Help begins at home

You don't have to join the Peace Corps. There are plenty of volunteer opportunities here.

By SUSAN LADIKA
Published November 28, 2006

A volunteer project building houses in Nepal or teaching schoolchildren in Nicaragua might sound exciting - or intimidating, depending on your perspective. The costs and time might keep many people from volunteering that requires travel abroad.

But there are still plenty of volunteer opportunities in the bay area.

Possibilities span the spectrum, from delivering food for Meals on Wheels to tutoring youngsters in reading to working the polls in elections. Almost anybody can get involved in giving back.

For those looking for a clearinghouse of local opportunities, www.volunteermatch.org offers more than 200 listings just in the Tampa Bay area. Openings range from helping at Tampa PET, which builds all-terrain wheelchairs to aid those around the globe, to assisting at the food pantry and clothes closet run by the Safety Harbor Neighborhood Family Center.

One bay area resident who has thrived as a volunteer is Margaret Goodson, 84, who was there handing out gift bags when the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center opened its doors nearly 20 years ago.

"As the years progressed, I started coming more. Now I get the pleasure of coming here every day," says Goodson, a Tampa resident.

The retired legal secretary loves office work, and she spends her days on tasks such as helping with the center's database or with paperwork necessary to stage an opera.

"You remember the old secretarial pool?" Goodson asks. "That's me."

Plus, she also volunteers two mornings a week answering the phone for Meals on Wheels.

"It keeps me young," she says.

Bill Fogarty, director of patron and volunteer services at the performing arts center, says that of the approximately 700 volunteers, at least three-quarters are age 50 and older, and about half are at least 65. The majority of these folks usher, take tickets or staff the information booth.

There are also opportunities in the office, doing retail sales, leading tour groups and helping teachers conduct classes and workshops at the center's Patel Conservatory. One perk is free admission to shows.

Of those first volunteers, such as Goodson, who were there when the center opened its doors, more than 60 remain, Fogarty said.

He says he thinks the center has been successful in retaining volunteers because of the way they are treated. "There's a temptation when dealing with volunteers to look at them as 'just volunteers.' We feel strongly that they are still co-workers and they are still staff members."

Susan Ladika is a freelance writer living in Tampa.

[Last modified November 28, 2006, 06:51:13]