Sharing Our History of Volunteers

At Energize, we have a special interest in documenting the history of volunteers. Our president, Susan J. Ellis, co-authored the book: By the People: A History of Americans as Volunteers, New Century Edition. We encourage all organizations and collaborative efforts to celebrate volunteers today by showcasing them as the current step in a continuum of volunteer action from the past and therefore the next step to future service. This is a great way to recognize volunteers and educate the public about their importance. [You can also read Susan's original "Hot Topic" introducing this idea and see what colleagues said in reply. ] On this page, we share how others have celebrated the history of their volunteers, plus provide links to pages that can help you develop or share your projects.

Quilt Squares

As part of our celebration of 100 years of service, we are combing our archives to produce a complete history, and we asked each of our 54 offices around the world to produce a quilt square. Volunteers then put the quilt together and it is now "touring" our offices so volunteers can see the results of their efforts. Story and picture are also posted on our web site www.nmcrs.org
Submitted by Tina Branco, Director, Volunteer Support, Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society, VA, USA

Volunteer Hall of Fame

The coalition of volunteer managers and their agencies on Long Island that came together originally to celebrate IYV2001 decided to remain together and have focused their efforts on creating a "VOLUNTEER HALL OF FAME." The initial honorees were all founders of their respective non-profit/volunteer-driven groups and were recognized at a ceremony in November 2002 at Stony Brook University. A trade-show style display was donated by Fleet Bank and will be touring various venues around Long Island during 2003 to help spread the word about the honorees, as well as the Hall of Fame itself. A calendar featuring the honorees has been printed and is being distributed at this time. We're gearing up for this year's nominations and ceremony too.

Just curious -- Does anyone know of any other VOLUNTEER Halls of Fame, in the US or elsewhere??
Submitted by Frank Pomata, NY

History Project Team in Australia

Volunteering Western Australia will launch its history in June. Prepared by the History Project Team over the past 4 years this story is told by the people who have lived it. It is a story of vision, commitment and fulfillment. To those who have lived it, it is exciting and factual. To volunteers and people working with them, it is a message of hope for the future.

A grant to commemorate the Centenary of Federation in Australia has made publication possible in this International Year of Volunteers. This grant reflects the spirit of those volunteers who pioneered settlement in Australia and reminds us that volunteers are the spirit of community. Volunteers,indeed, can change the world.
Submitted by Sallie Davies, Volunteering Western Australia

Medical Center Auxiliary Celebrates 40 Years

The Greene County Medical Center Auxiliary, Jefferson, Iowa, celebrated its 40th anniversary this year. We compiled our history and showed it off with displays and brochures. We even sewed and displayed quilt blocks from past quilts that have been raffled by our organization. We then held an open house that featured these displays and tours of departments where our organization donated funds for specific equipment and furnishings. Refreshments were served and commemorative pens were given.

This event got us busy and worked on compiling our history. Before that, we had bits and pieces, but this really pulled it together. The volunteers worked very hard to get ready for this event, with very little help from our staff. It was a fun celebration.
Submitted by Shelly Berger, Administrative Assistant and Auxiliary Liaison, Greene County Medical Center, Iowa

The Virtual Volunteerism Millennium Caplet

The Virtual Volunteerism Millennium Caplet has been created to compliment the Voluntas Time Capsule for Volunteerism (stored at the Regis University and developed in 1990 - http://academic.regis.edu/volunteer/Ivan/sect21.htm) and provides an opportunity for people worldwide with an interest and passion for volunteerism to post their comments.

The responses will be collected to create a special booklet, "Voices from the Millennium," that will be sealed in its own capsule and reside along side the Volunteerism Time Capsule, scheduled to be unsealed in November 2050. A commemorative memento is available to those who post their comments. This memento can be shared with family, friends and grandchildren so that the opening of the Volunteerism Time Capsule/Caplet in 2050 can be marked with great celebration.

