Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 13, 1993 TAG: 9305130419
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: S-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MELANIE S. HATTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Many teens are rejecting the couch potato image and hitting their communities as volunteers in hospitals, nursing homes and wherever they can be useful.
For most, it's something to do during school break; others use it as a stepping stone to a career.
Sarah Life, a senior at Northside High School, is heading to the nursing school at the University of Virginia. But when she started volunteering at Lewis-Gale Hospital, she had no desire to work in the medical profession.
"I was scared of hospitals," she said.
When she was in the seventh grade her parents said it was time for her to be productive and not loaf her teen years away.
"Oh, you'll feel so good when you do it," her mother had told her.
"Oh geez," Sarah thought. But now, she admits she does feel good at the end of the day.
"I'm fortunate to have things others don't have - a home and support of family - and I try to give back."
Sarah, 17, has volunteered in the medical intensive care units at Lewis-Gale for five years and now mostly at Roanoke Memorial Hospital running errands for the nurses and doing some clerical work.
Her volunteering efforts don't stop at the hospital. She has participated in the Shenandoah Valley Outreach Project - building homes for low-income and disabled people - for two years with her congregation from First United Methodist Church in Salem.
Volunteering at the hospital has opened her eyes to the variety of people living in the community.
"The homeless, AIDS patients, I see all walks of life [but] even as strangers to me, I learn to care for them as individuals."
There are more teens volunteering than ever before, said Thomas Stokes, American Red Cross youth volunteer coordinator. Last summer, he had 157 applicants, and this year he expects more than 200. At the beginning of the year, he already had more than half a dozen calls for applications.
Why so much interest?
"I guess they get bored at home," Stokes said. A lack of youth activities in the Roanoke Valley leaves teens seeking ways to pass their free time.
Stokes notes that some teen-agers have low self-esteem. Some have problems fitting in with peers at school but can relate to older people who couldn't care less about the teen's image or looks, he said.
Plus, "you get job experience, and it looks good on a resume," said 13-year-old Caley Sink, a student at Botetourt Intermediate School.
Caley worked at the Red Cross with Stokes and was so charmed by the job that he said, "I want Mr. Stokes' job." Caley said he learned how to talk to people on the telephone and deal with them in an office environment.
The hospitals are popular among volunteers, Stokes said, but the Red Cross sends youth volunteers to other places including libraries, nursing homes, the Mill Mountain Zoo and the YMCA.
Last summer, there were 55 youth volunteers at Lewis-Gale, said Patty Altizer, volunteer coordinator. And the year before that, 76, but this summer Altizer is limiting the number to 35.
It's no secret that hospital staff members are overworked and don't have extra time to spend with patients. That's where the volunteers make the difference because they do have the time.
Lisa Hungate, 18, a volunteer at Community Hospital for six years, remembers one elderly woman she spent much of her time with. The woman had no family. "She considered me her family," said the Patrick Henry High School senior. The woman had been in and out of the hospital and finally returned suffering from a stroke. Shortly after that, she died.
"It kinda hurt," Lisa says. "She was really special." But the pain Lisa felt over her death was brightened by the time they had spent together. "I saw how happy I made her during that time. . . . Helping people is the best thing you can do."
Losing patients is a part of working in a hospital, as Lisa and Amy Parker discovered.
Amy, 17, had befriended a cancer patient who couldn't walk. Amy took her around the hospital in a wheelchair and ran errands for her. The patient nominated Amy for a Pineapple pin, which is given to volunteers for outstanding work. Amy wears it on her uniform.
When Amy met her, the woman only had six months to live, but her death was still a shock. "She died on my 16th birthday" a year ago last December, she said.
However, Amy loves volunteering and has clocked more than 700 hours since she began in 1991. She doesn't intend to pursue a career in the medical field, though.
"I just couldn't poke someone," she said, shuddering at the thought of a nurse taking blood. "And I couldn't bathe someone."
Because of her dedication, she received the Outstanding Volunteer Award from the Red Cross two years running and was named Youth Outstanding Volunteer of the Year by Lewis-Gale.
Too many young people are portrayed negatively in the media, said Jennie Sue Murdock, Voluntary Action Center director. But in the United States, 58 percent of teen-agers from 14 to 17 volunteer and 48 percent contribute money to worthy causes, she said. Murdock estimated that half the teens in the Roanoke Valley are volunteering either through their church, organizations, on their own or through school.
Jeff Taylor, 14, volunteered for the first time last summer, typing information into a computer for Murdock. "I wanted to have something to do for the summer," he said. Most of his friends "hang around and go to the mall," but he wanted to do something more meaningful. He found out about the Red Cross' volunteer program at the YMCA. Jeff went to Stokes and asked to work with computers.
Shayla Henry, a senior at Northside High, was "tired of being a couch potato" and wasn't old enough to get a job when she started. She's volunteered at Festival in the Park and Community Hospital.
"It was a rewarding experience. Something I wanted to do. . . . It wasn't a requirement."
Shayla, 17, was introduced to volunteerism as a Girl Scout in the first grade and remembers collecting apples for the City Rescue Mission and planting flowers at the Booker T. Washington monument.
"I feel good inside," she said. "Its more than a monetary kind of thing. It's self-satisfaction."
by CNB