bryan Wendell, an Eagle Scout, is the founder of Bryan on Scouting and a contributing writer.