PRINTIn sync with volunteering
March 20, 2008 | 12:00 a.m. CST
Anne Heine, a nurse at MU’s Sinclair School of Nursing, thinks the city of Columbia makes volunteering easy and enjoyable. One of the programs she and her husband volunteer for is the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), which meets four times a year to train citizens to perform basic emergency response procedures to use during a possible disaster. “CERT gives you good skills that you can use in your personal life, neighborhood and also in the community,” says Heine. “It also provides good training for your professional life.”
Volunteer Columbia helps link citizens like Heine to city-run volunteer programs that match volunteers with projects based on their individual interests. Volunteer Columbia started in 1996 when the city saw a need to get citizens more involved in community service within government departments. Although there are other services in Columbia that help coordinate volunteers, Volunteer Columbia is a closed-circuit service that strictly matches volunteers with government departments in need. “Our purpose is to be a center point for volunteering within local government,” says Columbia volunteer coordinator Leigh Britt. “We don’t have a mission to work with other agencies and non-profit organizations.” Other services in Columbia, such as the Voluntary Action Center, connect volunteers with other organizations across town.
Ongoing Volunteer Opportunities at gocolumbiamo.com/Volunteer/Opportunities.
Work with the wee ones at the Columbia Health Department Day Care. Contact Maureen Coy at 874-7559.
Work with the wise ones by assisting elderly residents of Paquin Towers. Contact Sarah Bowman at 874-6335.
Play ball: Volunteer as an official for adult and youth softball, baseball or basketball. Call 874-7706.
Get outside: Try Stream Clean-Ups. Each spring and fall, volunteers spend time sprucing up the banks of Columbia’s streams and removing trash from the stream beds. Contact Mona Menezes at 817-6447.
Welcome visitors by joining the Columbia Hospitality Corps. Call 874-7499.
Nurses and medical professionals can join CERT, Community Emergency Response Teams. Call Darla Atkins at 874-7556.
Handymen can assist with the custodial duties of the Park Management Center and recreational facilities. Call 874-7201
Join Crime Blockers to reduce crime in your neighborhood. Contact the Crime Prevention Unit at 874-7405.
Volunteer service offices pave the way for better relationships between city administration and people who want to actively engage in the community. Mary Lynn Perry, volunteer coordinator for Sacramento, Calif., says that a volunteer coordinator at a local level, such as in Columbia and Sacramento, is uncommon. “It comes from the top down — the city must see a need for the implementation of a volunteer service office,” says Perry. “Otherwise there are only individual contacts rather than a central point of contact, which is much easier and more effective at the local level.”
Retirees Ernie and Norma Falloon say volunteering is easy in Columbia. “If you are particularly interested, you can check the e-mails the (volunteer) office sends out or talk to other volunteers,” says Norma. “It’s not hard to get involved; it hasn’t been at all for us.” Columbia made the right decision to create and provide a volunteer service office for the community. “Columbia is always willing to take a chance and try new things,” says Britt. “It’s a great thing that the government has made this investment in volunteering.”
