Michael Heller Services

When volunteering, it’s important to be mindful of the environmental impact of your activities, ensuring that your efforts contribute positively to both the community and the planet. One key consideration is minimizing waste. This can be achieved by reducing single-use plastics, recycling materials whenever possible, and opting for reusable items like water bottles or bags. Additionally, if your volunteer work involves travel, consider using sustainable transportation options such as biking, walking, or public transit to reduce your carbon footprint.

Respect The Natural Beauty, Leave No Trace

If your volunteer activities take place outdoors, respect nature by following Leave No Trace principles—this includes staying on designated paths, avoiding disturbing wildlife, and picking up any trash. For projects that involve construction or landscaping, prioritize eco-friendly materials and techniques, such as using non-toxic paints or native plants that require less water and are better for local ecosystems. Lastly, promoting environmental awareness within the community can be a crucial part of volunteering—by encouraging others to adopt sustainable practices, you help create a ripple effect that extends far beyond your individual efforts.

Eco Friendly And Natural Cleaners

Eco-friendly cleaners offer a natural and non-toxic way to tackle everyday cleaning tasks, including the removal of rust. One of the most effective and environmentally friendly options is using lemon, which has natural acidity that can break down rust without the harsh chemicals found in commercial cleaners. To remove rust with lemon, simply squeeze fresh lemon juice onto the affected area, allowing it to soak into the rust for several minutes. The citric acid in the lemon rust removal helps dissolve the rust, making it easier to scrub away with a soft brush or sponge. For tougher rust stains, you can sprinkle some baking soda over the lemon juice, creating a mildly abrasive paste that works even more effectively to lift the corrosion.

The combination of lemon’s natural acidity and baking soda’s abrasiveness makes it a powerful, eco-friendly solution for rust removal. Additionally, using lemon for cleaning is not only safe for the environment but also leaves behind a fresh, natural scent, free of synthetic fragrances found in many commercial cleaners. This method provides an excellent alternative to more harmful, chemical-based products, allowing you to keep both your home and the planet clean and healthy.

Natural Disaster Clean Up

Volunteering for cleanup efforts in areas affected by environmental disasters is a powerful way to contribute to the recovery and healing of impacted communities. Whether it’s after a hurricane, wildfire, oil spill, or flooding, these disasters often leave behind widespread damage, threatening local ecosystems, wildlife, and human populations. Volunteers play a critical role in mitigating the immediate effects and restoring damaged environments. Cleanup efforts often involve removing debris, pollutants, and hazardous materials from land and water, as well as assisting with the rehabilitation of affected habitats.

While participating in such efforts, volunteers should consider environmentally friendly approaches—such as using non-toxic and biodegradable cleaning supplies when possible, and ensuring that waste is disposed of properly to prevent further contamination. It’s also important to follow safety protocols to protect both yourself and the environment from lingering hazards, such as exposed chemicals or contaminated water.

Beyond the physical labor, volunteers can help raise awareness of the long-term environmental consequences of such disasters, advocating for sustainable practices that reduce the likelihood of future occurrences. In addition, helping communities rebuild with a focus on resilience—such as planting native vegetation or restoring natural barriers—can make ecosystems more robust and better able to withstand future environmental challenges. Volunteering in disaster cleanup not only provides immediate assistance but also fosters a deeper understanding of the complex relationship between human activity and the environment, empowering individuals to take action toward a more sustainable future.

We all know that volunteering is a great idea. It offers you the opportunity to “give back” to the community through helping those who may not always be able to help themselves. What most people do not think about is the safety of it, especially when you are creating things for that other person. We strongly urge you to think about all the safety considerations while volunteering your services.

Safety Matters for Volunteers

Ask someone about the benefits of volunteering and chances are good, the list is going to be quite long. You are helping out others. You provide food for homeless. Clothing for families that may have lost everything. You may be building them a home after a fire or circumstances that were unforeseen.

We don’t really consider our personal safety when we volunteer. We take chances. We may go to someone’s home that we do not know to bring them something we created and it fail in some way. There are times we may prepare a meal without considering their allergies. It isn’t always going to turn out badly, but it could. When it does, the person may be very forgiving. Understanding that we are there to help them and meant no harm, but not always.

Something bad in this way, could lead to lawsuits and other negative consequences that will bite you for simply trying to help.

Concerns for the One You Help

You aren’t the only one who is placing your trust in others. Let’s say you volunteer to build cabinets in a home for someone. If you build it so that the top cabinets fall two weeks later, that poses danger for the person who lives in that home. The homeowner has to have trust in you and you have to be able to meet their expectations. A house, must be built with safety features in mind whether you work for Habitat for Humanity or some other charity “home building” volunteer project.

You may have the simplest job of all, putting in counter tops that are affordable, yet nice. This is something that can be done with wood or tile or any other surface material. Would you cover it with stain, leave it bare, or apply a coat of food safe epoxy?

