Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2002 | 9:47 a.m.
For information about how to become a volunteer and for a list of available volunteering opportunities with local organizations, call the Volunteer Center of Southern Nevada at (702) 892-2321 or visit its website at www.volunteercentersn.org
VISTA volunteer Shawana Williams knows first-hand the problems of the youth and seniors in the disadvantaged neighborhoods that she helps.
She was raised by her grandmother, and now, at 27, is the single mother of an 8-year-old boy.
"So when I work with people today who are poor and in a similar situation, I know what they are going through and I want something better for them," Williams said.
"I go into the community and work with kids and seniors and write grant proposals that will help give them better quality of lives. I even work with kids to get them to do volunteer work."
Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and since President Bush, in his State of the Union Address last month, asked Americans to devote 4,000 hours to community service, volunteer centers have been busy.
"We saw an increase in volunteerism after Sept. 11 and again in January," said Fran Smith, executive director of the Volunteer Center of Southern Nevada, which refers an average of 50 new volunteers a month to area nonprofit agencies.
Along with nonprofits the center works with federally sponsored volunteer programs, such as VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America), the domestic version of the more widely known Peace Corps.
When the programs Bush proposed during his speech -- the Freedom Corps and Citizen Corps -- are created through legislation, Smith said, her agency will offer placements for them as well.
Smith's organization received 200 requests on Sept. 12 from people wanting to volunteer.
The center's website gets 45 to 50 requests a week from people seeking information on how to volunteer and where to get training in fields such as helping domestic violence and rape victims, Smith said.
"There are all sorts of opportunities, but to get the most out of volunteering, a person should do the type of work he wants to do and never be forced to volunteer out of a feeling of an obligation to do so," she said.
Not all volunteers work for free. Some, like Williams, receive stipends in exchange for one-year commitments. Both she and Russell Rader, 34, an America's Promise Fellow, who also receives a stipend, are in the early stages of their Las Vegas assignments.
"I grew up in Las Vegas and saw it become so big that I felt it had lost that tightness of a small community," Rader said. "So like many I became apathetic. "Now I feel energetic and encouraged that I can facilitate programs through local agencies to provide safe places for kids to learn and adult mentoring, which are two of our organization's goals," said Rader, a Bonanza High graduate who volunteers for an organization that promotes children's rights to quality education.
Rader's wife works full time so that he can fulfill what he considers an important mission to his community, he said.
Both Williams and Rader were volunteers before their current assignments -- she working with the Henderson Boys and Girls Clubs and he with mentally ill children. Both say they will continue volunteer work when they get paying jobs.
Williams plans to go to cosmetology school and hopes to open a beauty salon named Shay Boo's Place. Rader, who is scheduled to graduate this year from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas with a bachelor's degree in anthropology, wants to be an anthropologist.
Some volunteers organize other volunteers. For example, Paula Martel, an administrator for AAA Nevada, started and runs a volunteer program for her 200-person claims office, where 25 percent of employees participate in company-supported events.
"We work at events like the Corporate Challenge and the heart walk, we answer phones during public television donation drives and we do environmental work," Martel said. "It is so satisfying planting 5,000 aquatic materials in muck and later seeing a revitalized marsh where birds have returned."
Sharon Stewart, a paid coordinator for the BEST Coalition for a Safe and Drug Free Nevada clearinghouse, oversees a staff of 14 people, five of whom are volunteers.
"I have struggled in the past to find volunteers, so I know how valuable they are," Stewart said. "I try to assign them to tasks they enjoy.
"Some people are just as happy stocking, stamping and labeling pamphlets, and that's fine," she said. "A volunteer is happy as long as he has a feeling of worth and that what he is doing is of value."
Smith said to encourage more volunteerism, agencies must remember two simple words -- thank you.
"Volunteers don't volunteer for recognition or to get gifts or galas when they are done," Smith said. "People become volunteers because they have an interest in helping to make something better."
archive
