My mom was a homemaker until the youngest of her 4 children was all grown up. She was 50 years old at the time, with no previous work experience, but she started looking around for opportunities. The small city she was living in advertised for someone to start up a Volunteer Bureau. My mom applied for and got the job. She ran this organization for the next 15 years and, when she retired at 65, she was awarded the Woman of the Year Award from the YWCA.
Her organizational skills and love of people enabled her to achieve many markers that surprised even her: she got the law changed so physically and mentally challenged people were allowed to volunteer; she enrolled nearly every non-profit organization in the city into her program and matched volunteers to their needs; she established a program with the university so volunteers could obtain credits; she got good at writing proposals and got extra funding to hire more staff; she even hosted a regular local TV show where she interviewed both agencies looking for volunteers and volunteers who shared their experiences to encourage others to volunteer. She also volunteered herself while she was working full-time.
She was flown to a larger city once a year to speak on Volunteerism. She had become the Expert. She spoke on how to enroll volunteers and how to make sure that programs had benefits for volunteers. She loved parties and regular appreciation nights were always on the agenda.
After she retired, my mom took on the challenge of heading up the Volunteer Program for the Seniors’ Olympics. She first decided what different areas were needed, then enrolled volunteers to head those areas and empowered them as decision makers and leaders. That was the first year in the history of the Seniors' Olympics where they had to turn away interested volunteers because they had too many.
My mom, at 50 years old, went from unemployed with no experience to being a leader in her community. I’ve always said: ‘If she can do it, we can do it.’
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