The lifeblood of nearly all nonprofit organizations is the work done by volunteers. They are the people behind the scenes who give of their time to help causes, groups, events, and more without asking anything in return.
April is National Volunteer Month, which celebrates the work done by these individuals. Within the month is National Volunteer Week, held April 10-16 this year, which, according to Points of Light, is “about inspiring, recognizing, and encouraging people to seek out imaginative ways to engage their communities.”
In honor of this month of honoring volunteers, a few members of the Town&Gown staff visited three places that provide so much to our communities — and who rely so much on volunteers.
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A Cafe with Special Meaning • by Vilma Shu Danz
My mother-in-law, Jane Virginia Danz, passed away suddenly a few days before Thanksgiving last year. Not a day goes by that our family doesn’t think about her and miss her very much. She was very involved with activities at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in State College, especially with the Community CafeÌ.
When I was asked to volunteer at a local organization, I couldn’t think of a better place than the St. Andrew’s Community CafeÌ to honor Jane’s memory. I wanted to meet the people Jane had loved and spent so much time with, and learn why the Community CafeÌ was so important to her.
Every Thursday, from 5 to 7 p.m., the St. Andrew’s Community CafeÌ opens its kitchen and dining hall to more than 150 guests who come for a free hot meal. Everyone is welcome — regardless of race, ethnic background, gender identity, sexual orientation, capability, or circumstances of life. The menu is based on what was donated from the local grocery stores. On the day I volunteered, the menu included fruit salad, green salad with tomatoes, roast beef, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, vegan minestrone, turkey chili, and an array of desserts.
Guests are invited to dine in and take what they need from the “Take Home” tables. The tables are typically filled with bread, baked goods, vegetables, and fruits that are donated by local grocery stores. The items are donated because the sell-by date is that day or the next day.
Every Thursday morning at 9:30 a.m. at the loading docks behind Trader Joe’s, volunteers such as Ron Rovansek arrive ready to pick up crates of produce, meats, breads, and other baked goods to take back to St. Andrew’s. Volunteers also do pickups at Weis Markets and Wegmans.
Shifts of volunteers of varied religious faiths come during the day to help prepare this meal. What stood out for me is that many of the volunteers aren’t members of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, but they have built these incredible relationships with each other that allow them to work together as a team to make this meal happen every week.
Volunteer Joan Dimarcello is a registered nurse and a Catholic who walked into St. Andrew’s a few years ago, drawn by the wonderful smell of a home-cooked meal. She makes sure that everyone who comes to volunteer has a job to do.
A group of Mormon missionaries come every week to help cook, cut the desserts, and make the fruit salad. Some students from the State College Area School District’s Delta program help with washing dishes. Once a month, some of the staff of the local Trader Joe’s volunteer their time. In the kitchen, you will find retired senior citizens cooking alongside well-known cooking instructor Grace Pilato.
In talking with many of the volunteers, Jane was a big part of the success of the Community CafeÌ that began in 2009. She helped connect the right people together to organize the pickup of food at Trader Joe’s and, on many occasions, was the person at the loading docks in the morning. She used to walk around the church with a clipboard to get volunteers to sign up. She even tended to the church herb garden.
Everyone who knew her would tell you that Jane couldn’t bear the thought of throwing anything away. When I saw the amount of food that would have gone to waste from Trader Joe’s, it made so much sense that Jane was involved in making sure that it was put to good use. What the Community CafeÌ does every Thursday is true to the spirit of Jane, and her memory lives on in the volunteers.
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Care for Our Furry Friends • by Tiara Snare
I have always been an animal lover and am now a proud owner of a yorkiepoo named ChaCe. So I find joy in knowing the type of work an organization such as Centre County PAWS does in finding loving homes for the dogs and cats surrendered to them.
In 2015, PAWS, which was established in 1980, set a personal record with 584 cat adoptions and 352 dog adoptions. The organization has nearly 650 volunteers, who in 2015 donated more than 40,000 hours of services, which can be valued at almost $320,000.
The volunteers, who come in at all hours, handle a diverse number of jobs, including feeding the dogs and cats, taking the dogs for walks, changing litter boxes, doing laundry, giving medicine, running spay/neuter clinics, and playing with the animals.
