THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 9, 1994 TAG: 9406090154
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 14 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PHYLLIS SPEIDELL, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940609 LENGTH: SUFFOLK
He doesn't get paid. And he loves every minute of it.
Boone is just one of almost 200 seniors who are part of the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program in Suffolk and Franklin.
{REST} Almost all of them turned out last Friday for a recognition luncheon at the First Baptist Church in Suffolk.
The group accumulated 22,806 hours of service in 1993, a feat that represents more than $295,000 worth of free service to 31 different local non-profit agencies.
No one volunteer was singled out because at the luncheon because, as Sarah Walden, Suffolk's RSVP coordinator, said, ``We feel that everyone gives to the best of their ability.''
Boone and Virginia, his wife of 48 years, log more than 24 hours of community service with RSVP each month in a variety of volunteer efforts.
They work one day monthly for the SHARE Hampton Roads distribution center at their church, East End Baptist.
The SHARE program enables people to trade hours of community service for reduced prices on groceries.
Virginia Boone, 67, spends her time keeping records and packing food parcels, while Carey Boone flexes his muscles with other volunteers transporting crates of food from the pickup site in Norfolk.
``That is the muscle work,'' Carey Boone said with a chuckle. ``But, oh, the relationships, the talking and the laughing together. We love it.''
Sometimes Carey Boone, a retired safety director at the Naval Supply Center in Norfolk, helps his wife tutor children at Elephant's Fork Elementary and Booker T. Washington Middle School.
He also volunteers as a Medicaid and Medicare adviser at the Senior Citizens Center in Suffolk every Tuesday morning and offers his time as a financial adviser for the Suffolk Extension Service.
Both Boones volunteer in the office at their church, hours they do not even include in their official volunteer total.
``Volunteering gives us an opportunity to do something worthwhile while we are together, and that is the highlight of it all, being together,'' said Virginia Boone, a retired teacher with 29 years of experience in first-grade classrooms in Suffolk.
RSVP volunteers believe you are never too old to learn and never too old to do good.
Rosa Wiggins, 84, of Franklin, is a prime example.
Wiggins is a retired professional cook who used to volunteer as a cook at the Southeastern Virginia Areawide Model Program nutritional site in Holland and still helps serve meals when she is needed.
She also crochets baby afghans for the Navy-Marine Relief Society.
``I crochet to keep my mind and hands busy,'' Wiggins said.
Another volunteer, Beulah Williams, 75, moved to Franklin's Village at Woods Edge almost three years ago. But she's hard to catch at home.
``I live in a retirement home, but I am not retired,'' Williams said.
A retired church organist, she logs 27 hours every month in volunteer work at Southampton Memorial Hospital and its nursing care center.
Williams plays the piano, helps run bingo games and visits with patients. In her leisure time, she, too, crochets baby afghans.
Williams' secret to staying in shape for all her volunteer work?
Water aerobics at the YMCA three times a week and a five-hour weekly workout in the Nautilus room.
``I use all 14 machines, but the treadmill is my favorite,'' she said.
The goal of RSVP, a national organization begun in 1971, is to match the skills of senior citizens with the needs of local non-profit agencies.
Nationally, close to half a million RSVP volunteers give more than 64 million hours of service each year to 760 agencies.
SEVAMP began sponsoring the local RSVP program in Suffolk and Franklin in 1979.
Local RSVP volunteers can work in a variety of roles: tutoring, meal delivery, hospital volunteer work and office work, as well as specialized positions that use their former career skills.
Volunteers receive no pay, though some are eligible for a mileage allowance and accident insurance.
The volunteers are quick to mention the benefits of the job: the chance to meet new people, help others, and earn the satisfaction that comes from performing a worthwhile service to the community.
Joan and Charles Hughes of Suffolk also got an extra bonus from his volunteer work at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Hampton.
That's where the couple met.
Joan was working at the hospital as an LPN when she noticed a handsome volunteer, Charles.
``I always spoke to all the volunteers, because I knew they did a lot of good work with the patients,'' Joan Hughes said.
But she made a special point of talking to Charles, who won't give his age but admits to being older than Joan.
Charles, who was wounded in France during World War II, had been volunteering at the hospital for 20 years.
One conversation led to another, and the couple married in 1990. When they settled in Suffolk, Joan retired from her job and became a volunteer, too.
She is a volunteer instructor with 55 Alive, a defensive driving program for senior citizens.
The Hugheses also deliver Meals on Wheels three times a month.
Occasionally, they volunteer for special jobs, like the time they worked at the Christmas shop at Kilby Shores Elementary School, helping students select gifts for their family.
``It was wild,'' Charles Hughes said, shaking his head at the memory of the crowds of children trying to budget their money and decide what they needed.
For the couple, volunteering has become a way of life.
``Who knows when we are going to have to ask for help ourselves?'' Joan Hughes asked.
``We always enjoy it,'' her husband added. ``It is gratifying that we are able to do it.''
by CNB