I am confused about some of these volunteering events that people do. It seems like so many of them are pointless. Not the volunteering part – I understand volunteering. Doing nice things for other people is generally considered positive moral behavior, and it makes the doer feel nice too. Not to mention the resume building power.

What is with these walks and runs? Why do we cycle for the cure and row for research? It seems like a lot of physical discomfort is needed in order to volunteer.

Can people not just fund raise, like they do before they walk a 5K, and then … stop? You could say that some events have dollars pledged per mile.

But it seems pretty safe to assume that most people will finish anyway, and even if they don’t, most donors will still donate the full amount because they want to help, not punish the volunteers that skipped the final mile.

I know that if I was donating money to a cause, I wouldn’t care what the fundraisers did afterward. Maybe triathalons for Tay-Sachs are a conspiracy by the sadists of the world who like to watch good-hearted people suffer.

Yes, I’m looking at you too, poor souls of Shack-a-Thon. I was out in the Brickyard twice this week, interviewing participants. On Tuesday, everyone I talked to seemed really excited about Shack-a-Thon. Then Thursday, as it rained steadily and the wind blew in 30 mph gusts, I went out again. Some people tried to sound really excited about Shack-a-Thon, but they weren’t completely convincing. Maybe it had something to do with sleeping on the bricks for days at a time and being rained on at 7 a.m. But since physical discomfort equals charity, it’s not like they could go inside and solicit donations a different way.

There are only two things more perplexing to me than exertion-based – wait, not even based, exertion-affiliated – volunteer events. First are volunteer opportunities that ask the participants to pay questionably large amounts of money.

The Alternative Service Break trips are one volunteer opportunity that makes me wonder where all the money is going. I completely support the aim of the trips, but a friend who is going to the Gulf Coast this spring was told that the trip could cost $750.

Another friend went to the same area for a week three years ago with Campus Crusade for $25 plus travel fees. That trip had been arranged directly with FEMA. She shared a concern that ASB trips might, unfortunately, be overpriced due to third-party fees.It doesn’t make sense that those volunteering time and energy should also pay ridiculous organizing fees. Are those hundreds of dollars really just administrative fees?

I’m at least comforted by the fact that the people who pay to volunteer and get pies to the face or dunked in a dunking booth do so because they choose to.

Still, I wonder if those volunteers realized there are less silly and inconvenient ways of doing it.

Send Taylor your thoughts about volunteering at [email protected].