A unique component to Centre County PAWS is the Pet Partner Program. Volunteers provide intense training and socialization to those cats and dogs who have some behavioral challenges or are very shy. They do whatever it takes to ease a new cat or dog into their new living arrangements. Volunteers will even hand- feed the dog or cat until they become acclimated. It can take some time for some of the animals to become comfortable with being around different people and being handled.
Many Penn State students volunteer their time here. If time allows, they work on their homework while just sitting with one of the animals. The students who may be away from their pets can get their “fur fix” this way!
PAWS has a dog wing and a cat wing to its facility. Director of development Christine Faust says PAWS can house up
to 28 dogs and 55 cats at one time. The animals stay there until they are adopted or fostered, which means people who may not want to be a pet owner forever but want to help become “foster parents” to an animal for a period of time.
Faust has a great connection with the dogs, and they become very excited when she walks through the door during a tour of the facility. She interacts with them on a daily basis.
Each dog cage has all the important information for that dog — their behaviors, their likes, their dislikes, and handling instructions.
One volunteer, Diane Kerly, has an equally strong connection with the cats as Faust has with the dogs. When she walks into a room with several of them, they walk right over to her — and she knows them all by name!
The cat wing was royal! You wonder if the cats would ever want to leave! Several rooms fill the area, including one that allows the cats to roam freely outside of their cages and has a cat door that leads to a play area outside. A local Boy Scout troop made climbing trees for the cats, and there also are plenty of toys.
Even if they don’t volunteer, members of the community helps PAWS by donating food items, litter, paper towels, tissues, hand soap, and much more.
Faust says, “I can honestly say, in my many years of working in the nonprofit world, that Centre County PAWS volunteers
are ‘Pawsome!’ They are incredibly hard working, dedicated, compassionate, and truly love our animals.”
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Breaking Down Language Barriers • by David Pencek
When Jamal Amanova came to State College from Turkenistan nearly six years ago, she didn’t know much English. In fact, when asked how much she did know, she says, “Maybe zero! Just Hi and Hello.”
Because of that experience, the 30-year-old Amanova can easily see herself in the English as a Second Language students she now teaches as a volunteer for Mid-State Literacy Council in State College. She began teaching ESL classes to small groups of students last summer.
“I wanted to do something good for the community, and since I benefitted from Mid-State, I thought it would be good for other students to see and know that there is hope to learn English,” says Amanova, who moved to State College after her husband took a job at Young Scholars of Central PA Charter School. “I’m not saying [my English] is perfect!”
Amanova’s students come from different countries, including Ecuador, China, Turkey, and Chili. The class she is teaching this spring consists of a small group of women from countries that include South Korea, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia. Most of her students are women whose husbands either took a job in the area or are working on their PhDs at Penn State. So besides learning English, the class also serves as a social group for the students.
“You sit down and talk about the culture, and you’re making friends,” Amanova says. “I have friends I made five years ago when I took the class that I still keep in touch with — friends from Asia and Turkey.”
She is always encouraging her students to practice their English, even if it’s by themselves in front of a mirror. And in the classroom, there’s “no judging” — just having them talk to each other and use the English they know helps them.
During one class this winter, Amanova had her students listen to a recorded discussion two teachers had about the positives and negatives to using computers in their classrooms. The students then had to retell what they had heard using their own words. They did the same, retelling the story, after watching a cartoon video.
One of the most challenging parts for students to grasp are the use of idioms, such as “Let’s keep in touch” or “So far, so good.”
Melina Lindsey, a literacy coordinator for Mid-State Literacy Council, says for the 2014-15 year, Mid-State had 225 active volunteers, many of whom do one-on-one tutoring and/or are class instructors. The council had 323 adult learners enrolled in their classes or tutoring programs. Some of the courses include Beginner English, English for Doctor’s Visits, and English through Pop Culture.
She says having a teacher who was a former student, such as Amanova, is a benefit to students.
“Most students come in are pretty low level [with their English],” Lindsey says. “It’s pretty incredible for people to see that you can learn a new language as an adult.”
And Amanova says she is still learning, so even though she is now a teacher, the classes and Mid- State Literacy Council continue to help her.
“First, I just enjoy it,” she says. “Second, I’m learning, too, with them, and we’re helping each other. Third, to see progress from the students, I see myself. We enjoy giving advice to each other.
“I was so eager to learn English, and everybody is doing something for the community — it’s why State College is so friendly.”
