Retired Volunteers Serve As Role Models

Date: 
Mon, 11/23/2009
All across our community, people are stepping up to volunteer. They come from a wide range of backgrounds; some are young people volunteering in their free time, while others are seniors who are spending part of their retirement serving others. We love hearing stories about why people volunteer and what they take away from their experience. Here’s some stories from some of our volunteers, who are involved with the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP), which works with volunteers 55 years of age and better:

Lee Tate, who is retired and lives in Park Ridge, has been involved with RSVP for five years. He works with first grade teachers helping students with everything from math to reading to writing short stories.

“I’m just kind of a grunt; I do whatever they need over there,” he explained.

Although he doesn’t receive any pay for his position (other than hugs and presents from the kids), Tate said that the positive feedback from teachers is payment enough.

“It’s entirely different than what my business career was during my working life,” he said. “It feels good-- I think that’s the best way to put it,” he said.

Another RSVP volunteer, Dick Aumuller, helps out at a local junior high school. He said his role as a volunteer goes beyond homework help- he also serves as a role model for the students.

“They see the male figure in the classroom, which I think is important, because many don’t have a male figure to come to at home,” Aumuller said.

Kathy Gregory, an RSVP volunteer from Bartlett, retired from her job at an ad agency after 29 years. She chose to volunteer at a local school she would see every day.

“I had passed by this grammar school in Bartlett gong to the train station in the morning and I said to myself ‘I’m going to volunteer there some day,’” she said.

After retiring, Gregory decided the time had finally come to volunteer at that school. Starting last December, she worked with two different third grade classes.

“I read with six kids from each class and I loved very second of it, she said. “I think I got as much out of it as the kids did.”

Do you have a story about why you volunteer or an amazing volunteering experience that you would like to share? We would love to hear it. Send us an email at volunteer@volunteerinfo.net.


Hear the full story from RSVP volunteer Kathy Gregory in the video below
 
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