Volunteerism's Double-Edged Benefits

BY RUTH ANNE LIPKA,Times-Union Staff Writer

Everybody needs a little help sometime.

Unfortunately, it's often hard to get people to work just for the good feeling they get from doing it. That's where volunteers come in and, in Kosciusko County, many people are helping in many areas.

Kathy Hamman of Volunteer Community Services said while many of the people she places for volunteerism are of retirement age, the overall ages of her volunteers vary as widely as the types of services they offer.

For example, a grade-school girl who loves to read has been sharing her quest for learning by reading to residents of an area nursing home. Then there's the woman who's new to town who showed up at a nursing home one day and asked if there was any way she could help out. Ruth Sterling of Warsaw was put to work that day helping residents play bingo and is now teaching crocheting and knitting to some of the women there.

Sterling, who said she's nearly 70, has volunteered for years, working in a Richmond hospital and at the Red Cross in Muncie. When she came to Warsaw to live with her son because of poor health, she spent some time convalescing before heading out to help people.

"I don't know when I'll be in that situation," Sterling said of the nursing home residents. "It's just something I feel they need."

Sterling also volunteers at the Mental Health Association, where she can be found stuffing envelopes for the agency several hours each week.

Nathaniel Nance is a high school senior and has spent about three years volunteering at the Boys and Girls Club of Kosciusko County.

Nance said he plans to be a teacher and views his volunteer time as good experience for fulfilling his goals. He has been busier during his final year of high school and doesn't volunteer as often, but was spending two six-hour days each week helping kids learn sports and helping to keep them out of trouble.

Why?

"Because there was a need," Nance said. "There's always a need - constantly."

Thankful that he has grown up in a "totally nuclear family," with both parents at home, Nance said that he saw a lot of kids with no authority figures in their lives.

He said volunteering has probably taught him more than those he has helped have learned, adding: "And I had a lot of fun ... People don't realize how much fun you get out of volunteering."

His advice for someone interested in becoming a volunteer is to be flexible - help is needed at various times in many places.

Hamman said that VCS gets a large number of volunteers in the form of Grace College students, where Prof. Jim Shipley's leadership class requires 10 to 15 hours of community service.

She said teachers at Warsaw Community High School also promote volunteerism.

Hamman said she gets excited when she sees the younger generation involved and that she believes that children who are exposed to volunteering at an early age are more apt to keep up with it when they're older.

Despite the fact that Kosciusko County does have a good number of people giving of their time, Hamman said she needs more volunteers north of Warsaw and more able-bodied men.

VCS serves as the "middle man," placing volunteers with about 50 agencies in the area.