Most of us are quite busy.I don't recall when I was a child having all the activities that today's child has available to them. I was talking with a co-worker recently who informed me that he was unable to place his daughter in another after school activity and when I asked why, he told me that she was already active in her church, swimming, dance, ballet and several other ventures.

When I was a boy, I do remember playing in the band and having practice after school twice a week. I also was in Cub Scouts for a few years, but that was the extent of my activities outside the house. Perhaps growing up in the coal regions, there just wasn't the disposable income to have a great deal of extra activities and that is why life seemed slower then.My adult life sometimes seems as hectic as my friend's daughter. I have meetings to cover for the paper. I have meetings with the Historical Society, the Summit Hill GAR and the Heritage Center as well as some other organizations sporadically that seem to keep me on my toes.I help with the groups because they provide a service to the community. As a member and several term past president of the Summit Hill Historical Society, I became involved in the GAR Cemetery and eventually formed a board of volunteers who assumed control of it when the owner had to release it due to personal illness. That job to me was important as many of us in the Panther Valley have family buried in the cemetery.I joined the Heritage Center because it is the former church in which I was reared. My family helped build that building and were instrumental in its history so I felt a calling to return and do my best to preserve it. Especially since it has an important mission in the community being the home of the Summit Hill Food Pantry. The pantry itself feeds 140 families plus each month and the board to which I belong works to ensure the building remains open to accommodate it.It is an unusual relationship, a symbiosis in that without our board of volunteers running the building, the pantry would not have a home and would most likely need to close, and the pantry affords us the opportunity to allow the Heritage Center to continue to act as a mission to the community.Every cent raised by the center is returned to its operating costs. The events that are held are done to keep the building open. Any fundraising we do supports the building. Our costs barely keep the building afloat.Am I busier than I would like to be? Sometimes I think so. But I also believe that it is in service to my town and the area and it really is difficult for me to lighten my load because helping others during life and even at the end of their lives has become important to me. My family will always come first, but these other challenges create a balancing act that I do not think enough of us do. What would be helpful is if more people could volunteer. The more volunteers we have, the less all of us need to do and that would definitely be a good thing.So consider your goal for 2014 to join a community organization and reach out to others. It's hard work, but it is fulfilling and it will help you grow. They could use your help and I'm sure would be grateful.