Comments you might consider posting are:

Your agency: Name, mission, services you provide, number of volunteers, etc.
What did your organization do in honor of IYV2001 that you would like to share with the future?
What do you enjoy about your current volunteering experiences?
What difference do you think volunteering is making for organizations, or to the community in general?
Share a special volunteer story, poem or song
What hopes, dreams or aspirations about volunteerism would you like to see fulfilled by 2050?
I volunteer because.......
A message or greeting for the people of 2050

Submitted by Mary Lou McNatt, Regis University, Denver, Colorado, USA

"Women Volunteer: From Benevolence to Justice"

"Women Volunteer: From Benevolence to Justice" was the title of the presentation that we used at Regis University to begin our year long celebration for IYV2001. The presentation highlighted the streams of women who have volunteered through the history of the United States. Because of the breadth of information, the presentation only got to the Depression Era, but will be continued as a work-in-progress. Once all the copyright issues (revolving around the use of photographs) can be resolved we would hope to have that presentation loaded online so that others may use it.
Submitted on 4/18/01 by Mary Lou McNatt, Regis University, Denver, Colorado, USA

Five Year Archival Project

At Rocky Mountain PBS (Channel SIX in Denver, CO), we established a new Volunteer Board Committee in May, 2000, which is called SAM (Station's Archived Memories). The committee is working towards having a special "archival" project completed by the year 2006 to help celebrate our station's 50th anniversary.

Making the Project Manageable
Our committee felt overwhelmed by the ideas which we brainstormed as possible projects. It was decided to break our 5-year project into smaller pieces (phases) which can be more easily digested -- and accomplished -- by the members of the committee who are already very busy, overly-committed people!!

Collecting Photographs
The first phaseincludes collecting, organizing and cataloging photographs relating to volunteers' history at RMPBS from the past 45 years (1956-2000).
Our volunteer office houses several hundred photographs, but we are also requesting and collecting photos and memorabilia from current/past staff and current/past volunteers. We already have close to a thousand photographs and they keep coming in! The photos are priceless and conjure up lots of memories. Phase 1 is still collecting photos and will soon begin the process of sorting and cataloging them for preservation purposes. Some day, we may even decide to digitize our photographs - - - but, that takes $$ which we currently do not have.

An Overview of Our History
To kick off our SAM project this September, we invited one of our retired general managers (Don Johnson) to give a 2.5 hour seminar presentation on the history of public (educational) television, the history of our own Rocky Mountain PBS (previously known as KRMA-TV), and the history of how our community of volunteers have made the station what it is today. Without volunteers, our public television station simply would not exist! The production staff videotaped Don's presentation and will edit it so that we'll have it for posterity!! Don's presentation was our first official "archived memory."

The volunteers on the SAM Committee range from having volunteered at the station for 5-40 years. Therefore, we felt that having Don's historical presentation would give us ALL equal information on the history of our volunteer corps and how it has evolved into what it is today. Don's information was very valuable to the efforts of the committee!! An understanding of how the Rocky Mountain PBS volunteer corps was first conceived really gave us a much greater appreciation for what we are today.

Promoting SAM
To raise awareness, curiosity and participation amongst fellow volunteers and staff members at the station, the SAM Committee members wear buttons saying "ASK ME ABOUT SAM." Also, articles about SAM have appeared in recent volunteer newsletter, e-mails have been sent to all staff members explaining the SAM efforts, and written requests for donations of photos and memorabilia are appearing in invitations being mailed to our volunteers for two special events which are being hosted and attended by our volunteers this Fall. By the way, we have 2500 volunteers, so by the time we collect photos and memorabilia from our volunteer corps, we anticipate a LOT of work ahead to organize and catalogue everything - - but we know it'll be a lot of fun!!

Personal Stories
We hope to eventually expand our archival efforts to additional Phases to include requesting, receiving, and cataloging personal stories from staff and volunteers. We want to know the history of our PEOPLE -- how did they get involved? Why did they get involved? What keeps them involved? What memories of volunteering do they treasure?

