so huh what do you think should they uh should young Americans be forced to do a year of service
i don't i don't think they should be forced but i think they should be encouraged i guess encouraged to
to do some kind of public work i guess just to get them i guess involved with community maybe you know just community activity if nothing else see how the city works stuff like that
yeah i think something like the Peace Corps is a bit harsh
yeah i i think so too i think that's a bit dramatic but but other than that i think it it's a good idea to get them involved in the city and community activities and you know like the uh shelters and
you know kids
uh that kind of thing helping out uh volunteering i guess if they can
move on
yeah i think it's a little harsh to say that they should have to spend a year or two and and and force them i think that uh i think it'd be i think most i think a lot of kids actually do a lot of work and no one just realizes it
yeah
you're right i do too i think they start out young like in uh Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts doing stuff
right exactly i was a i was a Boy Scout and as part of being a Boy Scout you had to do you know projects all throughout and then to become an Eagle Scout you have to spend a do a year long project for
exactly
right that's see that's what we did in Girl Scouts and and that got you involved real good and it i think it starts kids out on the right track and it lets them decide if that's what they enjoy doing something
yeah i think i i now i think people generally volunteer that that there's no problem with getting them to to do stuff
yeah
i do too i think i think a lot of people a lot more people volunteer than than uh than we than get credit for it as you know like in hospitals and uh and the shelters and stuff like that
and even if it is a couple times a year like at the holidays i mean at least they're getting out and doing it and you know perhaps helping and helping out i think that's good and
well we have a funny commercial around here it says something like if people were to give five hours a week or five percent of their salary we could they could solve all the world's problems or something
so i guess if we all give five hours a week or five percent of our salary we could uh or just or just gave or or just or just forced our kids just to force kids to serve for uh parents i guess
yeah yeah
i'll be
yeah there you go that's
substitute my my yeah my kid'll do uh four or five hours this week for me no problem
hey
yeah it sounds pretty good that sounds good i've noticed a lot of uh different organizations in our community uh
pick up like on the highway and stuff and i think that's pretty neat they uh go along and have so many miles i guess of highway to take over and they clean it up
oh i
i've seen that yeah
and keep it clean i think that's a pretty good idea and i think you know again i've seen a lot of young kids doing that and i think it gets them prepared to
to learn how to volunteer as they get older i know i did you know in like Girl Scouts and everything and after that in high school i would volunteer at a nursing home and stuff like that so
they they just started trying to get them together like like like like that around here from for from the community because uh we had a big ice storm uh very very recently you don't sound like you're in the north you sound like you're in the south somewhere
oh
yeah i'm in Texas where are you at
yeah uh i'm in uh New York upstate upstate upstate New York yeah and uh long way uh
New York
oh gosh
yeah yeah
and we just had a really big ice storm and basically half the trees in in in our city i'm in Rochester which is uh right upstate half of the trees in the city
um-hum
um are no good anymore and that's how bad it was everything is just down everywhere you know we had three hundred thousand people without power
oh no
oh
golly
you know it was and you know and and they and we didn't have power for a week and there are still people who don't have power it's it's oh yeah it's been over it's been ten days already and there are still something like
are you serious
oh
ten thousand people without power and were officially yeah and we're officially in a state of emergency funny thing is the news the national news how they covered it um
oh my God how do they live
yeah i haven't heard a thing
yeah i think it made about three minutes on one of the national news stations or something and and we've been in a state of emergency for over you know for ten or eleven days you know we just got our phone back today uh
oh
Lord
God
and and they're you know putting out ads and now for people to come volunteer or to have their organizations come volunteer to help clean up the streets
well that's good that's great
because we have you know everywhere everywhere that a tree is down people need help and we're all all a lot of older folks need help getting their yards cleaned out because they can't afford to pay anyone and they and and they certainly can't carry it themselves and so
right
yeah
yeah
right
right that's one thing we do at our church is um we have a group called Hearts and Hammers and we go along and i'm really not sure how we find the individuals but we find older people
that cannot afford to fix up their homes that need desperately need it and uh we go along with all the material and in one day more or less go in and say roof paint fix whatever we can
oh that's great
yeah and spend a day doing that's really neat i mean it's not a lot because you're just doing a house at a time but you know every little bit helps
and is that supported by all donation to the church and so forth or
uh yeah they uh luckily we have a a man who owns a building company
oh so he
so he donates a lot not everything but a lot of the material then what he doesn't donate we just go out and buy
that's real nice
yeah and it's not you know we don't promote it a lot outside the community because we don't want recognition for it you know so much as we just want to help people out so it's real neat it's
right
that that that's real good and i and i bet it gives you a real good feeling to be doing that
yeah it's like i say it's not a lot but it helps people like this last couple we helped you know they were in their eighties and she was bedridden and i just you know it just tears your heart out to
yeah
to see this kind of thing and you know if you can do any any little bit it helps so
that's that's uh that's real good we had uh we had organizations like that in college you know we had a community service group in college that had all sorts of different groups and some did like that some did elderly visits some did um
yeah
yeah
some did you know Big Brother Big Sister stuff like that and i'm convinced that that that at least twenty five percent of our school participated in some sort of uh
some sort of group you know activity activity like that you know twenty five i don't know twenty five percent yeah my wife was big in that and she thinks yeah twenty five percent it's it was a small school but um
gosh that's great that's a lot
that's that's a lot of kids though
oh well still that's a lot you know that's a good chunk of kids
yeah but i mean a a a lot of people would get involved and you know because there were all different organizations to do there was Big Brother Big Sister they had a yearly auction they had a dance marathon for charity or to to to support that group
yeah
yeah that's neat
such that you know lots of people got involved that way
that's great that's great but uh like i'll agree with you though i don't think they should have to do a year
yeah
yeah no neither do i i think it should be completely optional and you know
yeah i don't think that some people i don't think have uh a year in them to volunteer if you know what i mean they're not worth it
yeah they're not worth a year or some people unfortunately just just can't even afford it you know or whatever i mean the Peace Corps doesn't pay very well
right
oh yeah that's true that's true
you know people get shipped off and then you know and then and then their parents i have a um a a friend whose whose son is in the Peace Corps in Guatemala or daughter is in the Peace Corps in Guatemala right now
oh oh oh
and you know he and his wife just went off to visit her and you know i know i could never afford to go visit a kid in Guatemala
i i couldn't either i couldn't either
you know so so i think you know and and and the kid's certainly not making much money
right right
so i can see where that that may be a problem
yeah i just know one person that's in the Peace Corps and i mean she's a teacher and and just wanted to do it she'd been a teacher for a while just decided she wanted to do it so
i mean i'm grateful for people like that but i don't see how they can just
just take off a year
yeah just pick up and head on out i wish i could do something like that but
right
yeah i don't yeah well neither can i so i i i i i i did my service before and i'll do my little community service throughout but never never for a year again
i can't so
right that's the way i am i know the feeling
but so right so i guess our vote is no
that's right we're against it
well it's been nice talking to you i guess
that's right
you too and i hope everything works out up there
well yeah we're we're slowly getting everything back together again you know it it's taking time but everything you know we got lucky we had no damage to our house or anything so the rest'll just have to come with time
yeah
good good that's great
yeah well good luck
well good luck to you too bye-bye
thanks bye
