A “giving back” guide to volunteering By Julie Kendrick At what age should you become an active volunteer? According to a strong contingent of local boomers, the answer is—any age at all. But, they also say, don’t let another day go by without finding a way to give back to your community—you’ll feel great and have fun, too.
Second Stork: supplies for newborns in need “I’m 73, but I’m an active 73,” insists Nancy Pajunen, who volunteers as treasurer and board member for Second Stork, an organization that provides newborn supplies, distributed through partnerships with area hospitals, to families who are in need. “As a young mother I worked with pregnant, unmarried women and opened my home to them. It’s still an area of interest for me, so I’m happy to serve on the board of this terrific organization.” The St. Paul resident, who also spends much of the year at the family cabin in northeastern Minnesota, finds significant reward in her volunteer work. “You always get more out of it than what you give,” she says, and notes that she encourages her peers to
get active in volunteering, too. “I put a guilt trip on my friends and say that we have so much wisdom and experience. While we still have our energy, we need to give back. I tell them that Second Stork is there to help babies in need, who didn’t ask to come into this world, so we need to step up to the plate and pitch in,” she adds. Pajunen often makes a family affair of packaging up Second Stork infant supply bags, spending family holidays working with her children and grandchildren at the organization’s warehouse. “The kids love to do it— it’s fun to do and I let them play the radio as loudly as they want—and then we go for pizza,” she says. Ann Dickinson, a 73-year-old West St. Paul resident, was a founding member of Second Stork and currently volunteers as a liaison between the Board and the Second Stork volunteer group. “No matter our age, we all need to be needed, so volunteering is the perfect solution for people of ‘good age’ who don’t fill quite as vital a role in their families or workplace as they once did,” she says. “I certainly get a hundredfold back when my 17-yearold granddaughter and her spirited high school friends join me to fill
Caring for kids at the Minneapolis Crisis Nursery. SUbmITTed Image
Second Stork bags.”
vEAP: helping neighbors at any age Volunteers Enlisted to Assist People (VEAP) is a Bloomington-based social services agency. Shari DeBlieck, VEAP Volunteer Director, says, “While we do have volunteers of all ages, we have many senior volunteers, both those who want to work with clients as well as behind the scenes. All of our opportunities offer that social element seniors desire, which is what keeps them young and vital,” says. She cites the diligent volunteer efforts of Marian Horning, 86, who has volunteered with VEAP since December 1980. Horning helps out with countless jobs, including many for the organization’s two fundraisers. Her willingness to make phone calls, a task that others often dislike, is especially appreciated. “Last year, she called 600 volunteers to invite them to the Holiday Benefit and thank them for their volunteer services,” DeBlieck says. Horning, who notes that she’s volunteered for VEAP since it began as a small agency near where she lives in Richfield, says that the organization “is a great cause—and I’m amazed to
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think how much it has grown since we started.” Over the years, she adds, “It’s almost become like a second family to me. All the volunteers are there for the same reason, to give to others.”
Crisis nursery: caring for kids At the Greater Minneapolis Crisis
Booth Manor Residence For Seniors 62+ • 1 Bedrooms • Resident Activities • Based on & Programs Income • Community • Utilities Room Included • Service Coordinator
1421 Yale Place, Mpls
612-338-6313
Get involved Greater Minneapolis Crisis nursery The nursery works to end child abuse and neglect and create strong, healthy families. Opportunities to volunteer include preparing meals or snacks for children, leading enrichment activities, or providing childcare. Children, ages newborn to six, stay at the nursery for 72-hour
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periods. crisisnursery.org 4544 4th Avenue South (corner of 46th Street and 4th Avenue), Minneapolis 763-226-2062
Second Stork This charity helps families of newborn babies who may not otherwise have infant supplies. Works in alliance with 20 hospitals across the Twin Cities metro area to donate cribs, formula, diapers, and wipes. Second Stork relies on volunteers to help package supply bags. Their website notes: “In as little as two hours, you or your group can make a difference in the lives of new families in need.”
