Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, April 22, 1994                   TAG: 9404220167
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: By JOANNE ANDERSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Long

VALLEY VOLUNTEERS RICH IN `HEART'

Haymore also serves as a volunteer state fire instructor. He can still be found down at the fire station or out on calls at all hours.

Haymore is one of a cast of hundreds who volunteer to help others throughout the New River Valley. The Community Service Coalition developed the Valley With a Heart theme to honor local volunteers during this National Volunteer Week .

The fire whistle that touches Haymore's heart rouses many other volunteers in our communities. Martin Roberts, full-time city treasurer and volunteer fire chief of the Radford Fire Department, has been donating time to the fire department since he was 14.

You can find 96-year-old Mary Jane McCoy most days volunteering for the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program from her McCoy home. She sends cards, writes letters, makes phone calls and clips coupons. If she's not at home, she's probably visiting area nursing homes.

An avid reader and graduate of the Christiansburg High School class of 1918, McCoy said she just "likes to be doing something all the time."

Radford residents Nora McGraw and Tar Sevareid serve on the St. Albans Hospital Auxiliary, a small group which has contributed more than $13,000 in the past couple of years to various organizations and St. Albans patients.

Every morning at 10, volunteers open the Interfaith Food Pantry in Blacksburg to feed anyone waiting outside. The project is operated by volunteers, like Virginia Jordan and coordinator Alice Wills. Jordan said that if you "add the list of givers to the list of workers, you have an army, with but one cause."

You're not likely to find Charles Parry at his Blacksburg home on many weekend days. The Virginia Tech math professor "likes being outdoors, doing productive work, getting good exercise and making a contribution to something." As trail supervisor of the Roanoke Appalachian Trail Club since 1979, Parry has spent countless hours working on the 113 miles of trail he's responsible for maintaining.

Leslie Slaasted, a local massage therapist, also might be away on a weekend day, spending time as a Big Sister to an 11-year-old girl named Haley. "She is as much as a gift to me as I may be to her," 22-year-old Slaasted said. "It's nice to give to a community that's been good to me."

Susanne Huff, a Big Brother Big Sister volunteer with her husband, Lance, thinks the program is terrific. "Anytime anyone will listen to me, I'll talk about it," she said. The Huffs are a couple match to a 10-year-old boy with whom they attend sporting events and other activities.

Because of volunteer clerks, doctors, nurses, dentists, pharmacists and others, the Free Medical Clinic is able to deliver more than $1 million of services on its $160,000 annual budget, according to director Rebecca Noftsinger.

Volunteers play an integral role in helping inmates at the Pulaski Correctional Unit. "We have more than 100 volunteers who help inmates here. There's no way to do all these things with the staff we have," said assistant superintendent Danny Crigger.

Charlie Aull, a retired math professor, recruited about a dozen engineering student volunteers, like Virginia Tech senior Dennis Jimeno.

"I like it because it enables me to share what I've learned," Jimeno said.

Literacy Volunteers of America help inmates at two community jails and have another 114 tutor and student relationships in progress.

It would appear that having nine children age 18 and under isn't quite enough to keep Joyce Hendricks of Blacksburg busy. She is just wrapping up her year serving as volunteer co- chairman for the Christmas Store.

"More than 2,000 volunteers contribute to the store," Hendricks said. And they come from all walks of life. "There are professional people, 7-year-old Cub Scouts, senior citizens, people who had been to the store in previous years."

Christmas Store activities continue throughout the year, as Margene Hirsh and Beth Tront, both of Blacksburg, well know. As buyers for the store, they go watch all the sale ads to make the most of the money they have to spend.

"I enjoy trying to get the best deals," Tront said. But "it's watching the happiness on the faces of the people who go the store" that is most rewarding about the volunteer work.

Students involved with the University Honors Program at Virginia Tech donate time and knowledge in many subjects tutoring other students. Lisa Davis,19, a junior, said she's been tutoring others since high school. Chris Haggerty, a junior from West Virginia, and Jason Voigt, a sophomore from Delaware, also participate in tutoring others.

There are more than 500 volunteers in New River Valley hospitals. Dana Spencer, an 18-year-old senior at Blacksburg High School, has been a junior volunteer at Montgomery Regional Hospital since visiting his grandfather there nearly three years ago.

Radford University juniors Ruth Thornton and Matthew Reynolds volunteer at Radford Community Hospital. Retired Air Force flight engineer Bill Long volunteers at Pulaski Community Hospital, where he enjoys talking with patients. "Many are lonely and enjoy talking with someone other than the staff," he said.

Tristan Carolan, a graduating senior at Blacksburg High School, completed intensive training to help on the hot line at Raft, the Community Crisis Center. He does it because he's interested in what makes people tick and wanted to do something to contribute to the community.

Geneva Adams, 73, of Christiansburg, has filled her life with volunteer work for RSVP. "When my husband died five years ago, I thought I'd lost my world," Adams declared. She stayed in, isolating herself from the activity around her.

Then she heard about RSVP and, as Paul Harvey would say, you know the rest of the story. Now she helps others by visiting, cooking, hostessing luncheons. She laughs again, and goes out to lunch and cheers up others. Her life is full again.

Volunteers are "ordinary yet extraordinary" citizens, Gov. George Allen said as he designated April as Volunteer Recognition Month. And the New River Valley is particularly fortunate to have so many extraordinary citizens who give so much time and energy to enhance our quality of life.