I once read that we should each donate 5% of our time and 5% of our income to charities and other worthy causes. To my dismay, I fall far short of these goals. Although I have volunteered for a few things and I do give money to charities.

Lets start with my donations. For starters, I don't believe in claiming charity contributions as deductions in my income taxes. The government needs the money and it's put to good use; but secondly, giving money is something I do because it makes me feel good. Trying to get some of it back from Uncle Sam is not compatible with that feeling.

If a charity gets a hold of me then I'll donate some money. Phone solicitations work really well with me. Unfortunately, that leads to so many junk calls that I don't answer my phone anymore. Mail solicitation works too. I'm in a couple of organizations where you can donate some money to their charities when you pay your dues, and I do that. Other places where I give money is at the theater for March of Dimes or whatever, and at the grocery store for something or other.

Also, in charity auctions if there is something I want then I'll bid extra for it, and I won't mind bidding a lot since the money goes to a charity. That's probably where I donate the most money this year, as I've spent some $800 on two items that I really wanted. That and I wanted my contributions to be something substantial.

At this point you may have guessed that I'm not very picky about what charities I donate to. For the most part, that's true. I believe most charities are worthy of some money. I'm sure that there are some scams out there, but that should not stop me from donating. If I think about it, I try to pick charities that are educational in nature. Schools, scholarships, and things like that.

What do I volunteer my time and efforts to? Very little. In fact, the only event I can think of is a PBS pledge drive where I worked the phones. Other than that, most of my volunteering is not for charitable organizations.

I have volunteered to do several things for the Hudson Leick Official Fan Club and the HL community in general. I've been keeper of the Cirran Restoration Society, I help run the Hudson Leick Mailing List, I'm the project lead of the Hudson Leick Program Watch, and a couple of other things.

At this point I'll say that the openness and friendliness of the HL Community has motivated me to pitch in and help when I can. It's not something I do for the thanks or accolades I get, although that's very nice and quite touching. But I volunteer because I want to give back something to a community that I feel a part of.

So what have my donations and volunteering brought me? The biggest thing is a profound satisfaction that I am at least trying to help make the world a better place. It's awfully special when you touch someone's life for the better, when you leave a positive mark on the world. That's why I do it. It's an inner sort of reward, but those are the best.