In Ontario, high school students will not be awarded their Grade 12 matriculation papers without providing authenticated documentation that they have committed themselves throughout their high school years to a minimum of 40 hours of community volunteerism. For some students, access to volunteer opportunities is readily obtained. Many young people have the option, for example, of volunteering at the local churches to which their families belong. In the summer months it is not all that difficult to rack up volunteer hours for any number of reasons.

Living in a large urban centre provides ample opportunities in many areas for responsible young people to offer their volunteer services, generally in the provision of volunteer activities and aid of social welfare services, but the field is larger than that. Volunteering to stock the shelves of local libraries, to help raising funds for charitable causes, working in a Food Bank, in a hospital setting, for example.

For young people who live rurally and are unable to take advantage of any form of public transit, and cannot readily walk to a destination, acquiring and accumulating those necessary minimum hours can present as a real difficulty. Some young people in their final years of high school have taken driver's education classes and obtained their licenses; they can be more mobile if they have access to a family vehicle. Others, like my granddaughter, who is indeed taking driver's ed now, are dependent on the flexibility of a family member who drives to take them to sites where they can volunteer their services.

For my granddaughter, volunteerism came in bits and pieces, wherever and whenever opportunity arose, and she was able to assemble a paltry 20 hours up until this summer. She will be in her final year of high school this coming term, and hopes to be able to acquire far more than the minimum 40 hours of volunteer time. And she's on her way to doing just that. She has been able to get a drive to her closest sizeable town and volunteer there at the animal shelter that operates as a municipal operation. And while she doesn't personally care for the company of cats, far preferring dogs, she has been assigned to clean out cat cages.

She wasn't looking forward to that duty, and surprised herself by coming across some cats at the shelter to whom she responded positively and found herself actually caring for. The cage-cleaning has gone very well. Her last five-hour stint there had her come across a fairly good friend from school and the two girls together tackled some fairly tough cleaning jobs, actually enjoying the tasks put before them and accruing additional needed volunteer hours when their supervisor topped up actual hours worked with bonus hours in reflection of their demonstrable commitment and hard work.

The girls are scheduled to work together again, and they're looking forward to that opportunity. And my granddaughter is now planning to make arrangements for the coming school year where she may stay behind after school to spend a few additional hours volunteering at the shelter to increase her volunteer hours as much as she can manage, if she succeeds in obtaining a drive back home afterward. And as long as the hours she commits to do not interfere with her homework time and the completion of assigned projects.

Her anxiety to enter university and begin her studies there overrule all other interests, at the present time. And for that, more power to her, feels her loving grandmother.