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secondstork.org 168 East 6th Street #4002, St. Paul 763-614-9319 good age
Nursery, volunteers are needed to help care for children, ages newborn to six, who are spending 72 hours at the nursery during crises in their families. One of their many volunteers, often lovingly called “Grandpa” by the kids, is Bill Pomeroy, a 76-yearold Bloomington resident. He first helped out at the nursery by cooking
Way to Grow Early learning and parenting for families with children preschool through third grade. Opportunities include helping with reading and building early literacy skills in preschool classes, mentoring and tutoring parents, providing administrative support, and helping with special events. mplswtg.org 125 West Broadway, Suite 110, Minneapolis 612-874-4740
volunteers Enlisted to Assist People (vEAP) Serves low-income, elderly and disabled persons in the communities of Bloomington, Edina, Richfield, and parts of South Minneapolis. Provides transportation assistance, food pantry, youth services, social and financial support. To get started, call or apply online: veapvolunteers.org/volunteer/ become-a-volunteer, then attend a VEAP informational and placement meeting. veapvolunteers.org 9600 Aldrich Avenue South, Bloomington 952-888-9616
a meal for the kids at a family service evening organized by his daughter, and found himself so interested in the nursery’s mission that he raised his hand to become a child care volunteer. “I love working with the infants,” he says, describing them as “so innocent and so precious.” He notes that his specialty is “rubbing tummies when they have colic.” Pomeroy, who worked as an engineer at Honeywell for 37 years, has been an active volunteer since his retirement. He spent 13 years working for Habitat for Humanity, building and rebuilding homes, but was forced to quit when his knees were not up to the challenge of laying floors. He also volunteers to conduct tax preparation for Honeywell retirees and at the Shakopee Community Center. “I’ve had a good life, and I appreciate that I worked for a good company that treated me well. Now it’s time for me to give back a little bit,” he says.
Way to Grow: school readiness for kids and parents According to Carolyn Smallwood, Executive Director of Way to Grow, her organization gives volunteers “the reward of seeing the impact of their work in preparing children and parents for school.” Smallwood says that the group has many senior volunteers, and reports that they tell her “they love nurturing kids and sharing their knowledge and wisdom with all of us. We are a very inclusive environment, with great camaraderie among our staff and volunteers.” Smallwood says that their ideal volunteer is someone who is compassionate about kids and open to helping a diverse population of limited means. “There are seven different languages spoken in our program, so you’ll learn a lot!”
Prairie Oaks Memorial Eco Gardens Minnesota’s first “green” cemetery
A GREENER WAY TO GO From preparing bodies to burying them in natural settings, the green burial movement is attempting to make death more environmentally friendly and, in some ways, closer to the way it was in the past.
A Comparison
STANDARD BURIAL Burials use formaldehyde embalming and longlasting caskets. They can easily cost $10,000. A standard grave site, often landscaped and well-maintained, features a large headstone made of granite or flat bronze. Fertilizer and pesticides are used on the grass.
NATURAL BURIAL A green grave site is a natural setting, more closely resembling a forest floor.
3 ft.
4 ft.
3.5 ft. 5 ft.
Below ground, a casket made of steel, finished wood and copper rests inside a concrete vault capped by a thick concrete lid.
651-300-9549 · MNGreenGraves.com Prairie Oaks GA 1013 S3.indd 1
The natural, or green, burial method starts with the body preparation, which uses no embalming fluid or a nonformaldehyde-based formula. Green burials can cost less than $2,000. If there’s a headstone, it’s a rock or a piece of rough-cut limestone that’s flat on one side to easily identify the deceased. Some methods use GPS coordinates to spot a grave’s location.
Caskets are made of wood, plywood, bamboo, cardboard, cornstarch or wicker. Sometimes a shroud or quilt may be used to wrap the body.
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