Good morning. My name's Lucy Crittenden, and I'm the Director of Operations for an organisation that arranges volunteering in this part of the country. I'm hoping I can persuade one or two of you to become volunteers yourselves. Let me start by briefly explaining what we mean by volunteering.
早上好，我是Luc Crittenden，我是一个组织的执行主管，我们的组织是在本国的这片区域组织志愿活动的。我希望能够说服你们其中的某些人变成志愿者。让我以简短地介绍志愿服务意味着什么开始吧。
Volunteers are teenagers and adults who choose to spend some time, unpaid, helping other people in some way. Most volunteers devote two or three hours to this every week, while a few do much more. The people they help may have physical or behavioural difficulties, for example.
志愿者是选择花费时间，不求酬劳以某种方式帮助他人的青少年或者是成年人。大多数志愿者每周都会拿出两三个小时来做志愿，但有一些人花的时间会多一些。他们帮助的人可能有身体或者行为上的问题。
Volunteers can do all sorts of things, depending on their own abilities and interests. If they're supporting a family that's struggling, for example, they may be able to give them tips on cooking, or recommend how to plan their budget or how to shop sensibly on their income. They might even do some painting or wallpapering, perhaps alongside any members of the family who are able to do it. Or even do some babysitting so that parents can go out for a while.
志愿者什么都可以做，取决于他们个人能力和兴趣。比如说，如果他们帮助一个艰难谋生的家庭，他们或许可以给他们提供一些烹饪的技巧，或者是帮助他们如何计划预算，或者是如何以自己的收入为基础进行合理购物。他们可能甚至会画画或者是贴墙纸，也许和家里会这么做的人一起做。或者甚至是帮助照顾孩子，这样父母就可以出去一会儿。
The benefit from volunteering isn't only for the people being helped. Volunteers also gain from it: they're using their skills to cope with somebody's mental or physical ill health, and volunteering may be a valuable element of their CV when they're applying for jobs: employers usually look favourably on someone who's given up time to help others. Significantly, most volunteers feel that what they're doing gives them a purpose in their lives. And in my opinion, they're lucky in that respect, as many people don't have that feeling.
志愿活动的受益方并不只是那些被帮助的人。志愿者们也可以从中获益：他们使用自己的技能来帮助别人解决心理和生理健康问题，志愿活动也许是他们申请工作的时候简历上的加分项：雇主都会很喜欢他们拿出时间来帮助其他人的人。重要的是，大多数志愿者都会感觉自己做的事情给予了他们生活的意义。在我看来，他们在这个方面是非常幸运地，因为很多人都没有这种感觉。