These stories may eventually include videotaped or audio taped oral history interviews (a professional archivist has offered to train us to properly conduct oral histories) of key staff members and key volunteers. For people who are no longer living in the Colorado area or for those volunteers or staff members who don't feel comfortable being taped, their stories may be written and submitted to the archive project. The stories that will be requested will include things such as: "I'll always remember when . . ." or perhaps "Why I volunteer for Rocky Mountain PBS." There are so many stories out there!!! We can't wait to hear and read them.

We are also keeping audio tapes, minutes and photographs of our SAM meetings realizing that we are creating history as we work on preserving it!! That might be another great story on "How To Preserve Volunteer History" once we really get this going . . . .

The hope is to make the SAM committee a permanent committee on our Volunteer Board of Directors so that our past, present and future continue to work hand-in-hand throughout the years. We know that by preserving our history, we will enlighten our future

The SAM volunteers have expanded their project to include conducting video and audio oral history interviews of staff, community members, and volunteers who have been influential in the development of Rocky Mountain PBS since its on-air debut in 1956. Approximately 50 interviews are currently completed with an additional 100+ hoped for. Each interview is taped and transcribed, then entered into a database.
Over the past year, the SAM Committee has authored a two-part 140-page TOOLKIT which details exactly how the archive project is being done.

The 2 parts include 1) Administration and 2) Committees. Each chapter includes job descriptions, flowcharts, full reports on how-to-do each job (photo committee, oral history committee, station research committee, memorabilia committee, etc), and samples of every form used to track the information. Two SAM Toolkits were given to every PBS station and additional copies are available upon request. A full session was given by SAM volunteers at the 2003 PBS Development Conference on how to organize and develop an archive project of great magnitude. The response was fantastic.

All data is being entered into a database by volunteers so that station staff, community members and station volunteers will have access to the historical information. Every item (article, photo, interview, memorabilia piece) is assigned a specific accession number and entered into the database.

The project is ongoing and is now a permanent part of our PBS station in Denver. The SAM Chair is a volunteer serving as the historian for the station and as a member of the Volunteer Board. An office has been given to SAM to conduct work and research and a 2nd office has been dedicated for storage of the archives (both physical and electronic).
The SAM Committee hopes to be able to offer videoconferencing to other PBS stations wishing to ask specific questions about this archive project.

Anyone wanting further information or with questions can contact SAM Chair, Laura Sampson, at Rocky Mountain PBS voice mail, 303-620-5734 or e-mail her directly at rmpbs_sam@krma.pbs.org.
Contact is encouraged -- we are very excited about our project!!
Submitted by Laura Sampson

First Volunteers in NYC History (1737) Honored

The first recorded volunteer organization in New York City history, the Volunteer Fire Department of the City of New York established in 1737, were memorialized with a ceremony and a plaque near what had been its headquarters in Downtown Manhattan. The plaque was unveiled as part of the IYV2001 celebrations in New York. Peter Rothenberg, curator of The New York City Fire Museum, had on hand several artifacts or replicas representative of the early days of New York City's Volunteer Fire Department, including: a wooden rattle, the first fire alarm used to alert the community of a fire; a leather bucket used by early firefighters to get water to a fire; and a speaking trumpet through which the foreman of a fire company barked directions to the volunteer firefighters.

Volunteer Quilt

In May 2000 we celebrated "50 Years of Volunteers" in healthcare in Loveland, CO. As the DVS, I asked the volunteers to create quilt blocks and the quilt was set together and quilted by volunteers. A group of volunteers also helped me research old newspapers, scrapbooks, and interviewed older volunteers and we put it together in a story book form.
Submitted by Patty Morrison, DVS McKee Medical Center

Steps for Sharing Your Volunteerism History

Additional Tips for Starting a Project