VENTURA : Top Officials Pay Tribute to City Volunteers

The city paid for the fruit punch and the frosted white cake, and a guitar-toting Mayor Tom Buford provided the entertainment.

Ventura’s top elected official serenaded a group of nearly 100 volunteers on Tuesday, as the city sought to recognize those who perform work for the city on their own time.

“The fact that you people come in and help us run the city enables us to provide the services we do,” Buford said, moments before breaking into a rendition of his own “City Council Blues” at a ceremony honoring the city’s 1,000 or so volunteers.

Nearly 100 people who plant flowers, answer telephones, open mail and do hundreds of other tasks at no cost to the city were applauded Tuesday at Ventura City Hall for their efforts as part of National Volunteer Week, which ends Saturday.

“I started doing it because I was out of work and I was bored during the day,” said Joann Hogue, a 29-year-old Ventura woman who was named volunteer of the year at the afternoon celebration.

“I wanted to give something back to my community, and now I’m learning computers,” said Hogue, who has operated the city’s switchboard for almost two years and was honored for volunteering more than 1,000 hours.

Two women, Jan Hunter and Sheri Oelschlager, were both recognized for surpassing 4,000 hours. Dozens of others were given pins, letters of recognition and other gifts in honor of surpassing landmark lengths of service ranging from 100 hours to 3,000 hours.

“I just like doing videos,” said Peter Kuehn, who has videotaped the City Council meetings virtually every Monday night for more than six years and was given a pin for accumulating more than 500 hours.

“I’ve learned a lot doing this,” he said, moments after videotaping the ceremony.

Carol Green, an assistant to City Manager Donna Landeros, said the city could never provide all the services it does if not for the army of volunteers who contribute daily.

Under the “Volunteers for Ventura” program, about 1,000 volunteers have donated more than 50,000 hours of public service since last year, she said.

“Every department in the city uses volunteers,” Green said. “They allow us to do a lot of things we couldn’t otherwise do.”