What price volunteerism

As someone who devotes a sick amount of free time to volunteer causes, I'm beginning to rethink some of my commitments. Not in terms of stopping what I do, because I only do what I love, but in terms of what effect it is having on our society in general.

Can I say that volunteering has a down side?

California continues to spiral down in revenue, creating dire budget status. Volunteer organizations are being to be asked to "step up to the plate" and fill in the gaps, either with hands or wallets, even more so than previous years.

In our high school, booster groups are vying for the space in the front of the school for weekend car washes. Clubs are selling more and more goodies in order to support themselves. Parents will be exhorted again and again to provide donations to sports teams, the band, clubs, student government, and the like.

I can't support everyone financially - so I politely ignore some of the requests: can't buy tamales sold by the friend's soccer team, must pass up the car wash on my way to the store today, gonna skip the frozen yogurt benefiting the sports team, and I really can't participate in all the run/walk/thon events that come my way.

I guiltily encourage my friends to visit my own daughter's soccer car wash, but I completely understand when not all of them show up.

On another note, super volunteers are possibly taking jobs that were once held by every day people.

My kids' elementary school has a tradition of raising money to pay for the librarian's salary, year after year. This goes back at least 15 years at this point. It's great that the school can manage to raise that kind of money in a consistent way, and that the parent group continues to support that use of funds in their yearly budget review. However, now there is no incentive whatsoever for the school to consider budgeting for a librarian in their annual school plan.

I'm thinking also of the local neighborhood association which organizes regular groups of volunteers to go to the park and trim bushes, clean trash, prune branches and plant new landscapes. This program has kept our park beautiful and our neighborhood desirable. But perhaps the City will not re-staff at pre-crisis levels once tax revenues come back, thinking that the volunteer corps will continue to pick up the slack.

I know there's a balance -- people with time on their hands and good hearts SHOULD continue to volunteer. It feeds my soul to be useful and help others. But I certainly don't want to be continually filling the void with cash that could help my own kids fund their college education, or with labor that keeps an honest person from a job. How do we reconcile this?