"Imagine a community of girls on the Net who speak their minds, share their ideas and make lasting friendships."
—Holly Holmberg Brooks, Founder of GirlSite

10 to 17 points: Action Girl
You prefer to work mainly on your own. You also don’t want to spend a ton of time volunteering, but you know your contribution can help someone in need. Some ideal volunteer jobs for you are:

- Peaceful protester
- Amnesty letter-writer
- Red Cross Blood donor
- Hunter

Your job: Protester-on-call. You will take part in non-violent, creative protests to protect our environment. Based on your interests and location, you will be contacted when a protest needs your support.
Charity: Greenpeace, an independent, non-political and international organization, dedicated to the protection of the environment by peaceful means.
On a
mission to:		 Save the planet, including the whales!
Contact: Check out http://www.greenpeace.org/, Greenpeace’s Web site. You can fill out a form online that makes you a member of the Action Alert Network, so you’ll be alerted when a protest is in the works.
Time commitment required: Unpredictable, but not frequent. A protest or rally is likely to take an afternoon.
Age of volunteers: From teens to the very old. Possibly even young school children.

Peer contact:
This is a great way to meet guys and girls your age who care about the environment and like to get involved.

Dealing with strangers:		 A lot.

Taking orders from the boss:		 Not really.

Why it rocks:
You are so radical!
Other contacts for this type of work: Environmental preservation groups abound. Check out http://www.sierraclub.org/, the Sierra Club’s Web site. You can also look in the Yellow Pages under “environmental organizations.” If you’re hell-bent on protesting, only protesting, you can always organize something yourself! Go for it!

 

Your job: Letter writer. You will write letters to government officials, lobbyists, activists, individuals, organizations, and many others to oppose human rights abuses everywhere.
Charity: Amnesty International, an impartial, independent and worldwide campaigning movement that works to promote all the human rights. In particular, Amnesty campaigns to free all prisoners of conscience, ensure fair and prompt trials for political prisoners, abolish the death penalty and torture, end political killings and "disappearances", and oppose human rights abuses by opposition groups.
On a mission to:
End human rights abuses worldwide.
Contact: Check out http://www.amnesty.org/aboutai/index.html, Amnesty’s Web site. Look in the business White Pages to see if an Amnesty affiliate is located near you.
Time commitment required: As long as it takes you to write a letter and send it out. You can do it as frequently or infrequently as you like, for example, a letter a week, or a letter a year. If you make copies to have your friends mail out, that adds additional time. If an Amnesty group is located near you, you could attend weekly or monthly meetings.
Age of volunteers: From teens to the very old. Possibly even young school children.

Peer contact:
If you don’t attend meetings, you’re on your own. Make your human rights passion work for you! (But you’ll meet others with similar values if you decide to go the meetings. Maybe you should give it a try!)

Dealing with strangers:		 Not likely!

Taking orders from the boss:		 You are the boss

Why it rocks:
You get to write, you get to pull for fellow human's rights.
Other contacts for this type of work: Are you aware of human rights abuses nearby or halfway across the globe? Nothing’s stopping you from sending your opinion to the vile worms that are responsible, or to the powers-that-be who can stop it. Amnesty can help with the research, or you can use the Internet, the library, or government officials for help determining where to send your correspondence.


Your job: Blood donor. How hard can it be? You will visit a blood donation site and have blood drawn. You must be 17 or older, and weigh at least 110 pounds.
Charity: The Red Cross, a humanitarian organization helping more than 30 million people each year.
On a mission to: On a mission to: Help people prevent, prepare for and cope with emergencies.
Contact: Call 1-800-GIVE-LIFE. They can tell you when a blood drive is to be held near you, or direct you to a place at which you can donate. Sometimes they will even give you a ride.
Find out more and pinpoint your local chapter through http://www.redcross.org/index.shtml, the Red Cross national Web site. You can also call 1-800-HELPNOW, or look them up in the Business White Pages.
Time commitment required: Under an hour, as infrequently as you like, or as often as every eight weeks.
Age of volunteers: Seventeen years and up. Whether you’ll find yourself surrounded by oldsters, mobbed by students, or lost in a mix depends on the collection site (school, senior center, church, etc.)

Peer contact:
There could be tons of hotties. There might be very few. Try different collection sites if you are motivated by the possibility of a match by blood type!

Dealing with strangers:		 Strangers will process your information and draw your blood. Hey, if you do it a lot, they might become friends.

Taking orders from the boss:		 Only if you consider “drink this cup of orange juice” to be bossy.

Why it rocks:
You’ll know you’ve helped to save a person’s life, even though you really didn’t have time!


Your job: Hunter of wild game. Grrr!
Charity: Hunters for the Hungry program. This program works with hunting clubs in several states to gather game to feed the hungry. In just 1997, more than 141,000 pounds of venison were donated, processed and distributed to the less fortunate by participating hunting clubs in Virginia alone; that’s enough meat to provide more than half a million servings!
On a mission to:
Feed the hungry while enjoying the thrill of the hunt.
Contact: Hunters for the Hungry, P.O. Box 304 Big Island, VA 24526 or call 1-800-352-4868. They can help you locate programs near you.
Time commitment required:
Varies according to hunting season; set by you.
Age of volunteers: Young (hopefully not little kids) and old alike.

Peer contact:		 Do you hunt in groups?

Dealing with strangers:		 Minimal.

Taking orders from the boss:		 What boss?

Why it rocks:		 If you are a hunter, you can shoot your game, and let someone eat it, too.You get to write, you get to pull for fellow human's rights.
Other contacts for this type of work: Call local soup kitchens to offer your contribution, or contact the United Way by calling 1-800-411-UWAY (8929), or check out http://www.unitedway.org/, the United Way’s Web site for help finding your local branch. They might be able to tell you if there are game distribution programs in your area.