Volunteers Putting Notions of Giving to Work

Orange County residents have a reputation for being miserly when asked to write checks for charity, but they seem to respond wholeheartedly when asked to give their time.

Volunteerism, experts say, has become downright trendy in Orange County.

“Tutoring, mentoring right now is very big,” said Mary Perez, an administrator at Westminster’s Volunteer Exchange. “I think people are realizing it’s OK to use volunteers, to use the unpaid manpower.”

The Volunteer Exchange and other county referral groups report that this holiday season was one of the best ever.

The Volunteer Center of Orange County, which has offices in Santa Ana, Fullerton and Huntington Beach, estimated that about 33,000 residents called the agency to offer aid to nonprofit agencies last year. In 1996, that number barely broke 30,000.

One of the yardsticks agencies use to measure the enthusiasm of free laborers is turnout for Volunteer Connection Day in April. In 1997, attendance was 12,000, up about 20% from the year before. Organizers said they expect the number to jump to 16,000 in 1998.

Volunteers also are being asked to go beyond traditional soup serving and envelope stuffing. They work in police departments, doing clerical chores and checking for open garage doors in their neighborhoods. They stack books in libraries and answer telephones in city halls. They sit with the old, the sick and the dying to offer support.

One group of seniors volunteering in the Orange County Sheriff’s Department’s police services division in San Clemente recently posed as elderly “victims” for an FBI telemarketing sting.

“For the most part, these are informed, educated people who have had incredible professional careers,” said Jan Sener, a crime prevention specialist for the department. “In our society, people are retiring earlier. They still have something to offer, and they want to contribute.”

Functions that in years past were performed by church groups--which are still very much in the picture--now are being filled by a wider range of people. Some of the jobs require fairly extensive training and drug screens before applicants are accepted.

Volunteerism traditionally fluctuates throughout the year, with January marking the low point, but specialists said that national and regional promotions are helping to smooth the ups and downs.

“There are different factors at different times of the year to motivate people out of the woodwork--a major disaster or a special event,” said Francisca Hawkins, director of community mobilization for the Volunteer Center. “Now there are major national initiatives, such as mentoring and literacy, that are constantly being heard. They have the dollar support to challenge and call to action the citizens of a community.”

Volunteerism is even becoming a requirement for some high school students.

In Maryland, every student must put in 75 hours of community service to graduate. Those requirements are more sporadic in California, but dozens of high schools in the county--including Corona del Mar, Esperanza, Laguna Beach and Valencia--now require their students to do some volunteer work.

Part of the current enthusiasm can be attributed to President Clinton’s volunteer summit in Philadelphia last April. A delegation of Orange County politicians and service workers attended and then organized regional events.

“Everybody did not just go home and forget about it,” said Sally Lawrence, who is organizing an Orange County volunteer summit for April.

The delegation from the national summit has been working on a local strategic plan for months.

“We’re hoping to build momentum into the year 2000,” Lawrence said.

“We want to keep it in front of everybody so people can call in and find out where to volunteer.”

Lawrence has seen the face of volunteers change over the 25 years she has been in the field--from homemakers with some free time to senior citizens who have better health and more energy to give to the young.

“Volunteers come in all shapes and sizes these days,” Lawrence said.

“People need to do it because they need to give, because they have a passion for what they’re doing. In order to create the kind of community we enjoyed when we were young, adults need to do that.”