THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 2, 1996 TAG: 9605310163
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Ida Kay's Portsmouth
SOURCE: Ida Kay Jordan
LENGTH: 81 lines
Volunteers be praised!
At a recent banquet honoring Police Department volunteers, Chief Dennis Mook said 24 auxiliary policemen saved the department $194,000 last year. That meant that that money could be used in other ways. In addition, five volunteers in crime prevention put in untold hours and the chaplains did another wonderful job.
``It's wonderful to have people give their time without asking anything in return,'' Mook said.
It happens all over town all the time.
We talk a lot about the hungry and those involved in homeless projects. That talk builds awareness of the role of volunteers in the social fabric of our city. But many of us fail to realize how many times a year - even a week - our lives are touched by those who give their time for many other activities.
The Police Department volunteers and those who work untold hours with the Coast Guard Auxiliary are excellent examples of the volunteers who are there when we need them - and we don't even know it!
Members of of hospital auxiliaries work long and hard to make the hospitals better places. In addition, they raise money for special projects to improve the lot of patients.
Arts organizations everywhere depend heavily on unpaid workers for their very existence. In fact, most quasi-public agencies would be much less effective without the help of volunteers.
A great army of volunteers makes Ports Events activities possible. The Seawall Festival coming up this coming weekend would not exist without all those who chip in time and energy to make it happen.
Volunteers sometimes do for free what they might have liked to do for money at some time in their lives. Others do it because they feel a strong need to serve the community and their neighbors. For many it is a way to feel satisfaction of accomplishment that sometimes is missing from today's workplaces.
For some people, working with others is just plain fun. They enjoy the company of those with similar interests, people they otherwise might not meet and know.
Some volunteers are retired people who aren't happy without responsibilities and contact with the public. Some who still work find their real satisfaction in their non-paying jobs.
Whatever their reasons, we are all the better for their contributions to the community.
Volunteers are everywhere.
Some work on a one-to-one basis. Others work with organizations. Both ways are effective.
Portsmouth's size enables us to see just how much they accomplish in our city. Not many days go by that I don't hear of yet another person or another group whose volunteer work is making a better life for all of us.
It's the time of the year when we hear a lot about volunteers, and they have earned the praise. I wish we could name them all.
This also is a good time to think about what would happen here if all the rest of us put ourselves in the pool of volunteer resources.
We don't all have to join the police auxiliary or coach a youth baseball team. We don't have to work on a Seawall Festival committee or sign up for a day at the hospital or soup kitchen.
For starters, if each of us decided to do or say one thing every day to make Portsmouth a healthier, happier place, we could work miracles.
Or if we all decided to tackle Portsmouth's so-called image problem, we could make a difference.
Most of us have friends and relatives in other nearby cities. Instead of aiding and abetting their false impressions of Portsmouth, we could instead talk to them about the good things going on in our city.
Sadly, a lot of erroneous - and damaging - information goes out of this city through the mouths of residents who have not bothered to inform themselves about the place where they live.
As I have suggested a number of times, instead of going elsewhere to meet people for lunch or dinner, we should ask them to come to Portsmouth. People must see for themselves that Portsmouth is very much like every other city - not the war zone some folks seem to think it is.
Of course, being a volunteer image-builder would require some real knowledge of what is going on in Portsmouth. That might be difficult for some people who would rather gnaw at a tasteless bone of negativism than feast on all the wonderful things Portsmouth has to offer.
Many of those offerings depend on volunteers who already have discovered the satisfaction of positive thinking. by CNB