Volunteers
Frances Hunt grew up in Shaftsbury and graduated from Shaftsbury Depot, a one-room schoolhouse. Gladys Brundage was her teacher for 8 years in a row. She and her husband Dick have 5 children, 12 grand children and 6 great-grand children with another on the way. They celebrated their 55th wedding anniversary in 2006 and received the Bennington Chamber of Commerce’s D. Ed Moore Award in honor of their outstanding community service that same year.
Fran worked for Eveready during the years she was raising her family, and
retired in 1994. Shortly after her retirement she found herself looking for something to do. She learned about RSVP from friends and visited the office which was then above the Vermont National Bank. Her volunteering hasn’t stopped since then. She began with bulk mailings and did a variety of other short-term projects - the Meter Maid Program, Stark Hose Gallery greeter and was an early volunteer at the Better Bennington Corp. She began her long -term commitment with the American Red Cross Blood Drives in 1997 and is now Chairperson of the drive that takes place at the Baptist Church every other month. She coordinates the volunteers and sets up the room to prepare for the arrival of the Red Cross from Burlington. The average number of pints collected at each drive is 100.Each month Fran goes to the Second Congregational Church and packs boxes of food for Self Help and Resource Exchange (SHARE). She also collects birth certificate data for the Windham County Department of Health. She is busy every week with all of her work. Fran received an Honorable Mention from the Governor’s Awards for Outstanding Community Service in 2002. She was an Honorary Grand Marshal of the 2001 Bennington Battle Day Parade with her husband Dick, who has been with the Bennington Volunteer Fire Department for 29 years. Our database shows that Fran has clocked close to 4,000 hours of generous volunteer work.
She has loved meeting all the people she’s come in contact with throughout her years of volunteering. She enjoys being with people - talking, laughing and doing important work while having fun. She is a precious gem in the Bennington community.
April is Volunteer Month, with a special focus on volunteering during the week of April 27th – May 3rd. Sponsored by the Points of Light Foundation, it is all about thanking one of America’s most valuable assets-our volunteers - and calling the public’s attention to all that they do to improve our communities. The staff at Green Mountain RSVP & Volunteer Center is especially fortunate to work with volunteers every day of the week.
Jennifer Kern of Bennington is a shining example of how one volunteer can truly improve our Community. She is a retired teacher who moved to Bennington in 1995. Within six months she was volunteering at Head Start one day a week helping children learn and grow in positive ways. Now she volunteers in Molly Stark’s “lunch with a student” program. Every week she has lunch with a child who might not otherwise have a lot of one on one time with an adult. Jennifer offers the student warm and positive adult attention, praise and the opportunity to learn a sense of good self-esteem. As she shares values with her student, she is receiving back the fulfillment that comes from giving to another.
She has volunteered for the American Cancer Society’s Relay For Life since its inception 11 years ago. The event has grown in great proportions. The first year they raised $12,000 and last year the amount grew to $210,000. She is overwhelmed with gratitude at the generosity of the people of Bennington and the surrounding towns. The positive energy generated for finding a cure by all the participants is amazing .
She loves the opportunity to meet new people through volunteering. Some have become close friends, while others remain warm acquaintances. She laughs when she thinks of all the people she now knows when she walks through the supermarket.
The Better Bennington Corporation would be less fortunate without Jennifer’s contributions. She works in the Welcome Center from May to December for three hours a week helping visitors plan their time in Bennington. “It feels great to show off Bennington to visitors,” she says. In collaboration with another volunteer, she re-wrote two Walking Tours brochures. One is for downtown and the other for the Norton Potter historic homes on Peasant Street. She asked herself, “What would I like to know about this town if I were visiting?” These brochures are not just about buildings and architecture but about the people of the time, as well.
Her advice to someone just starting out in the volunteering arena would be to start small with a project like the Spirit of Sharing or the Library Book Sale. One thing is for sure - you will meet new friends, have a good time and be giving back to your community.
From The Eagle Times in Springfield, by Marilyn Ledoux.
