Coordinator Molds Duties to Fit People : Volunteers: The head of a new city program seeks retired people, college students and professionals with time on their hands.

Some people look out their windows in Glendale City Hall and see things that need to be done, if only the money were there to do them.

Lori Snyder looks out the windows and sees volunteers.

She sees lonely retired people who could shelve books in the library, leaving the librarians more time to help with reference requests.

She sees college students who could do behind-the-scenes jobs at the Police Department, such as fingerprinting children so parents will have a record if their children are abducted.

She sees professionals with extra time on their hands who could be the eyes and ears of the city at parks near their homes, reporting abandoned cars or illegally dumped trash.

Beginning with a kickoff party Monday, Snyder will soon be coordinating a full-time city volunteer program, the first of its kind for Glendale and virtually unprecedented in any city on the scale Snyder envisions. The “Glendale Volunteers Have Heart” program will be officially launched at 5 p.m. Monday at City Hall. The public is invited.

“Volunteerism is by no means new in Glendale, but this is the first effort that has been made to centralize it,” said Snyder, a 27-year-old community services specialist in the city Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Services. Snyder is paid $39,336 a year to coordinate the volunteer program.

Retired people, Snyder said, make wonderful volunteers.

“People are living longer and want something more to do with their time than sit in the park and feed pigeons,” she said. “They have skills that are going unused and they have a desire to give back something to their communities.

“It’s really an untapped resource we’ve got out there.”

Other people who work with volunteers agreed with Snyder that the typical picture of the “housewife with 2.5 children who drops them off at school in her station wagon and then volunteers for five hours” has changed.

More men are volunteering, and more women are interested in honing skills they need to re-enter the work force, said Bill Dutton, executive director of the Glendale-Crescenta Valley chapter of the American Red Cross.

Far from worrying about Snyder as a new rival in the Glendale-area volunteer pool, Dutton threw a party recently to welcome her and introduce her to volunteer coordinators from social services agencies and hospitals. Dutton said that, contrary to public belief, there seem to be plenty of volunteers to go around in Glendale.

As of last June, Dutton’s Red Cross chapter had 734 volunteers, up from about 500 a decade ago, and not everyone who applies is really suited to the work the Red Cross needs, he said.

“A lot of times, when you interview a volunteer, you can see they really need a different kind of volunteer experience. The more volunteer opportunities there are out there, the better the chance that each person will find the right niche,” Dutton said.

Snyder said she can envision a day “years down the road” when the city’s volunteer office could serve as a clearinghouse for all nonprofit local agencies looking for volunteers. For now, she will try to enhance the volunteer programs of other agencies by keeping in touch with them and referring to them volunteers who do not fit the city’s needs.

Snyder said her office has been able to place several volunteers with city agencies. A student, for instance, is gaining experience by being a volunteer environmental planner. Also, a woman experienced in sign language helps a hearing-impaired man communicate with city housing officials who are trying to find him a place to live.

A group of volunteers recruited by her office helped demystify the U.S. census for retired people and recent immigrants.

Volunteers will not replace paid city staff members, Snyder said.

“Volunteers are only here to enhance the staff that is already in place,” Snyder said. “They’re just here to help the community, and their benefits are non-monetary.”