5 Reasons to Volunteer on Vacation

Today is my first day back from vacation in Maui. It was everything we dreamed about.

As I reflect on the trip, I'm grateful that we celebrated our parent's 50th wedding anniversary, watched rainbows form and fade, savored every sunset, ate tasty food, exercised and adventured, communed with local trees and turtles, pursued deep talks and felt laughter [and pool drinks] deep in our bellies in these deck chairs.

I'm especially grateful, however, that our teenager and I realized an intention we set many months ago. We volunteered multiple times around the island. The memory of those service half days will stick with me for a long time.

Here's the list of volunteering options we made by asking our friends for ideas, combing the web and making a few phone calls before the trip. We ended up supporting: Leilani Farm Sanctuary (for animals) and The Hawai'i Land Trust. Use our list if you're Maui bound!

Please share tidbits about your favorite volunteering memories in the comments section of this article. We're looking for ideas for our next effort!

Here are the 5 reasons to volunteer on your next vacation:

1. It deepens your appreciation of place

Learning about the history of the place you're vacationing via volunteering connects you more deeply to it. It make makes your stay there more sacred. It also gives you local context. It's always nice to sneak away from a hotel (and the service industry in general) to more deeply experience a place. Learning about an area and volunteering to benefit it helps you contribute vs. extract from a place. Here's our Hawai'i Land Trust educator and volunteer leader teaching us about the sacred property we were about to spend several hours working on. Work gloves and tools were welcome replacements for our standard work tools...computer and phone. ?????

2. Giving to others (human + non-human) releases + hormones

Seeing my daughter bond with this cat and the donkey featured above, both of which have lived a very challenging life, sent positive waves to my psyche during our visit to this animal sanctuary. Slowing down my mind and putting my hands and arms to good use around the farm was grounding and a great attitude boost. It's well proven that volunteering helps counteract the effects of stress, anger, and anxiety. The social contact aspect of helping and working with other humans or non-humans can have a profound effect on your overall psychological well-being. ???????

3. Memorable side adventures can unfold

Commuting over an hour from our hotel gave us a chance to see more of Maui, especially on our drive back home via the precarious and memorable highway 340 around the northwestern tip of the island. The drive and the beautiful roadside tacos and smoothies we got were aspects of the volunteering adventure we hadn't even planned for! ??????

4. Can be great exercise

We worked hard restoring a site of rich historical relevance. My arms and back were sore for days. Good sore! ??????????

5. Bond even more deeply with your (new) friends and family

We mets lots of interesting people volunteering that we may not have met in other venues. It was fun to see all of us drawn to similar places and endeavors. Zip line adventure parks, surf lessons, snorkel adventures and beach time are great, but seeing our volunteer days inspire grounded and radiant smiles like this on my teen daughter's face confirms that volunteering is a winning vacation addition. Vacations often summon a sense of joy. Vacations that include volunteering summon an even richer and lasting sense of joy.

I'm convinced that volunteering can also happen on work trips. The reasons above and even more benefits emerge when colleagues unite and pursue service together. Suggest to your leadership that your next remote club/recognition trip or QBR (quarterly business review) week should have volunteering threaded into it.

Please lemme know if you, your family or your team at work need my support in your volunteering or related social or environmental endeavors! Book 30 minutes with me here.

Aloha!