SPOTLIGHT : FRIENDS IN DEEDS : There Are Plenty of Ways for Volunteers of All Ages to Make a Difference

Call it Kids for Causes, or Lending Little Hands. If volunteerism once seemed an activity for adults, now it’s a family affair and--in many cases--an activity for young people to do without adults. And if volunteerism once seemed seasonal, Santa’s helpers little and big now spread their cheer all year.

Orange County has become a hotbed of volunteer activities.

“Volunteerism here has risen above the national average by four percentage points, 55% compared to 51%,” said Deborah Walters of the Volunteer Center of Greater Orange County. “There are many ways to volunteer. If you’re an adult, it can mean being a football coach or giving your neighbor a ride to a doctor’s appointment. Young people can help the elderly with yardwork or have a wet and wiggly pet wash and use the proceeds to ‘adopt’ an animal at the local zoo.

“We’re trying to redefine what the word volunteerism means.”

According to Walters, families are most successful with self-initiated projects, with the age of the children dictating the activities.

The Volunteer Center has published a book called “101 Ways You Can Make a Difference 365 Days a Year.” Families with teen-agers or small children can follow the book’s ideas or use them as a springboard to create their own. Simple tried-and-trues include collecting change in the neighborhood and donating it to a charity, or scrounging around garage sales for clothes to give to group homes.

The book is $5 at the agency (1000 E. Santa Ana Blvd., No. 200, Santa Ana) or $6.50 including postage and handling; phone (714) 953-5757.

Many nonprofit organizations stage fund-raising walkathons and run-a-thons that welcome children. Families can also call the 24-hour Volunteer Connection Line at (714) 647-2600, or take part in Volunteer Connection Day, to be staged in cities throughout the county on April 22. (Oct. 28 has been nationally designated “Make a Difference Day.”)

If there’s charity in your heart--no matter your age, interests or abilities--there’s a volunteer opportunity that’s perfect for you.

Taggers, You’re It

Got a mad tagger in your family? Check out storm drain stenciling.

“Everything that goes down storm drains does not go to a treatment plant, it goes directly to the ocean,” said Gary Sergeant. Sergeant is Blue Water Task Force Subcommittee Chairman for the Newport Beach chapter of the Surfrider Foundation.

“Washing off paint brushes, cleaning car engines in the driveway, these sorts of activities contribute toxic chemicals that go right into the ocean. All Orange County cities have agreed to stencil storm drains with a sign saying, ‘NO DUMPING, DRAINS TO OCEAN.’ Some cities are waiting for a group like us to come along and do it.”

Fourteen Orange County cities need volunteers for storm drain stenciling now, seven cities may need volunteers soon. But before you go out and start tagging drains, you need a letter of permission. Phone the chapter’s Non-Point Source Pollution Subcommittee Chairman Sylvia de la Parra at (714) 720-9677 for more information.

“It’s great program for reformed graffiti people,” Sergeant said. “To date, we’ve been using paintbrushes, but there’s no reason we couldn’t use spray. Someone with those types of artistic abilities? We wouldn’t pass on the chance to put those people to work.”

Tutor Style

At Bridge Learning Center for Homeless Children, volunteers focus on one-on-one self-esteem tutoring. How does one go about tutoring self-esteem?

“It’s sort of an automatic,” explained executive director Howard Levin. “When children realize somebody cares enough to come back every week, just having made a friend gives them a sense of self-esteem.”

Shelters for homeless children are located in Anaheim, Garden Grove and Westminster; Levin accepts volunteers from age 16 up. He considers youth an asset, but he also emphasizes reliable transportation.

“The volunteer has to commit to every week,” Levin said. “If the tutor doesn’t show, the child blames himself and again begins to lose self-esteem.

“Sixteen-year-olds know better than anyone how self-esteem works. They’ve made it to this point, and they know better than anyone how it feels to have a mother say, ‘You’re going to do this because I told you to.’ That doesn’t work in today’s society.

“Mothers do that because their mothers did that,” Levin said. “And unless they take parenting classes and find out how important it is to listen to the child, most parents don’t have the time or inclination to learn what it is a child needs.

“We never ignore a child’s troubles. We help them solve their own problems.”

Phone Levin at (714) 494-0591.

Record Holders

Some people are not into one-on-one.

“Some like data entry, or labeling boxes, or preservation work on original records,” noted Suzanne Dewberry, assistant director of the National Archives and Records Administration. “Besides administrative, we have two types of job for volunteers--one is genealogical, one has to do with preservation of old records.”

Activities at the Laguna Niguel facility focus on federal agency records from 1851 through the 1980s. Among the more unusual documents that archivists have processed are the pilot notes from Chuck Yeager’s sound barrier-breaking flight, Mexican-period land grants from 1851, and bankruptcy dockets from 1907 to 1940.

“Some people have extraordinary research backgrounds,” Dewberry said. “It’s best to have some background, but they don’t have to have any background in these fields at all. We will go through the training process with each individual.”

The Laguna Niguel facility at 24000 Avila Road has 30 volunteers 18 and older doing genealogical research and records preservation. Volunteer coordinator is archivist Bill Doty; phone (714) 643-4241.

Olympic Elves

“We love families!” said Dan Williams, a volunteer with the Special Events Department of Orange County Special Olympics. A common way to get involved with Special Olympics is to work directly with a mentally disadvantaged child or adult--take the athlete from event to event at a meet, stay with him or her between events and enforce a job well-done with encouragement and hugs.

