Any volunteers?

Have you made -- or broken -- your New Year's resolutions yet?

To help inspire you, we offer three stories about people who set out to help others and found their own lives changed in surprising ways. None makes any claim to being particularly virtuous or self-sacrificing.

In fact, they prefer not to draw attention to themselves. But they want others to discover what they have -- that the more you give, the more you get.

Erin Rosen-Watson of Natick

Age: 18

Hours volunteered this year: 260

Number of volunteers she has recruited: 500+

Number of afghans made: 6,064 since 2000

Number of gift bags to foster children: 6,117 since 2001

Secret to success: "I consider sleeping taking a nap."

Dream: To start her own business

A one-woman Salvation Army

Erin Rosen-Watson founded and runs two charities to help foster children, oversees more than 500 volunteers, and maintains a 15-page website to keep everyone up to date.

Besides being a one-woman Salvation Army, Rosen-Watson is a freshman at Babson College. But the 18-year-old still manages time for manicures, dancing at parties, and trips to the mall with friends.

"I can't sit still for long periods of time," Rosen-Watson explained. "I consider sleeping taking a nap."

Rosen-Watson heads a nonprofit corporation to coordinate her two main projects, Erin's Afghans and The Essential Care Packet Project. Erin's Afghans gives children in foster homes, hospitals, and shelters handmade blankets, and the Care Packet Project gives children heading into foster care supplies such as toothbrushes and teddy bears.

She launched the effort when she was 13. A 4-H Club leader suggested setting goals for the year, prompting Rosen-Watson to decide to crochet 1,000 afghans for foster children. After realizing it would be impossible to do alone, she recruited volunteers at churches and synagogues.

By age 14, her work had gained the attention of several Natick social workers at the state Department of Social Services. And after hearing stories about children heading into foster care toting their belongings in garbage bags, she started The Essential Care Packet Project, organizing 4-H Club members and other volunteers to sew colorful cloth bags and stuff them with donated supplies. A pattern to sew a bag is posted on her website, www.massyouthinaction.org,which a volunteer helped her create.

Nancy Watson, her mother, said the charity work gave her daughter a break from her other passion: ryhthmic gymnastics. The sport took Rosen-Watson around the country for meets.

Watson said when her daughter was a little girl, she would come to her in the middle of the night, unable to sleep. Watson gave her books filled with math problems and puzzles. By the time she awoke, her daughter had completed most of the exercises.

To keep her occupied, her parents also enrolled her in karate classes, piano and oboe lessons with Tanglewood musicians, and archery courses. She was even named Miss Junior Natick.

"My husband and I are both crazy, type A personalities," Watson said. "So she fit right in."

Watson and her husband, both chiropractors who live in Natick, home-schooled their daughter and her older sister, Emily Rosen. A recent graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, Emily marvels at her sister's energy and that she is continuing with her charity work despite the burdens of college.

"I bet half of her [Babson] friends have no idea she even does this," Emily said. "It's not a bragging right for her. She just loves it."

Rosen-Watson said winning corporate and private donations for her charities has grown more difficult, because she's no longer the freckle-faced little girl who rallied people with a smile and a call to "help her help foster kids."

This year, she gave up competitive gymnastics to focus on her college coursework. "I imagine starting a business from scratch or being top dog somewhere," she says.

For now, she is busy studying to maintain a scholarship and working part time in her mother's tea shop in Natick. Wearing sweatpants and a short T-shirt, she giggles at the thought of a boyfriend, saying she has no time.

Life without her causes remains unimaginable, she said. Social workers call her cellphone to ask for her help getting supplies. And she keeps in touch with hundreds of elderly crocheters who depend on her orders for blankets to keep them busy. Rosen-Watson's newsletter mailing list has grown so large that her Internet service provider shut down her account on three occasions after suspecting her of sending unwanted e-mails or spam. (The monthly newsletter hasn't come out since summer, but Rosen-Watson says another issue will be out soon.)

"There's so many people that rely on what I give them. . . . I'd feel really bad if I stopped."