In our experience, the epoxy is the best choice since it applies a glass like coating that is virtually impenetrable. You need to make sure it is food safe though so that the person isn’t eating chemicals if they put salad makings on their counters.

If you are preparing foods, you know that nuts are often concerning for a lot of people. Avoid nuts and keep your seasoning to as little as possible. They can always add more if it is needed.

Volunteering Safety Makes a Difference

It may seem as though we are paranoid, but it helps to play it safe. Bad things happen sometimes. We get in a rush or we fail to see that there could be a potential for problems. NO one thinks, “If I volunteer someone could end up hurt.” We simply want you to make sure that you have all your bases covered. Then, we urge you to volunteer all you can-safely.

 

Everyone knows that volunteering is something that we can do. Volunteers help out in situations where they are needed the most. It is done without pay, just for the love of doing something good for the community or in support of a cause. Some of the most common volunteering programs are for housing or food services. For instance, homeless shelters or Habitat for Humanity. We say those are awesome causes, but why not volunteer as an adventure guide and truly express your personality?

What Is an Adventure Guide?

There is an adventurous person inside us all. We just sometimes need to find a way to show it. The adventure guide’s task is to help people learn how to explore and live out adventures safely. They are the ones who may take a group of people rafting down a river, skydiving from a plane, or hiking through extreme areas.

While adventuring with others, it is important that the guide be knowledgable of the sport or adventure. It is also good if they know about the area. People skills, humor, and a love of adventures are also qualities that an adventure guide must have.

How to Become an Adventure Guide?

Basically, anyone who wants to enjoy the great outdoors can become an adventure guide. The key is being in a location that provides a place for exploration. This is not always something you have to do for “free” or as a volunteer, but the pay scale for it will vary depending on your experience and skills as well as the type of adventures you provide to others.

The opportunities that it opens up to some people are quite fascinating. You can learn more about the types of rewards that taking part in it have to offer by viewing this interview with two Colorado adventure guides. This couple has figured out the perks and not so perky parts of being guides. For the most part, they wouldn’t trade their lifestyle for any other.

Where Will Your Adventures Take You?

Adventures can take place anywhere. All you need is an outdoor space and a plan for adventures that others will want to take part in. If you have a plan, you can succeed. Most people want to go adventuring, but don’t know where to start. You can give them a start.

Begin by developing your skills. The more skilled you are at rock climbing or river rafting, the more your services will be useful. Although it is fun to take part in many different adventures, your primary focus should be on one thing. You can use that one thing to market yourself and point out that you are also able to do other things.

Beyond that, keep your people skills building. You may need to laugh and joke with people that you have never met before. You cannot do this if you aren’t sure how to socialize.

However, there is a type of adventure guide that we do not speak of often. It is the adventure guide who simply travels the world to tell others about the things they have seen. This can be just as rewarding for some people.

We all know that volunteering time can benefit everyone involved. It benefits the person who receives your help, it helps the community you live in to be a better place. It can even help you grow as a person. The thing is, most of us are not sure where or how to get involved with volunteer opportunities. If this is something that is so far hindering your ability, we suggest that you consider focusing on community build projects.

Community Projects to Consider

Admittedly, there are always opportunities to volunteer at homeless shelters passing out foods to those who otherwise wouldn’t have a solid meal. You can sometimes volunteer at your local library or similar things. These projects are good. They are helpful. However, if you really want to make improvements, building projects within the community is where most people gain ultimate satisfaction.

These are the projects that include volunteering time with Habitat for Humanity, building homes for Wounded Warriors, and more. These projects allow you and others to come together. Everyone puts real effort into not only providing something a person needs, but changing that person’s life for the better. You help a person who may feel that they have nothing and give them the world.

What Goes Into Build Projects?

Typically, a large company will provide the funding for home build projects through Habitat or Wounded Warrior. They may even hire special crews to build the framework, but this is not always the case. If you are not good at building walls, you may be better off as a finisher for the project. Your time volunteering, will not cost you money. Instead, you will be able to focus on completing the build.

Painting the home, installing fixtures or plumbing, donating furniture or other types of projects will all go into this single community effort by volunteers. In some cases, you may even be able to refinish old furniture using special products like Odie’s Oil. There are Odie’s Oil ingredients that darken wood as it ages, which can make a brand new home feel homier. You can even focus your attention on landscaping if that is something you enjoy. With these projects, it does not matter what part of the build you take part in. It only matters that you are there to do it.

Change Your World on Home at a Time

People from all walks of life come together on community build projects. Company owners may put forth the cash or electricians or plumbers may put forth the skills. There may be average families who take part in it as a way to help the world and senior citizens who just want to know that they are still able to be a part of something good. There are many reasons for getting involved. No matter what your reasons are or who you are, you can change the world. We promise you will feel as though you have conquered the impossible when your community build project changes the lives of those who need it the most. Are you ready to get involved and change the world?