Saturday, October 23, 1999
Army of volunteers eager to make a difference
Day draws on spirit of helping
BY EARNEST WINSTON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Terresa Woods, right, and Krittika Baravkar rake leaves outside Winton Place Academy.
(Yoni Pozner photo)
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Sharon Rinner's motive was simple when she asked her pastor if Guardian Angels Church could participate in Make A Difference Day: To teach her two sons the importance of volunteering.
The priest obliged. And Mrs. Rinner rounded up volunteers at the Mount Washington church. Together, they collected more than 4,000 books last year for needy Tristate children.
The idea was a big hit. So when this year's national day for doing good deeds approached, even more people offered to lend a hand.
Today, church members and students at the parish school will join an estimated 2 million volunteers worldwide in the ninth annual Make A Difference Day. Last year, 1.8 million people participated.
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TO VOLUNTEER
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Interested volunteers can stop by the following locations to help: • North Avondale Montessori, 615 Clinton Springs. From 8 a.m. to noon, families of students will be painting the front fence, weeding, raking and pruning bushes and trees in the front yard, painting radiators, and cleaning the ceilings in the boys bathroom. • Cincinnati Cares needs donated books for Heinold Elementary School in Westwood and for an adult-literacy program. Books will be collected at three Barnes and Noble locations: Hyde Park, 3802 Paxton Ave, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Kenwood, 7800 Montgomery Road, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and at Fields Ertel, 9891 Waterstone Blvd., noon to 7 p.m. (Volunteers are not needed to collect books.) • Residents, teen groups, University of Cincinnati students and members of the Cincinnati Park Board working to restore Glenway Park, at Glenway and Purcell avenues in East Price Hill. The event starts at 9 a.m. Questions: Call Teresa Coate, chairwoman of the Purcell Block Club of Price Hill, at 251-7908. • American Airlines employees will help build a Habitat for Humanity house at Fifth and McKinney streets in Dayton, Ky. Volunteers will also help renovate Habitat's warehouse at 16th and Holman streets in Covington. Both efforts are from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. or later. For more information, call 608-8268. To volunteer after today, call 397-6670.
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“You just can't imagine how good you feel when your day is done,” said Mrs. Rinner of Mount Washington. “You're exhausted, but it's a good exhaustion.”
Sons Andrew, 9, and Adam, 61/2, are regular volunteers with their mother. And in between soccer games today, they will be at her side again.
“I like helping people be cause it's fun,” Andrew Rinner said.
This year, church volunteers have collected nearly
1,000 donated prizes for three two-hour carnivals the church will operate today in Fort Mitchell, Covington and Lebanon. Students will help run the traveling carnivals, which are for mentally and physically challenged children.
Other Tristate projects include:
• Residents, teen groups, University of Cincinnati students and members of the Cincinnati Park Board will work to restore Glenway Park in East Price Hill.
• At North Avondale Montessori, families of students will be painting the front fence, weeding, raking and pruning bushes and trees in the front yard, painting radiators and cleaning the ceilings in the boys' bathroom.
• Cincinnati Cares, a new nonprofit organization that connects professionals with volunteer opportunities, will be collecting donated books at Barnes and Noble locations in Hyde Park, Kenwood and Fields Ertel.
• About 35 employees at American Airlines reservation center will be helping to build a house in Dayton, Ky., for Northern Kentucky Habitat for Humanity. They also will renovate a warehouse in Covington and present the group with $3,000.
• Volunteers and members of Keep Cincinnati Beautiful and Cincinnati Parks will plant40,000 daffodil and day lily bulbs along Cincinnati highways from 8 a.m.-noon.
Make A Difference Day was founded by USA Weekend on a Saturday in 1992 — a leap year.
“The idea was to take the extra day and do something good to make a difference. And the response was overwhelming,” said Marcia Stein, spokeswoman for The Points of Light Foundation in Washington, D.C., which partners with USA Weekend to host the annual event.
Ms. Stein said 68,000 people wrote letters after the inaugural event to say what they did for the day. It was so popular the newspaper decided to hold a similar event in the fall of 1992. This time, 200,000 people participated. This year, organizers are expecting 2 million participants.
More give gift of time
Studies show more and more people are volunteering — and not just on Make A Difference Day.
The number of adults who volunteered last year — 109 million or 56 percent of all adults — was the highest since 1995, when the first survey was completed by Independent Sector, a nonprofit national coalition of foundations, nonprofits and Fortune 500 corporations based in Washington, D.C.
Four years ago, 49 percent of adults said they volunteered, according to the group, which researches and analyzes nonprofit organizations.
William Harris, who runs the Service Learning project at University of Cincinnati, explains the desire to help others as spiritual.
“What moves people to do good for other people is a spirit. And I call it a spirit to serve. I believe it is a spirit that is innate in every human being,” said Mr. Harris, who also di rects UC's Community Services Program and is the youth minister at New Friendship Baptist Church in Avondale.
“Some people choose to turn it off or ignore it. Others tap into that power that's inside of each and everyone of us to do good for one another.”
Nancy Glaser, chairwoman of Make A Difference Day at North Avondale Montessori, said sometimes it takes a personal appeal to bring out someone's volunteer spirit.
Mrs. Glaser, vice president of the PTA and foundation president at the school, said room parents in each classroom call every parent to let them know about volunteer efforts.
“The phone calls really do make a difference because many times they feel like someone else will be there. When they receive phone call, it makes them feel good because they can see that they are needed.”
Independent Sector's research shows this to be true: 90 percent of the people who volunteered last year did so when asked; 42 percent found out about activities through personal contacts; and 35 percent found out through participation in an organization.
Nobody had to ask Amy Baker to volunteer. When she moved to Clifton a year ago from upstate New York, she was looking for an organization that coordinates volunteer opportunities for adults. She found it in Cincinnati Cares.
As the group's project coordinator, she is organizing its first participation in Make A Difference Day. Members are collecting new and used books for Heinold Elementary School in Westwood and for an adult literacy program.
“We are all busy people and it just takes a few hours here or there to make a difference,” said Ms. Baker, a special education teacher in Cincinnati Public Schools. “If anyone has time and any sense of wanting to help our community, I think it's important.”
Last year, 14 million people benefited from volunteer projects on Make A Difference Day — the largest day of community service in the nation.
“It's an important day to go out and do something good, and it should be the beginning of making volunteering a regular part of your life,” said Ms. Stein, of The Points of Light Foundation. “The problems (that volunteers work on) didn't happen in a day and they won't be fixed in a day.”
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