Volunteering means spending some of your free time helping others. You may volunteer to help other people, but you can also volunteer to do something good for animals, the environment or other things that you care about. Volunteering can help others, and it can also help yourself. If you are worried about something that’s happened, doing something about it can be a great way to deal with your feelings. Volunteering can help you see your own life in new ways. Sometimes it’s easy to worry about stuff like grades or get annoyed because you don’t have the most expensive shoes or the newest computer game. Volunteering lets you spend some time focusing on others.

Doing volunteer work is a great way to have fun with your family. Here are some ideas on how you can do the work together:

☆Clean up a park or a road along a river.

☆Do some housework for the elderly or the sick.

☆Serve food at a shelter for the homeless.

☆Plant trees or flowers in your neighborhood.

☆Clean up a school or other public buildings.

Now some schools ask kids to spend some time helping others. Volunteering can make kids feel needed by some people. Volunteering can also help kids to learn important things about themselves. A volunteer job can even help kids to understand what to do when they grow up. So what are you waiting for?

Kelly could hardly believe that she had been so stupid! At lunchtime in a busy sandwich bar, she had hung her bag on the back of her chair. Seconds later, the bag had gone, and her mobile phone, her money, her bank cards and her keys had gone with it. Luckily, she was with her friend, Anna.

Using Anna’s phone, Kelly was able to call the bank and the phone company at once. The thief would not be able to use her cards or her phone, at least!

Back at the office, Kelly began to feel better. At least six people asked if they could lend her some money. At teatime, three workmates competed to pay for her tea.

There was one more difficulty. Kelly’s bicycle was locked. Unless she could unlock it, she would not be able to get home that night. She asked Tom if he could help. Tom appeared with a big bag of tools. He tried every tool in the bag, but couldn’t cut or break the lock. There was only one solution.

Kelly rang the fire station. Four minutes later, a red fire-engine pulled up outside the building. Some handsome young firemen freed Kelly’s bicycle

As she rode home, Kelly thought, “For every one thief in London, there are thousands of common, kind people!”