A Time to Talk: Volunteering — it’s a way to give back

Kathy O'Brien

A Time to Talk

By all accounts, volunteering is a way of giving back to a community, an organization, a cause or one’s country.

The idea of volunteering was brought forth on my 13th birthday, when JFK gave his inaugural speech in which he said, “Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.”

As a young, idealistic and somewhat impressionable new teenager, his words echoed in my subconscious for a year or so before I decided to take heed.

Although I wasn’t sure what I could “do” for my country, I decided I could “do” by volunteering within my community. In junior high and high school, I volunteered at Firland — the old TB facility — in Seattle, then at Children’s Orthopedic Hospital as a candy striper, typically a female volunteer dressed in a red-and-white-striped uniform.

It felt good to be giving back. I knew JFK would be proud.

During early marriage and child-rearing years, my volunteering days became less frequent until I became a court-appointed special advocate in the late 1980s. CASA volunteers, per their Web site, are “appointed by judges to watch over and advocate for abused and neglected children, to make sure they don’t get lost in the overburdened legal and social service system or languish in an inappropriate group or foster home.”

While it can be emotionally challenging, being a CASA is monumentally rewarding.

For more than 20 years, Sue Braaten, owner of the Best Western Wesley Inn in Gig Harbor, has been a CASA. As a result of decades as a CASA volunteer, Braaten and her husband founded The Homestead at Alder Cove, which will eventually provide a consistent nurturing and safe home for foster children between 8 and 18 years old.

“My dream for these innocent victims is that they will have a safe, happy and comfortable place to call home until they are adopted, graduate from high school or return to their family,” Braaten said. “If an adoptive placement doesn’t work out, I want them to return to a familiar home, and I want them to be surrounded by mentors and families who will encourage and support them.”

The Homestead at Alder Cove needs volunteers and financial support to bring this dream to fruition.

Laureen Lund, the City of Gig Harbor’s marketing director, volunteered in Ethiopia for several weeks last year. She believes people “have to be engaged in something meaningful to feel totally fulfilled.”

Lund said Gig Harbor has a steady percentage of volunteers.

“People here realize how good we have it,” she said.

There are many opportunities for those who want to volunteer in our area. The Gig Harbor Visitor and Volunteer Information Center, which itself is staffed with resident volunteers, has information about many organizations and business that need help.

The Gig Harbor Visitor Information Center is located in the heart of downtown across from the Gig Harbor Post Office at 3125 Judson St., and it’s open six days a week. If you are interested in volunteering, call 253-857-4842.

For information about how to become a CASA, visit www.nationalcasa.org.

To learn more about Homestead at Alder Cove, visit http://homesteadcove.org. To contact them, either call 253-222-3108 or e-mail info@homesteadcove.org.

Volunteering — it’s what you can “do” for yourself.

A Time to Talk columnist Kathy O’Brien can be reached by e-mail at kathleen@harborwriters.com.