For years Ceri and I have talked about what we should do to celebrate St David's Day: special dinner, get roaring drunk, what? We decided this year to do something we've been talking about for years - to make St David's Day a day of community service and "do the little things."  

We made a special breakfast and drug a child out with us as the other two had escaped to their biological father's house.   We decided we'd dip in slowly this year and walk a neighbor's dog and pick up litter.   Up until about fifteen years ago, I don't remember seeing much litter here, if you dropped a cigarette packet on the ground, twenty people would scream at you to pick it up and stand there and wait until you did, lecturing you on what scum you were for littering.  Things have changed, though, and there's plenty of crap thrown on the ground now.  We started on the main road near our house and put in about three hours picking up bottles, fast food trash, candy wrappers and gunk thrown in the bushes along the road and paths.  We filled up the few bags we'd brought pretty quickly and next time I think I'd like something like a grabber to pick things up with.  I recommend gloves, too. 

Next year I want to plan this better and expand the things that we do by maybe signing up with a community group.  You can find productive and positive community groups almost anywhere that are doing things you agree are worth doing and would welcome your help.  I'd love to find some other Portlanders who'd like to join us and celebrate after, and to hear if there are other people doing this wherever you are.

If you want to find some little things to do to improve your community and the world but need some ideas or want to work with an existing group, try these links:

In Wales

http://www.volunteering-wales.net/

http://www.wcva.org.uk/volunteering

In the USA

http://www.idealist.org

http://www.volunteermatch.org/

In Canada

http://volunteer.ca/

http://getvolunteering.ca/

Now bring on the beer!