If you want to live longer and better, help someone else do the same.

When you volunteer, “Everything changes,” says Phil Hawkins, volunteer activities coordinator for the Idaho State Veterans Home in Boise.
When a tough teen who has had a brush with the law cuts up food on the plate of an elderly war veteran, the veteran remembers he matters, and the teen learns what it is like to serve, maybe for the first time ever.

“For the veterans, it’s such an important connection to have,” Hawkins says.

For the teen, “You can see the changes in their attitudes,” said Hawkins. “You can see they don’t want to be there, but after the first few times, you can see they really want to be there.”

A 2007 review of studies linking volunteerism and health found that volunteers live  longer, do more, are less depressed and suffer less heart disease, according to the Corpor-ation for National and Community Service, established in 1993 by President Bill Clinton.

Idaho is among the top states nationwide for the percentage of us who do volunteer work. Many schools in the Treasure Valley require students to do volunteer work as part of the curriculum.

The veterans home has about 500 volunteers, ranging in age from 11 to 94. Some come in groups, including military service organizations and school groups, and some come by themselves.

Volunteers for outdoor work are plentiful in the Valley. Boise’s “Adopt the Greenbelt” program uses volunteers who commit themselves to keeping a stretch of Greenbelt free of trash for a year.

That program has 21 sections of Greenbelt and 21 corporate groups, families or individuals signed up.

The program is so popular that one group is on a waiting list. Participants must renew their commitment every January.

“It’s amazing,” said Jerry Pugh, volunteer coordinator for Boise City Parks and Recreation. “You would think that trash pickup wouldn’t interest people, but we never have any trouble getting people.”

The annual cleanup at the end of the floating season on the Boise River often draws 600 or more people, so many that sometimes volunteers must be turned away.

Most volunteer opportunities at Parks and Recreation count as exercise because they involve getting outdoors, moving around or working with kids.

Volunteers come in all stripes.

Carol Chastain Teater first volunteered at St. Luke’s Boise Medical Center as a candy striper, a teen who helps out around the
hospital.

More than two decades later, she buys baby items for the hospital gift shop.

“You don’t spend that kind of time volunteering without coming out knowing you have made someone’s life better,” Teater said.