“My kids volunteer, and they’re 10 and 11. But most of our younger volunteers are late teens working with their parents,” Williams noted. “A 7-year-old will usually watch as his parents do most of the work, but they can promote the self-esteem of the athletes with applause and encouragement.”

Volunteers can also opt for such administrative work as answering phones, stuffing envelopes and cleaning trophies. They can help to run an event, make or donate food, distribute lunches or, if an event is a fund-raiser, sell food. Every Olympic sport is represented in Special Olympics, so there is always a need for people with experience in any of 26 different sports.

Events follow the school year from September to June. The next scheduled activity is a soccer tournament at University High School in Irvine on Jan. 12. Help is still needed at two other upcoming events, power lifting at Hope High School in Buena Park on Jan. 14, and ice skating at Side by Side in Huntington Beach on Feb. 3.

Phone interim director Jennifer Evans-Maurer at (714) 995-2225. The office is at 3456 W. Orange Ave., Suite A, in Anaheim.

This Land Is Your Land

According to park ranger Ron Slimm, volunteer coordinator for Adopt-A-Park, volunteer jobs are only limited by the creativity of the individual ranger and volunteer.

“Maybe there’s a fish tank at the nature center that’s looking a little green on the glass,” Slimm said. “You can adopt that aquarium, come in on a regular basis, feed the fish, clean the glass, top off the water, rearrange the scenery--whatever it takes.

“Maybe there’s a native plant garden. You can trim it, water it, put up signs, build the garden itself if there’s not one. Just about anything anybody could imagine can be done by a volunteer.”

Older volunteers might do trail work or build bridges. Litter patrol is a good activity for small children, but many rangers have more creative projects. A child can help the ranger put together a leaf collection, for instance, by finding leaves without holes or broken ends.

Said Slimm, “It’s not ‘Get these kids out of my hair,’ it’s ‘This will make the kids happy and me happy.’ Children have collected acorns for us to propagate new oak trees. Some parks have docent programs where people do nature or historical talks. A 14-year-old who’s really well-versed in Native American culture could certainly do a program--it all depends on their abilities. We’re open to just about anything anybody could imagine.”

To adopt a park, contact the park ranger at the park of our choice, or phone Slimm at (714) 771-6731, ext. 15.

Gleaning With Meaning

When it comes to gleaning, youthful volunteers amount to far more than a hill of beans.

“Gleaners can start as young as 2, and even small children can pick beans or corn,” said Nancy Long, executive director of Orange County Harvest. “A 4-year-old child can easily pick 20 pounds of beans in two hours, and usually more. One pound of food will feed two adult males, 20 pounds feeds 40 people, and that’s exciting for children. And they like that they’re picking food for the hungry of Orange County.”

Gleaning is the picking of produce, with the farmers’ permission, left over after harvest. The food picked by Orange County Harvest goes to 350 different agencies in Orange County; last year 4,000 volunteers gleaned 700,000 pounds of food.

“We pick corn, cabbage, celery, squash, broccoli, bok choy, peas--one crop each week, everything from avocados to zucchini,” Long said. “I tell people they should be paying me. They’re out in the fresh air, and because they’re picking, carrying and loading, they’re also getting exercise. The elderly are welcome to help me sort or perhaps peel the outer leaves off the cabbage. This is extremely conducive to families working together.”

Gleaning happens every Wednesday from 8 to 10 a.m., the first Sunday of each month from 1 to 3 p.m., and occasional Saturdays. Phone (714) 833-1846 the evening before for instructions and directions. The office is at 17200 Jamboree Road, Irvine.

And More . . .

Volunteer opportunities are almost endless. You can adopt a grandparent, teach kids to climb rocks, or rock the elderly right out of their rockers.

According to Kevin LaPoint, outreach coordinator at the Feedback Foundation in Anaheim, the Adopt a Grandparent program began in October.

“We’re matching college-age volunteers, 18 to 28, with senior homebound clients to visit three to five hours each week,” said LaPoint. “These are seniors whose families live far away, or whose loved ones have passed on, and they’re lonely. So far we’ve matched up 15 volunteers. It can mean doing hobbies together or taking the senior to the mall, but it can also mean writing a letter or making a phone call. For the senior, it’s a way to talk with someone.”

To adopt a grandparent in north or central Orange County, phone LaPoint at (714) 220-0224.

American Explorers is a nonprofit youth center in Brea. It’s got pool tables and indoor hockey, but the kids love to get outdoors.

“We go on backpacking, white-water rafting and rock climbing weekends in groups of a dozen or more kids,” explained executive director Randy Gamboa. “We need adults over 18 to serve as guides and instructors and to help the volunteer staff. Teen-agers can help out at the youth center or be a guide for younger kids. Sometimes we’ll take between 15 and 45 kids to Yosemite for a seven-day backpacking trip. And we’re always needing people to teach rock climbing.”

Phone Gamboa at (714) 990-4333; the center is at 624 S. Brea Blvd.

Parkhurst Retirement Center, at 9925 La Alameda Ave. in Fountain Valley, needs entertainers.

“We have 215 retired residents as young as in their 50s on up to 100, and a budget for activities that doesn’t quite cover a lot of things,” explained activities director Bonnie Ponce. “We’re looking for clowns, singers, anybody who wants to give time to active seniors. Kids can read to the elderly, visit with them, play games with them, walk with them. And when a young person comes and plays piano . . . !”

Those who like to perform can call Ponce at (714) 962-5531.

“A (guitar-playing and singing) teen-ager would work perfect,” she said. “We’d take him in one red-hot second, and by the time he left, he’d have lots of grandmas and grandpas.”