Volunteerism

Tennessee is known as the ‘Volunteer State’. I believe that stems from their early years when the citizenry rapidly deployed volunteer army squads and battalions. I don’t know if that is a state motto or an official tag line. Then, Sun City, Arizona is known as the City of Volunteers. And in fact much of Sun City’s ‘governance’ is performed by unpaid volunteers.

That reminds me of the Warrenville Village Chronicles. It is an unpaid all-volunteer community newspaper. Originally focused solely on Warrenville, it now produces one monthly issue that is shared with and covers Winfield, Illinois. And at all times West Chicago, Illinois news is included in the publication as well. Only once so far have all three communities received an issue mailed to all resident and business addresses (24,500 combined mailings). The issues are mailed to all addresses in Warrenville biweekly, and drop off points in all three communities exist for hotels, city halls, chamber of commerce and key business locations. The paper is free to readers. Ad revenue supports all production costs.

Twenty eight volunteers write for the paper and donate photos for publication. One volunteer designed and operates the website while another volunteer posts material to the website from each issue of the newspaper. Emergency and late breaking news items are uploaded to the website frequently.

Four management team members cover ad sales, layout and ad design, accounting, information technology, editing and managing editing roles. We pay the layout and ad designer a small stipend for each issue and she puts in 30 to 60 hours for each issue. Distribution is handled on a still smaller stipend to cover tolls, gasoline and wear and tear on both the vehicles and the elderly gentlemen who do the scud work!

So the newspaper is essentially all-volunteer. And that’s good. No advertiser influence is involved. Neither is government influence part of the scene. Just neighbors reporting the facts and events and eventually arriving at some sense of what those facts mean. Opinions are shared among the readers freely and letters to the editor are encouraged. Public dialogue is the objective but not achieved regularly in this day and age of fluid communications, cable news and internet blogs. But still the focus is on the local community not the region. In our case we have three communities that live close and involved lives with each other. So covering these three makes sense. No other newspaper does this in the large Chicagoland region. We’ve taken matters into our own hands.

And that is what I wanted to highlight today. Volunteers. They do a lot of the heavy lifting in each of our communities – yours and ours. The churches, charities, commissions and community service organizations are plentiful among us all. And they are all operated with enthusiasm without public dollars, without public cost, and with serious commitment to the well being of all the citizens.

If we were to take the pulse of our nation based on its volunteerism alone, I think America would earn an A+. Elders have the knowledge and experience to volunteer. They also have the time. Youth have the energy and stamina to provide volunteer ‘horsepower’. All other ages work full time jobs, or a combination of part time jobs, or full time household duties. They may be willing to volunteer but have difficulty with the logistics to actually make it happen.

One way or another key jobs do get done and mostly by volunteers. This trait of American life is a gold standard of our civility to one another. Of course there are the cynics ~ non believers and non volunteers. But I bet they come around eventually. It’s really the old adage: If you want something done you probably will have to do it yourself. 

An aside to the above: the old gentlemen distributing the newspaper are Rocky and me. Our task is to pick up the print run at the printer in DeKalb, Illinois 36 miles west of Warrenville. Then return to our garage and unload the car. Then sort into postal tubs for each mail route. Then reload the tubs in the car. Then drive to the post office.

This is done with a Ford Fusion. And the logistics are tough. The car performs valiantly but simply is not big enough or capable of bearing the weight. So back to the Enterprise Used Car lot. We switched our car for a slightly newer vehicle (a 2008 for a 2010) but this time a minivan. Flat loading surface and weight capacity to boot. This will make the job easier. Besides, Rocky needs the van for supporting his art exhibits (tents, tables, fixtures and inventory).

For us it works. The stipend pays the cost of the small increased car payment while fully reimbursing the operating costs of the van. Now if the stipend will fully cover the chiropractic services we need, we will be home free! Meanwhile the volunteer spirit abides well in Warrenville, Illinois.  Look us up sometime. We are the little community that works!

August 10, 2012