THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, April 26, 1995 TAG: 9504250112
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 07 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: Jo-Ann Clegg
LENGTH: Short : 39 lines
It's hard to go anywhere in Virginia Beach and not find volunteers. They're out there teaching Sunday school, singing in choirs and working fund-raisers at churches and synagogues all over the city.
They're also supporting marching bands, debate clubs and sports teams in the schools; staffing information desks in hospitals and courts; reading to children in libraries; cleaning intersections, roadsides and the Bay and making cheery visits to shut-ins and the elderly.
Nobody knows for sure exactly how many volunteers there are in the city or how many hours of their time they give, but judging from the figures provided by a sampling of four organizations which use volunteers, the numbers are impressive.
Last year 6,791 volunteers donated more than 1.2 million hours of time valued at more than $13 million to departments and agencies of the city government.
At Virginia Beach General Hospital, 430 volunteers put in nearly 50,000 hours during the same period of time.
More than 16,000 individuals and 440 businesses volunteered to help in the city's public schools. The time given by just the 9,700 of those volunteers who worked through the PTAs amounted to nearly 220,000 hours.
At last year's Relay for Life sponsored by the American Cancer Society, 1,800 people walked in relays around the clock to raise $185,000 for cancer services and research. An additional 50 volunteers worked on the arrangements for nine months prior to the event and 150 more were on site to see that all ran smoothly on the big day. by CNB