Volunteer Organisations (a long, manical rant)

[horror]

No I don't hate them for what they do, but at the moment I hate them in general.
I need 50 hours of volunteer work for college and I've contacted at least 50 organisations in the last week alone and cannot get placement anywhere!

PEOPLE! I AM WILLING TO DO ANY JOB YOU REQUIRE FOR AS LONG AS YOU REQUIRE IT!
FOR FREE!
HOW COULD YOU POSSIBLY TURN THAT DOWN!?
I. WILL. BE. YOUR. FOOTSTOOL! SHEESH!

I've tried abortion clinics, hospitals, retirement homes, daycare facilities, community centres, homeless hostels, youth outreach programs, food banks, women's shelters, rape crisis centres, used Google and Craigslist to find things in my city, exhausted every number from every website that lists organisations that accept volunteers, scrutinised every phone book (which is useless unless you want to order a pizza or a whore) and I've come out mostly empty-handed.

I may have, possibly, if I beg them and harass them enough, if I have a horseshoe shoved up my ass somewhere, got an interview at one place (that's one out of 50+ if you haven't been keeping track).

Never in my life have I been more stressed about anything, mostly because of the strict time constraints on this, and the fact that it will literally determine whether or not I get to go to school this coming September, or if I'm forced to reapply for January, 2009!!!!!.
I've found myself snapping at friends and basically being a sobbing heap of what used to be a functioning human being.
A note to my friends:
So yeah, I know you think you're helping by suggesting places, but all that it does is frustrate me further since I've already been there, done that, and been rejected or ignored, and 9/10 times I've contacted every specific place you list off to me.

I just want ONE place to tell me they will accept me as a volunteer and let me work with them. I'm not only expecting to get my 50 hours then screw off; I'm more than willing to fulfill a long-term commitment with them.
Having your education hanging in the balance when you've sacrificed so much to get there and have so much riding on it is horrendously depressing.


It would please me eternally if anyone else could share similar stories of college woe so I don't feel like I'm the lonely soldier wandering through post-secondary limbo alone.

[AFPheonix]

I'm having a loverly time getting into grad school, but hey, if that door closes, another will open somewhere. It's all good.

Craigslist. Go there. There's an entire section devoted to people looking for volunteers for all kinds of stuff like tutoring and data entry grunt work and whatnot.

[Boozy]

It's an election year. Does volunteering for a campaign count towards your hours?

Surely there's a candidate in your area that needs someone to hand out leaflets or stuff envelopes.

[horror]

It's an election year. Does volunteering for a campaign count towards your hours?

Surely there's a candidate in your area that needs someone to hand out leaflets or stuff envelopes.

I don't live in the US, but if I did that would definitely be something I would try to get into.

[Boozy]

I don't live in the US, but if I did that would definitely be something I would try to get into.

I don't live in the US either (Canadian) but I thought I'd mention it. I do most of my volunteering for political causes.

When I told one of the candidates I was working for that I had wanted to join some sort of local environmental group, but couldn't find one, she directed me towards one she knew of and even made a few calls for me.

Politicians usually have lots of contacts with charities. You should try calling your local government rep (MP, whatever you have wherever you are).

[Seshat]

Does it have to be a volunteer organisation? Is it valid if you spend your hours sitting with elderly, lonely people in your local community?

How about making items to be sold by a charity that needs money and has craft stalls?

Organising a 'clean the stream' thing for a local creek? Or beach, or park, or forest. Get a bunch of people together with tough gloves, lots of sunscreen, and strict instructions to flag discarded needles/syringes/sharps for pickup by you - because part of your volunteering time was getting training in safe handling of sharps. Or for pickup by the off-duty paramedics/nurses you talked into being part of your cleanup.
(Check with the governing body for public land in your area, there will be laws about such cleanups. Locally to me, the laws simply are 'stay safe and let us know' types of requirements.)

Organising anything else you can think of that your local community needs.

Check with the college - if its acceptable to the requirements, you can do your own volunteer work regardless of other organisations.