volunteer

you know how it goes: a local scout troop calls you up to ask if you can help them with a merit badge that happens to fall in an area of your interest.

you go camping with them to finish up that activity and while all the adults are sitting around a fire, the leader talks about the challenges of the upcoming year and warmly includes you with some well placed "we" pronouns and next thing you know, you're a scout leader.

then the girls are looking for a service project that has to do with animal conservation and you've been thinking about whether the loon conservation project doesn't appear to be active at the place where you camp because they don't have an interest or because they don't have the manpower and you call them up to see what the deal is and whether there's an opportunity for your scouts to do a service project with loon conservation and the next thing you know, you are a loon conservation volunteer.