Terri Thompson is a lady about town. Not happy with retiring and staying home, Thompson, now 75, began to volunteer her time 20 years ago in Ludlow, VT, at the Black River Good neighbor store. Now she is associated with the RSVP program, using her time and talents wherever she is needed downtown. “I volunteer at the Vault when they need me,” Thompson said. “I also sort and put clothes on hangers for sizing and pricing at the Good Buy, a SEVCA-run store in town, and I also wait tables for seniors at the congregate meals site.” Thompson runs a cash register, and enjoys marking and displaying clothes for sale.
Born in Simsbury, CT, Thompson was educated in schools at Warehouse Point, CT and married soon out of school. “My husband and I came up to Vermont for a vacation one year,” Thompson said. “We liked what we saw so we made plans to move up here. That was 47 years ago.”
When her husband died in 1998, Thompson decided to move to Springfield. “We had four children. Three of them are living in the area, and one in Connecticut. Living in Springfield, I have family near.”
Thompson likes the RSVP program because it offers a wide range of flexibility and choice for its volunteers. The program matches the personal interests and skills of older Americans giving them opportunities to use their skills to serve others in their community. Volunteers can help children with reading and math skills; some build houses, take part in neighborhood watch programs, are available to help victims of natural disasters, and because of RSVP volunteers, communities run more efficiently. The only requirement needed to be an RSVP volunteer is that you are 55 years or older.
“I like the program because I can decide how many hours I want to serve from just a couple of hours a week to a full 40-hour week,” Thompson said.
Thompson says she has recently cut back on her hours because she also runs a Coffee Time in the Community Room at the Huber Building from 3 to 4 p.m. On Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. “It gets the residents out of their apartments and together, and we have coffee or Coke and sandwiches or sweets,” Thompson said. Everyone donates to the coffee hour, and once a month Thompson makes a birthday cake for all of that month’s birthday people.
When she is not running the coffee hour or volunteering her services, Thompson likes to draw. She does not sell her drawings, just fills sketch books and puts them away.
Despite her busy schedule, she still has time to sit outside her building and just enjoy the sun and visit with the people passing by. She says she loves to keep active.
“I do all my volunteer work because I like to be busy, Thompson said. “I can’t stand to be idle. I like to always have something to do.
One Volunteer’s Experience
Over the years, I have scanned the Wish List section of the Brattleboro Reformer and noticed the listings of Green Mountain RSVP, without knowing what kind of organization those familiar letters represented.
French class, combined with the etiquette training that a girl growing up in the 50’s and 60’s might receive from her mother, had informed me long ago of one’s duty to Respond, If You Please. In actuality, the “If” part of the expression is just a little thing the French know how to do, making something sound more like a choice than a responsibility.
In a town like Brattleboro, a relatively small town filled with warm, responsive people, one might be tempted to assume that all of our residents are sufficiently well cared for, provided for, and watched over by family members and friends, clergy and teachers. But life in the 21st century teaches us on a daily basis that, despite our best efforts, all of us, from time to time, benefit from the added involvement of strangers.
After a decade of volunteering for Brattleboro Area Hospice, I found myself with some extra time and the desire to be involved in the lives of young people, as well as the grieving and dying. Young people with good health, who faced other kinds of obstacles. I scanned the Wish List and found numerous Green Mountain RSVP listings, including the one pertaining to Youth Services that caught my eye. What is this RSVP, I wondered, that seems to oversee such a divergence of needs, activities, and opportunities?
Several days later I sat at a table with Peter Seares, GMRSVP staff member, having it all explained to me. What I learned about was that Green Mountain RSVP & The Volunteer Center offers Brattleboro residents a chance to respond to all kinds of meaningful invitations–not the kind that begin and end with an evening’s entertainment, but the kind that change your life, transforming you from a stranger who lends a hand, into mentor, friend, godparent, surrogate family member.
GMRSVP helps people like me exchange the luxury of extra time for the meaning of new work, new relationships, new challenges, and new thoughts about the way the world works, person-to-person.
It’s been several months since I began my work at Youth Services, and already I know it to be one of the most valuable doors ever to open for me. I have met courageous young people who are working their way out of difficulty, one step at a time, young people who will backtrack and sidetrack on their path out of difficulty, just as I did at their age.
I find myself embracing their challenges and pain with such compassion, as I was never able to embrace my own back then — and isn’t this one thing, for me as well as for them, the gift of a lifetime?
Submitted by Muriel Wolf