
DATE: Sunday, November 2, 1997              TAG: 9711020091

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MATTHEW BOWERS, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   83 lines

AUTHOR HITS VOLUNTEERS IN HEART, FUNNY BONE

Eyebrows, remain seated. Jaw, up off the ground. No surprises here.

After all, why wouldn't the man who wrote the whimsical bestseller ``All I Really Need To Know I Learned in Kindergarten'' be leading some 700 leaders of volunteers from across the country in singing and acting out ``Itsy Bitsy Spider''?

Saturday, Robert Fulghum also philosophized about the game of musical chairs. He even had storytime - boy, did he tell some stories. True ones. A retiree floating at 11,000 feet in a lawn chair. A dancing boy with a paper cup over his nose. He and a seatmate pretending to be a spy and a nun on a long airline flight.

There was a purpose in taking the group back to school this way. Fulghum - at various times in his life a ditch digger, philosopher, salesman, minister, teacher and author - was at the same time applauding and motivating the people attending the 1997 International Conference on Volunteer Administration at the Waterside Convention Center.

He spoke at the closing luncheon of the three-day meeting, provoking laughter and knowing nods for almost an hour. The sponsoring organization, the Association for Volunteer Administration, is made up of workers from nonprofit and helping groups, local governments and religious leaders who deal with volunteers and with helping those in need.

``He was really motivational,'' said Sandy Muth, who works for United Way of the Virginia Peninsula in Newport News. ``He's going to make me go back and rethink some of the things I do with my life.''

Fulghum urged them to be like the spider in the children's song, to accept hardships - being washed down the drainspout - and start climbing right back up again. ``The human story in a nutshell,'' Fulghum said.

He warned against being imprisoned by convention or naysayers, but instead to be like the retiree who filled 40 government-surplus weather balloons with helium, strapped them and himself onto a lawn chair and floated up past an airliner before landing safely in a Kmart parking lot. ``My hero,'' he said.

More pointedly, he suggested they be like the teacher who, when a quiet boy always on the fringes of his kindergarten class asked to be a pig in a production of ``Cinderella'' - even though there's no pig in the story - let him do it. The experience freed the boy from his shell as he danced in joy at play's end wearing his paper-cup snout.

The boy got a standing ovation from the school's teachers.

``Because they knew they had seen a real transformation. . . . The real fairy godmother was the teacher standing over in the wings,'' Fulghum said.

``Everybody in this room knows what it's like to be in this empowering situation: `Come on! We have a place for you!' ''

Fulghum talked about having his classes change the rules of musical chairs so that there were no losers, but only cooperating winners sitting on each other's laps. About learning more about each other than what business cards and other labels say. He and his airline seatmate discovered each was creative and not a little goofy when they passed time pretending to be someone else.

``I think probably the main thing I'll take from it is to remember to live my life according to my values,'' said Paula Holden, who directs volunteers at a Minneapolis health center. ``One other thing: There's always another perspective.''

Fulghum used yet another story to remind the volunteer leaders to maintain their own perspective. In 11th-century France, a traveler stopped at a cathedral under construction. Inside, men working with wood, glass and stone told the visitor in detail how they were building a wall or a window.

The visitor also asked a woman who was sweeping up the wood shavings and stone dust what she was doing. ``Why, we're building a cathedral to the glory of God,'' she answered.

``She had perspective on what they were doing,'' Fulghum said. ILLUSTRATION: NHAT MEYER photos/The Virginian-Pilot

Robert Fulghum was at the same time applauding and motivating the

people attending the 1997 International Conference on Volunteer

Administration.

After leading about 700 leaders of volunteers in singing and acting

out ``Itsy Bitsy Spider'' on Saturday, Fulghum urged them to be like

the spider in the children's song, to accept hardships and start

climbing right back up again. ``The human story in a nutshell,''

Fulghum said.

The author of the bestseller ``All I Really Need To Know I Learned

in Kindergarten'' spoke at the closing luncheon of the three-day

meeting, provoking laughter and knowing nods for almost an hour.