Scouts and Guides don't lack young people, but they do need more leaders. Work with the elderly can look unexciting. Voluntary transport schemes need people to turn out in the early morning in all weathers. Running a youth football team isn't just about sport - it's part of the fabric of a healthy local community. And volunteering doesn't just take place in the voluntary sector.
Hospitals use thousands of volunteers.
Not forgetting magistrates, school governors, councillors, officers in local political parties. All doing essential tasks. Not only do we take them for granted - we allow the media and the public to take a pop at them, as if our volunteers are the local equivalent of the Forty Thieves. Every now and then someone says that we should publicise this unpaid work. But as Martyn Lewis said, the media are not eager to balance the bad news with the good.