Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 6, 1993 TAG: 9301060020
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: KATHERINE GIBSON SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS (staff)
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
TALK ABOUT INVOLVED
IN a culture typified by the mad scramble for personal gain, Valerie Myers is different: She's a person who just loves to give.At 33, she's given huge amounts of time to 4-H leadership, dropout intervention and fund-raising for cystic-fibrosis research and the American Heart Association.
She helps anywhere she detects a need in Montgomery County.
Five years ago she decided to merge her love for dance with her love for children by forming a special 4-H club. Still active, this group of about 30 youngsters focuses on the performing arts rather than standard 4-H activities such as crafts and gardening.
Each month, the group goes to retirement and nursing homes to entertain the elderly with music, drama and dance. Myers has two purposes: to bring pleasure to the oft-neglected aging and to teach youths the value of service.
The lineup of acts for a recent 4-H show at English Meadows Nursing Home showed the varied talents Myers nurtures in her proteges, who range in age from 4 to 19.
There were a flutist, a pianist, a magician, a singer and even a little tap-dancer in a wedding costume doing a number called "Chapel of Love."
To prepare them for performances, Myers works in the evenings with her "kids," as she calls them, to polish their dance steps, costumes and voice projection. Guiding the whole is Myers' conviction that everyone has something to give, no matter how elaborate the performance or how simple.
When Myers feels burned out with her hectic volunteer schedule, she can revive her interest by noting her audience's response. She describes it this way:
"A certain magic starts to happen. Through the smiles and talents of youth, the elderly become young again. The wheelchair-bound remember what it was like to dance; the very lonely, sad, old man in the corner starts to smile; and those who feel they have been forgotten find that they now have a friend."
Consistently, her group finds it hard to leave nursing homes because residents don't want them to go. Once the children resorted to doing their show a second time - and to getting some old folks on their feet for the hokie-pokie - to satisfy the crowd.
Myers also has a volunteer commitment to Riner's Auburn High School, where she graduated 15 years ago.
Out of affection and gratitude for her high-school years, she wants to give something back. For seven years she has been choreographer for the school's Swing Choir, a semi-professional choral group that sings and dances to all sorts of tunes, ranging from patriotic to country to pop to sacred.
In addition to the hours of rehearsing footwork with the students, there is the time she spends at home brainstorming dance routines.
"Most of my creativity gets done in my living room," she said. "The only problem is that it bugs my cats."
Myers also has two real jobs. During the day she's a secretary at Virginia Tech's department of dairy sciences, where she starts at 7:30 a.m. so she can go to Auburn for an hour or two in the middle of the day when necessary.
Some of her lunch hours also go to the recently formed Staff Association at Tech, which is working to improve relationships among the administration, faculty and staff.
Her department's staff is doing a service project for the Montgomery County Community Shelter, gathering household necessities for poor families.
The other job takes Myers to a dance studio in Christiansburg, where she teaches tap and ballet two nights a week.
She values that job because it brings her in contact with more youngsters, allows her to share her artistic talent and gives her a chance to exercise.
She also turns it into another vehicle for giving by asking that her dance students bring in cans of food at Christmas (instead of gifts for her) to donate to the needy.
Her resume of good deeds goes on and on: dancer and choreographer for a benefit performance of "Oklahoma!" that raised $4,000 to benefit Cystic Fibrosis; countless hours of rehearsal for the Radford High School "Follies" that raised $2,500 for Lifeline, Radford's ambulance service; coordinator of the 4-H Share the Fun Talent Show; organizer of the 4-H EXPO at Blacksburg's University Mall; and volunteer for the local dropout-intervention program.
She's an informal counselor to the many adolescents with whom she works.
Myers was named a "Hometown Hero" this summer by WDBJ-TV.
She insists she has an extensive support system for all she does. She relies heavily on the parents of her 4-H club members for logistical assistance and morale-boosting.
She can count on her relatives, who live next door, to get involved with her projects. Both of her sisters have been enthusiastic participants in her youth groups. Her mother, a lifelong volunteer herself, fully endorses Myers' activities; and her grandmother has not missed a single 4-H performance.
Myers' plans for the future don't call for much change, except for intensity.
"There's not much I wouldn't do when it comes to volunteering, though I'm especially interested in the Special Olympics and in reading programs for the visually impaired."
An adopted child herself, Myers has considered adopting a son or daughter at some point.
Above all, she wants to continue serving her community and to encourage others to try volunteerism.
"There are so many people out there with something to give," she said. "I wish more people would get involved."