Volunteers

Get up close and personal with one of the animal kingdom's weightiest - and most interesting - mammals, the elephant. A new volunteer program, sponsored by the nonprofit organization United Planet , is based at an elephant sanctuary in Jaipur, India.  It provides participants with an opportunity to learn about animal care and rescue while experiencing cultural immersion. "Working with animals is important, rewarding -- and fun," says Theresa Higgs, a United Planet vice president.

CHICAGO - Obama for America volunteers from Illinois have helped flood the zone in Wisconsin in the last few days to help work for an electoral prize the campaign would dearly love to win. A surge in volunteer hours in recent days has been fed partly by the promise of tickets to President Obama's Election Night Party in Chicago. Many of those volunteers have been at work in the neighboring state for weeks now, knocking on doors and working the phones to help the former Illinois senator lock down Wisconsin in his bid for reelection.

Hundreds of people stripped naked in a Munich, Germany, public square over the weekend for the latest installation by Spencer Tunick, the American photographer who specializes in assembling large numbers of naked bodies for his conceptual projects. Saturday's event was a tribute to Richard Wagner's "Ring" cycle of operas, which are being performed by the Bavarian State Opera. A reported 1,700 people took off their clothes for the project, with about half of the participants painted in gold and the remainder painted in red.  The volunteers arranged themselves in various configurations -- including a pair of concentric red-and-gold rings -- that were intended to be Tunick's visual interpretations of scenes from the "Ring.

From the Bay Area to San Diego, tens of thousands of volunteers throughout California are expected to participate in the nation's largest community service initiative as Big Sunday Weekend , a three-day event, kicks off on Friday. Celebrating its 15th anniversary, Big Sunday's mission is to build community through hundreds of community service projects, including food and blood drives, delivery of meals to seniors and the planting of vegetable gardens on school campuses, organizers said.

TrinityCare Hospice, 16461 Sherman Way, Suite 150, Van Nuys, needs volunteers to provide a variety of comforting, supportive and practical services to terminally ill patients and their families. Volunteers must be willing to commit to four hours of service per week. For more information, call (818) 785-1800. The Volunteer Center Assistance League of Southern California, 8134 Van Nuys Blvd., Suite 200, Panorama City, is looking for people to maintain a thrift store in the West Valley.