Every community in the country has voluntary groups in need of your contribution. But volunteering can also be informal. Knowing what to do is really just a matter of being aware of your friends' and neighbours' needs and helping out where you can. Here are a few modest proposals:
Save a marriage! Take a friend's young children for the day, for the evening or even overnight. If you really love them, send them away for a weekend while you mind the kids.
Deliver a meal to the parents of a new baby or to a convalescent.
Volunteer to do office work and work on advice lines for organisations such as Carelocal (formerly Care for Dublin's Old Folk Living Alone), the Arthritis Foundation or the Irish Wildlife Trust.
Invite your friend's mother to Sunday lunch and make her (and your friend) happy.
Drive someone to an appointment or social event.
Take a housebound neighbour's pet to the vet.
Offer to shop for someone who is ill or housebound.
When visiting someone who is ill or disabled, don't talk about mopping the floor, washing the dishes or doing the laundry - just do it when no one is looking.
Brighten up the local school: offer to do painting, gardening (even flower boxes?) or maintenance work.
Become a trained volunteer on a telephone help-line for organisations such as the Post-Natal Distress Association, Women's Aid and Parent-line.
Accompany a sick friend to the doctor, to take notes/interpret doctor's information/act as reality check during the post-appointment discussion and provide transportation.
Get involved in community games. Join those stoics out on the playing fields every weekend.
Offer your graphic design/desktop publishing skills to an organisation for its letterhead and PR work.
Do practical conservation work with the Conservation Volunteers of Ireland - build dry-stone walls and learn woodland management.
Clear our your wardrobes/toy cupboards, get your friends to do the same and organise a give-away day to a local charity shop. Or, hold a car-boot sale and donate the money to a good cause.
Volunteer to work in a charity shop once a week.
Offer your business or computer skills to a training programme for the unemployed.
Hold a concert in a nursing home.
Organise a story-telling day at your local library.
Plant a tree.
Befriend a housebound or wheelchair bound person with whom you share common interests such as sports or drama and accompany them to events.
Help out with the local scouts or girl guides.
Drop in daily on vulnerable, isolated people living alone.