"Don't volunteer for ANYTHING"

This was a common phrase in the military but I always found that volunteering, more often than not, invariably turned out to be a good thing.
We had an email from the girls school asking for a volunteer to take Hetty's class to Robinswood Hill for Orienteering. The last time I did any orienteering was during our fortnight camping, in Wales, when I was a Craft Apprentice in the RAF, 1966. We had to navigate across the Welsh countryside, over hills and dales, to meet up at an exact location. Also did a lot of it in the Scouts of course.
I responded and volunteered to lend a hand, turned out that if I hadn't the whole class outing would have been cancelled.
They split into three groups, each group had a teacher, or teaching assistant, and an adult volunteer. I was assigned to the group that Hetty was in, which was really nice as it turned out. Our group had an odd number and they had to hold hands with another pupil. I held hands with Hetty.
First off they had five tasks to perform. The task in the photo is two planks, no, not the six formers at each end, and they had a foot on each plank. The planks would be moved  by the sixth formers and they all had to move with it, left, right, left, right. It was hilarious at first but they did get the hang of it and got to the end of the distance. Hetty is at the back of the children, in a maroon school coat, in the photo.
One problem was the copious amounts of churned up mud. You can see the mud on their clothes but they had the plank task a little higher or they would never have moved the planks due to the suction of the mud.
By the time they'd finished the children were covered in mud pretty much head to foot but they had a whale of a time getting in that state.
We then set off on a nature sculpture trail where we stopped at various nature themed sculptures carved into large logs or into the stumps of felled trees. Some of them were quite amazing with each one containing different animals that can be found on the hill from bees and butterflies to foxes and badgers.
before we got back on the coach, for the short journey back to school, they stripped off their outer waterproof clothes and wellies, and donned clean trainers which each child had taken in separate bags. Luckily, I was able to take Hetty's stuff home for washing and then took the wellies and a clean coat when I went to pick the girls up at 15:15.
Last time I was at Robinswood Hill was June last year for the beacon lighting for VE (Victory in Europe) commemoration. D-Day - Commemoration and Beacon Lighting | djrose007 | Blipfoto

A couple of things that I volunteered for, whilst in the RAF, were;
To go and set up communications in the AOC's (Air Officer Commanding Malta) study at his residence. This was necessary due to threats from El Fatah of attacks or bombings.
Another was to do a detachment to Preston, in the UK, as they were short of a telegraphist. That turned out to be for about 3 months. Loved Preston, and there was no camp for us to stay at so I had a bedsit for those three months. Most of the other people, Air Traffic Control trade, were locally enlisted so lived in the area.
I also volunteered with XH558 the last flying Vulcan bomber and the Jet Age Museum in Gloucester. Both were for a number of years and I got a Queens award for Voluntary Services for the museum volunteering. In Saudi I was asked, and accepted, to volunteer to head up a fund raising committee for the Riyadh Scout movement. All of these things were very rewarding, not financially of course, in fact with travelling and purchasing Vulcan to the Sky clothing it actually cost me but still worthwhile.
So, in my experience, 'Don't Volunteer for ANYTHING' is a nonsense.  :-)