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November 30, 1999 DES MOINES, Iowa -- The best way Cheri Adair can describe the feeling she gets after helping people is a "runner's high." "It's marvelous," she said. "Believe it or not, working with all those tragedies seems like it would be a downer, but the people are so resilient." Adair is the director of the Retired Senior Volunteers Program in Des Moines. She also tries to volunteer 20 hours a month with a victim service program dealing with rape crisis and suicide. "I think people helping people is a strong value in Iowa," she said. She explained that because of this value, interest in community service has increased lately, especially with senior citizens. Joel Weinstein, director of the Corporation for National Service in Iowa, works primarily with elderly volunteers, and he said he has also seen a marked increase. "I've been here for a long time, and Iowa is not going to run out of senior citizens," he said. "You can shake a tree and zillions of them fall out." He said that in the statewide RSVP program this year, more than 18,000 volunteers have donated two million hours to non-profit organizations and agencies in Iowa. Although senior citizens have shown more interest in volunteering, Weinstein said he is having a harder time finding and keeping younger volunteers. Because the job market is so strong, college graduates are going straight to the work force rather than various volunteer opportunities, he explained. "Young people would rather go out and work and make money than spend time with some low-income family," he said. "I'm not making a moral judgment, it's just how it is." He explained that this contrasts with college graduates 20 years ago who were extremely interested in volunteer programs like the Peace Corps. Charity Wright, volunteer coordinator for the Iowa Homeless Youth Centers, a private non-profit organization, said she has seen similar results. College and high school students have shown a lot of interest, she explained, but young professionals are difficult to find. "I've had a lot of calls, but I haven't seen a lot of faces," she said. Recently she organized a mentoring program but had little luck finding younger professionals interested in volunteering. Mike Milligan, executive director of the Governor's Office for Volunteerism, said he is trying to heighten interest in community service from younger people. The office sponsored a Youth Service Day this summer that honored 2,000 children for their work in the community. Milligan said he hopes recognition ceremonies like this will help students to become life-long volunteers. Weinstein explained that this is an important step to keep volunteers returning. "I think everybody likes to be told thank you. Some people go nuts over a 10 cents certificate that says 'thank you very much.' ...Other people just get it through helping others,'" he said. "Some kind of recognition is important, though. Nobody likes to be taken for granted." The Office for Volunteerism recently held 10 recognition ceremonies throughout the state, continuing a 17-year tradition started by Gov. Terry Branstad. This year the office recognized 1,052 individuals and corporations for their contributions to various state agencies. "There are a lot of people that are out there doing great things at a community level," Milligan said. "There is no other state that honors those people like we do...We're going to these communities to show them that this office takes what they're doing seriously." Wright agreed that recognition is crucial to keeping volunteers interested. "I think that's important; just saying thank you and recognizing that it's their time," she said. She explained, however, that one of the greatest honors come from the act itself. "You feel like you're giving back to your community," she said. "It keeps me involved...it keeps me young, being around all of those young people. Sometimes its frustrating...but overall it's rewarding." |