Mar 8th, 2010 · About 1,100 young women flew military aircraft stateside during World War II as part of a program called Women Airforce Service Pilots — WASP for short. These civilian volunteers ferried and tested planes so male pilots could head to combat duty. The groundbreaking program lasted only two years and nearly fell through the cracks of history.
Feb 26th, 2010 · Duke University is offering a class in Haitian Creole to help volunteers headed to Haiti. Those teaching the course say that helping volunteers overcome the language barrier is one of the best ways to help them see victims as more than objects of need and desperation.
Feb 26th, 2010 · General Motors hopes to turn thousands of its workers into off-hours advocates for the company's products. GM is letting employees at its Renaissance headquarters in Michigan check out new cars, trucks and SUVs, and drive them for a weekend. GM workers can also volunteer for special advocacy training.
Feb 11th, 2010 · Many patients with critical health needs—like dialysis— have been snowed in by the snowstorms that hit the Northeast. Volunteers helping get them to their appointments.
Jan 28th, 2010 · Backers of a California initiative to legalize marijuana said they would submit far more signatures Thursday than needed to qualify the measure for the November ballot. Volunteers intended to submit about 700,000 signatures collected across all 58 California counties, campaign spokesman Dan Newman said.
Jan 19th, 2010 · After logistical delays, the U.S. government has opened its first post-earthquake medical and surgical facility in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince. Volunteer responders have begun to provide badly needed treatments and surgeries.
Jan 15th, 2010 · Haiti's international airport in Port-au-Prince is struggling to accommodate planes filled with supplies, relief workers and volunteers. There's no electricity, the air traffic control system is down, and pilots who've flown in to the airport say the damage from the earthquake is severe.
Jan 5th, 2010 · Parents have long been expected to spend their free time helping out in their kids’ school—-- from chaperoning field trips to decorating the teachers' lounge, to organizing fundraising events. But some parents, like mother and writer Helaine Olen, have had enough. Olen recently wrote a piece for the online publication Double X titled "Why I'm Sick of Volunteering at My Kid's Wealthy School." She talks about it with Host Michel Martin, along with regular parenting contributors Dani Tucker, Jolene Ivey, and Leslie Morgan Steiner.