Volunteering and its Surprising Benefits

In today's busy society, it can be hard to think about finding time to volunteer. _____ , the benefits of volunteering are enormous（巨大的）, both to you and to the community. The right match can help you find friends, reach out to the community, learn new skills and even _____ your career. Volunteering can even help protect your mental and physical health.

One of the better-known benefits of volunteering is the ____ on the community. Unpaid volunteers are often the glue（胶水） that holds a community together. Volunteering allows you to ____ your community and make it a better place.

One of the best ______ to make new friends and strengthen existing relationships is to _____ to a shared activity together. Volunteering is a great way to meet new people, _____ if you are  new to an area. Volunteering also strengthens your ____ to the community and broadens your support network, ___ you to people with common interests, neighbourhood resources, and fun and fulfilling activities.

 ___ some people are naturally outgoing,others are _____ and have a hard time meeting new people. Volunteering gives you the _____ to practise and develop your social skills, since you are meeting regularly with a group of people with _____ interests. Once you have motivation, it's easier to branch out and  make more friends and contacts.

Volunteering can provide a healthy boost （激励）to your self-confidence, self-esteem and life satisfaction. You are doing good for others and the community , which ______ a natural sense of accomplishment. Your ____ as a volunteer can also give you a sense of pride and identity. And the better you feel about yourself, the more ______ you are to have a positive view of your life and future goals.

 _____ the risk of depression is another important benefit of volunteering. A key ____ in depression is social isolation（孤立）. Volunteering _____ you in regular contact with others and helps you develop a solid support system, which ______ protects you against stress and depression when you' re going through challenging times.

   Sweetest Day is celebrated on the third Saturday in October as a day to make someone happy. It is an occasion which offers all of us an opportunity to remember not only the sick，the aged，and children who have lost their parents，but also friends，workmates，relatives and neighbors whose helpfulness and kindness we have enjoyed.

Over 60 years ago，when a Cleveland man noticed that some people，such as children who lost their parents and patients who lay in bed，too often felt forgotten and neglected，he developed in his mind the idea of showing them that they were remembered. He did this by giving them small gifts. With the help of his friends and neighbors，he gave those people small gifts on a Saturday in October. During the years that followed，other Clevelanders began to take part in the celebration，which came to be called "Sweetest Day". Over time，the Sweetest Day's idea of spreading cheer to the poor，the sick and children who had lost their parents was broadened（扩大）to include everyone，and became an occasion for remembering others with a kind act or a small gift. Soon the idea spread to other cities all over the USA.

Sweetest Day is not based on any single group's religious beliefs or on a family relationship. It is a reminder（提醒人记忆之物）that a thoughtful word or deed enriches life and gives it meaning. Because of many people remembering to take the form of gift giving，Sweetest Day offers us the opportunity to show others that we care，in a positive way.

Close your eyes for a minute and imagine what life would be like if you couldn’t see. Imagine 【小题1】 (have) to read this page, not with your eyes but with your fingers. How do you feel, then?

With 【小题2】 (medicine) knowledge and skills today, two-thirds of the world’s 42 million blind people are not 【小题3】 (necessary) to suffer. Sadly, only rich countries have such knowledge and skills.

Orbis is an international charity organization, 【小题4】 goal is to help fight blindness all over the world. Inside an airplane, there is a teaching hospital, 【小题5】 (equip) with a television room and a classroom, in which doctors 【小题6】 (teach) the latest technology of helping the blind get sight again.

Orbis helps those developing countries by providing sight-saving training. It 【小题7】 (train) over 35,000 doctors and nurses so far. They treat thousands of blind people every year. They have traveled around the earth 3 times, visited 76 countries 【小题8】 treated over 20,000 blind people. They need your help to continue their work and free people 【小题9】 blindness. You can help by donating money to the organization. Your love and 【小题10】 (kind) can help those blind people open their eyes to the world.

   Sometimes you meet an ordinary person doing something extraordinary. On a recent trip I met Normand Gallant. Normand is someone you could _____ on the street and never notice but he is a very special person who _____ recognition.

Norm lives in a remote area far from the _____ big hospital, so when his wife _____ cancer several years ago, Norm was faced with a four-hour _____ to where she could be treated. That meant lots of _____ for meals, fuel, hotels and so on. But in the end the cancer took his wife’s life _____.

Norm was obviously _____ by his wife’s passing, and he was quite upset, _____ he realized that other people were ______ the same sorts of hardships. He wanted to do something but he didn’t want to give money to the ______ that support cancer research because he didn’t know how much would actually get to the researchers. What he did was to ______ parties.

About every three weeks on Saturday evenings, there is a party in Norm’s garage. ______ during the evening Norm tells about a family who is having difficulty ______ the cost of supporting a cancer patient in undertaking ______ far from home. Then a pail is passed around and the money is ______, every cent of it goes ______ to that family.

Norm’s personal loss has ______ an act of kindness in ______ of the wife he has lost. Wouldn’t it be ______ if we had more people in the world like Normand Gallant? He makes the world a better place.