Volunteers enhance many activities that promote our social good and flourishing. Praise of volunteers at the Montgomery County COVID-19 vaccination site is timely. We are fortunate that the Montgomery County Health Department is exemplary in organizing administration of allocated vaccines. Stories from across the country describe confusion, errors, inefficiencies, interminable lines and minimal vaccinations. In spite of early delays in Indiana online and telephone procedures for arranging appointments, vaccines arriving in Crawfordsville are administered smooth as silk. Health department staff administer the process, but many volunteers make it happen at entry, signing in, providing information, giving shots and monitoring results. All this is done pleasantly and efficiently, often in less than 30 minutes. Thank you.
Pro bono publica (for the public good) refers to free legal services provided by lawyers. Many more of our neighbors serve our community pro bono publica. The government provides a minimal safety net that still has many holes. Volunteer programs in our neighborhood patch those holes; for example, food pantries, clothes closets, preschools, after-school programs, youth sports clubs, service clubs, Meals on Wheels, Habitat for Humanity. Grandparents care for grandchildren. Good work of churches rests on shoulders of volunteers. However, numbers of volunteers are dwindling because maintaining current standards of living requires everyone to work, some at more than one job, most seem more distracted and harried, and time shrinks. Volunteer organizations shrivel in size and influence.
People who take valuable time to volunteer seek programs that prepare their volunteers well and supply them with everything they need to make it a positive experience. Our city supports the Leadership Academy to manage a program called Volunteer54 that matches organizations and potential volunteers.
An Indianapolis congregation revived its near northside neighborhood by asking residents: “What do you enjoy doing? What skills do you have? What do you know how to do well enough to teach others?” An abundance of skills and neighborly assistance blossomed in that depressed neighborhood, surprising everyone. Imagine what resources we have here.
As people live longer in retirement with better health, an experienced cohort for volunteer activities expands. Retirees have diverse skills, experience, time and freedom. Those are a valuable resource for our community. One imagines a Retiree Volunteer Corps of Montgomery County.
Retirees often become bored and unhappy, once their productive work ends, like swimmers treading water offshore. Experience teaches that volunteering and helping others rejuvenates by bringing meaning and purpose, even joy. Some who are not able to volunteer can learn about organizations that organize volunteer activities, encourage them and provide support. Money donated to trustworthy local organizations, churches, Montgomery County United Fund, and the Montgomery County Community Foundation support volunteer work of our neighbors to fill the holes in social safety nets.
Volunteers use knowledge and skills at tasks they enjoy to help others in a win/win undertaking. Volunteers enrich their own lives when helping to improve the lives of others. Each of us has something valuable to contribute, and each can do something. A new organization for volunteers is not essential. You can discover that point where one’s abilities meet the needs of our neighbors. That is a sacred calling, not just for retirees but for a large multigenerational volunteer corps pro bono publica!
Raymond B. Williams, a Crawfordsville resident, contributed this guest column to the Journal Review.
