Volunteer experts beef up recruiting through families

The last thing 10-year-old Brandon Killian wanted to do on a crisp Saturday morning was sweep and pick up trash at his school.

But what felt like forced labor soon became a conversion to volunteerism.

"I first thought it would be not fun, not fun at all," says the fifth-grader at Robert E. Lake Elementary School. "But then, now that I'm seeing that we are making a huge difference in our community, I'm thinking that changed my heart big time."

Approaching families, often through the workplace, is one way volunteer experts say they are beefing up recruitment.

"This is something that dovetails nicely with corporate volunteering, because there are so many people who are working that say, 'I don't want to volunteer, I want to spend my free time with my kids,'" says Fran Smith, executive director of the Volunteer Center of Southern Nevada.

The nation's volunteer rate rose 8.4 percentage points from 1989 to 2003, when it reached 28.8 percent. It maintained that level through 2005, dropping to 26.7 percent the following year.

So says the Corporation for National & Community Service, the federal agency that earlier this year said Las Vegas has the lowest volunteer rate among 50 major metros.

The "family-friendly" cleanup at the elementary school was one of many events held across the Las Vegas Valley in late October to coincide with national Make a Difference Day.

Brandon's mother, Michelle Killian, is a table-games pit coordinator at Green Valley Ranch Resort, and volunteered through her employer. She had her family in tow: her husband, three children -- including a teenager who previously attended Lake -- and one of their friends.

"This is the first time that I've actually brought the kids and said, 'Hey, it's your school, I think you should help out and see what other people are doing for you,'" says Killian, 33.

The CNCS says growth in volunteerism has been driven by three age groups: teenagers from 16 to 19 years old, who have shown the most dramatic rise in volunteerism since 1974; baby boomers; and adults 65 and older.

Volunteer organizers say these age groups require different approaches. Boomers, for example, seek "high impact" projects. Stuffing envelopes and other mundane tasks are not for them.

Besides targeting individual demographic groups, niche trends such as "episodic" and "virtual" volunteering -- the latter is made possible by the Internet -- offer more opportunities that erode the constraints of time and space.

There is even volunteering just for unmarried people.

Bruce Shocket, a social studies teacher at College of Southern Nevada High School, started a local chapter of Single Volunteers Inc., a nonprofit with chapters in the United States, Canada and Australia.

He helped run a San Diego chapter before moving to the Las Vegas Valley in 2001.

Although the local chapter bills itself as an alternative to bars, personal ads and blind dates, Shocket says it is not a dating club.

Members' interests run the gamut, from reducing juvenile diabetes and building hiking trails to rescuing animals and housing the needy.

They focus mostly on volunteer projects that don't require a long-term commitment.

More than half of the approximately 200 members are from 30 to 50 years old, Shocket says. Most are female and professional.

Members must sign an agreement, posted on the local chapter's Web site, that they won't hold the group or other members responsible for relationships that don't pan out.

Shocket says he has heard no complaints.

When it comes to national trends, who volunteers the most? The busiest people, of course.

"A lot of times, people think that volunteers are people with a lot of time on their hands," says Robert Grimm, the lead author of the volunteerism report on cities.

Yet the typical volunteer is a working mom in her 30s or 40s.

The physical and mental health benefits of volunteering have been well documented.

Smith rattles off her own list: "It makes you feel good. You can make a difference, and that feels good, too. You can meet people. ... You can make friends. You can learn new skills. You can keep busy. ... It gives you a sense of purpose. Probably the strongest motivator for people to volunteer is they care about an issue. And somebody asks."

Renée Kant didn't need to be asked. Rather than have her driving record blemished with a traffic ticket she got early last year, she proposed an alternative: community service.

The judge agreed, and sentenced her to 50 hours.

She had long wanted to volunteer at Family Promise, a nonprofit that helps homeless families.

Kant, a 44-year-old makeup artist for the entertainment industry, says she can empathize: She was homeless on and off for about four years in Los Angeles.

While volunteering itself is rewarding, Kant says, it also helps her cope with the loss of her parents, who died last year.

"It gives me a feeling of fulfilling my need to give, to be of importance and belonging," she says. "It's very therapeutic because you also see you are not really alone, as far as the struggle of life goes."

Contact reporter Margaret Ann Miille at mmiille@reviewjournal.com or (702) 383-0401.