Anyone looking to donate or volunteer with Erin's Afghans or The Essential Care Package Project may reach Rosen-Watson at afghanerin@aol.org.

George Rivetz of Newton

Age: 86

Hours volunteered in 2004: 400+

Where: Golda Meir House in Newton

What spurred him? Sitting at home for three days and not hearing the phone ring once

Career: Postal Service clerk and Red Sox ticket agent

Secret: He's a Yankees fan

He does all the talking

When George Rivetz visits Francis Greenberg at the Golda Meir House, a retirement home in Newton, Rivetz does all the talking.

Rivetz describes his World War II experiences, tells stories about his 40 years working seasonally as a Red Sox ticket-counter agent. Sometimes, he talks about the death of his wife and, later, his adult son.

Greenberg just listens. A stroke has paralyzed his body. It can take several minutes for him to whisper the simplest of words or to nod his head. But his mind is alert. And Rivetz can tell by the light in his eyes and the faintest curve of his lips that Greenberg understands him.

Both men are 86 years old. All Rivetz knows about Greenberg comes from the black and white photos on the wall and the war memorabilia on the dresser, desk, and night stands in his room.

"We're war babies," Rivetz said. "First time I saw a photo of him as a staff sergeant, I saluted him."

Rivetz said he began volunteering about three years ago, when because of his age, no one would hire him to work. For most of his life he had worked as an accounting clerk for the US Postal Service in Boston, in addition to his seasonal job at Fenway Park. When he retired from the Post Office, he took part-time jobs, especially after his wife died, in 1989.

Still spry at 83, he was disappointed he couldn't get a part-time job as a bank teller, and his daughter encouraged him to volunteer with the Friendly Visitor Program, offered through Jewish Family & Children's Service.

Marilyn Ross, a volunteer recruiter for the program, said he is one of only a few senior volunteers in the program. "Many times people don't, because it's a little too close to where they're going," Ross said, but "George is doing it five days a week."

Dressed in a tan sweater vest and worn New Balance sneakers, he jokes with a co-worker at the convenience shop, admitting that, despite his 40 years at Fenway, he is a lifelong Yankees fan.

Ross said Rivetz has many fans at the retirement home, including one 90-year-old woman who proposed to him. Ross paired Rivetz with Greenberg a year and a half ago, unsure what would happen. Greenberg posed special challenges and had been through several volunteers who didn't work out. Rivetz liked to talk about sports, a subject Greenberg had little interest in.

So Rivetz told him about his experiences as a private first class aboard a soldier transport ship, the Uruguay. Rivetz sailed on more than 100 voyages to ports in Europe from 1943 to 1946 and could offer stories galore.

"We were strafed," Rivetz said. "During the Battle of the Bulge, we were almost sunk. We were hit by torpedoes going into the English Channel."

After exhausting his war stories, he cracked jokes about his customers at the Red Sox ticket counter and told tales of sales agents who were fired for scalping the best seats. He talked about his wife, Charlotte, and memories of his life growing up as an Orthodox Jew in Boston's North End. Six months ago, Rivetz quit his job at the Red Sox counter to help care for his adult son, who was diagnosed with a fatal brain tumor. And he talked about that, too.

A year ago, when he couldn't contain his curiosity any longer, Rivetz said he asked Greenberg whether he enjoyed his company. It took a long time for him to answer, but Rivetz said he heard him say softly, "I like you."

"I cried when he told me," Rivetz said. "It showed me I'm doing some good."

George and Christina Hayeck of Framingham

Age: Both 42

Where they volunteer: Sage House in Framingham

Hours volunteered in 2004: 320

Favorite games to play with children: Dominoes, horsie, Tasmanian pinball

Christina's secret to staying calm: Yoga

Their specialty: playtime

By day, George Hayeck builds and manages houses. At night, the lanky 42-year-old is a human jungle gym.

On a recent evening, children crawled and jumped around him, vying for his attention as he stood in the playroom of a Framingham shelter. Six-year-old Elijah Grant sat atop his shoulders, squeezing his head with both arms. His brother, 8-year-old Demetry Armstrong, tugged a pant leg, begging Hayeck to play a game.

Hayeck and his wife, Christina, began volunteering at Sage House in Framingham eight months ago. Christina Hayeck heard a radio advertisement for the Horizons for Homeless Children, seeking volunteers.

She agreed to spend two hours a week playing with children, and eventually persuaded her husband to join her. The experience has been so gratifying that the couple of 13 years plan to become foster parents next month.

"We never decided to have our own children, and we always had our nieces and nephews that kept us busy," he said. "Eventually, as we grew older and were more comfortable in our lifestyle, we realized we could do [things like] this."

George Hayeck said it took years for the couple to feel established. Originally from Worcester, he started his own development firm while his wife attended nursing school in Boston.

By the time they had achieved professional and financial security, they were too old to have their own children and started looking for ways to give back. George Hayeck said he also joined the Masons to participate in the organization's philanthropic work with children.

Horizons for Homeless Children, a Dorchester-based nonprofit, creates play spaces in shelters and recruits volunteers to visit and play with the children who stay there. Since last May, the program has been sending volunteers to Sage House, a shelter for homeless families that offers a nine-month drug- and alcohol-addiction treatment program. As many as seven families stay at the shelter, and this holiday season, 11 children spent Christmas there.

The Hayecks baked cookies for the children, and Christina Hayeck organized a donation drive at her workplace, a medical practice in Acton, using a wish list from the children.

But the bulk of their work is on the floor of the shelter playroom.

On a recent Monday night, seven children, including three teenagers, shuffled in and out of the room, with its worn carpeting and too-bright overhead lighting.

Puppets, instruments, and other donated toys were stacked along the walls. Christina Hayeck held 3-year-old Rashydah Grant curled in her arms for a half-hour. An effort to build a tower with foam blocks erupted into a free-for-all with children hurling blocks and then toys at one another.

"We're all done throwing," George Hayeck said, standing up to tower over the chaos.

Minutes later, a teenager shouted what sounded like a swear word. A shelter worker appeared suddenly and ushered her out of the room.

Christina Hayeck said the children can test anyone's patience. She recalled the time when they wouldn't stop flinging themselves from a tabletop onto some play mats on the floor.

"All I can envision is someone in a halo," she said. "I'm not a screamer, but that night they were out of control."

Her husband, she said, is a "very patient, low-key guy" who rarely gets ruffled and helped teach her patience. Yoga also helps her stay calm, she said.

Christana Abe, a child-care worker at Sage House, said that erratic, unpredictable behavior is common among homeless children.

The Hayecks, she said, always respond patiently. And the children find their kindness and predictability comforting.

"The kids always talk to me about them," Abe said. "Even when they just come to drop something off, the kids want to drag them into the playroom."

"They have something in them that the kids react to," said staff member Ruben Garcia. "They do things like a mother and father would do with a kid."

When the opportunity arose to attend training for future foster parents last fall, George Hayeck said he and his wife knew the timing was right.

And while they still haven't decided what age child they would like to care for -- she would prefer younger children and he, older ones -- they have a room in their home ready.

We "gave two hours a week," Christina Hayeck said. "And that little, tiny thing, it's like a drop in the water. It can spread to so much more."

For more information about playspace programs at Horizons for Homeless Children, call 617-287-1900, ext. 306, or e-mail Karin Turer at kturer@horizonsforhomelesschildren.org.

Looking to help? Here's a starting point

Looking to volunteer? Here are places to start looking for ideas:

Boston Cares identifies group and individual opportunities to help make volunteering a regular part of people's lives. It has partnered with more than 150 nonprofit organizations in the state, including Habitat for Humanity, Charles River ARC for people with developmental disabilities, and the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Call 617-263-2273 or visit www.bostoncares.org.

United Way agencies across the state pair volunteers with opportunities. In the Boston area, contact United Way of Massachusetts Bay at 617-624-8186 or visit www.uwmb.org. For United Way of Central Massachusetts, based in Worcester, call 508-757-5631 or visit www.volunteersolutions.org/uwcm/volunteer/ to see a current list of projects.