Funded in part by the U.S. Department of Justice, VIPS pairs interested applicants with their local police stations, who “hire” them for help on evenings and weekends. Tasks can vary, but volunteers often assist officers with tasks like gathering data and vacation-home monitoring, as well as with staffing desks and kiosks.
Glenn Lasater, 71, volunteers twice a week with the Traffic Investigations Unit of the Denver Police Department. “I provide direct support to the detectives in handling their cases,” Lasater says. “I handle calls, and go out on accident scenes, and that takes that off the back of the detectives.”
Support from people like Lasater can be critical in cities and towns that desperately need it: According to the National Police Support Fund, some local police departments nationwide are losing funding, meaning that support from volunteers may ultimately prove mission critical.
To learn more about Lasater and VIPS, watch the video above.
More: One on One With the Police
Tag: volunteers
Meet the Nonagenarian Whose Generous Mission Is To Help Veterans See
World War II Army veteran Orville Swett of Port Orange, Fla., has seen a lot in his life.
The Purple Heart recipient sustained a brain injury that nearly killed him while fighting in the Battle of Anzio in Italy. Recovered, he went on to have a fulfilling career as an optician and eyeglass shop owner in Maine. In 1985, Swett retired to Florida and has been on a mission to help fellow vets see better.
Swett, now 91, inquired if the VA clinic in Daytona Beach could use a hand. “The VA had no optician when I started and I had experience. The ophthalmologist hired me immediately. I was the first volunteer in the system,” he tells the Daytona Beach News-Journal. “I do it because there was a need.”
Since then, Swett has racked up more than 38,000 hours volunteering at the VA, where he repairs and adjusts eyeglasses for vets. “I’m here for the veterans,” he says. “I work for the veterans, not the VA.”
Although Swett’s main work is to help veterans with sight-related needs, he also serves as an inspiration and source of historical information to everyone he meets — including VA interns in their 20s and fellow veterans. Dr. Dianne Kowing, who leads the ophthalmology department at the VA, says, “He gives them an understanding of their role. He’s inspiring to them. And he has a wicked Maine sense of humor.”
Swett volunteers consistently, except for three months in the summer that he spends in Maine. When he returns each fall, his coworkers are always thankful to see him. “I am committed 100 percent in helping [fellow veterans],” he said. “I was brought up that way, to help each other out.”
MORE: An 87-Year-Old World War II Veteran Made A Promise at 19 to Help Someone Every Day
This Army Vet Has Driven 165,000 Miles to Help His Fellow Soldiers Receive Medical Care
Prowers County, Colo. sits in the rural southeast corner of the state on the Kansas border, more than four hours away from Denver. Its remote locale makes it difficult for the elderly and disabled veterans who live there to get to their far-flung medical appointments.
Luckily, these American heroes can count on champion volunteer driver Cliff Boxley, who doesn’t hesitate to set out at 4 a.m. — sometimes up to four days a week — to bring them to their doctors’ appointments in Denver, Pueblo, La Junta and Colorado Springs.
Boxley himself served in the Army from 1972 to 1980 and has kept close to his fellow vets, in part through his serving of four terms on the Board of Governors for the First Cavalry Division Association.
In 2007, he started driving veterans in Prowers County to their medical appointments and has since racked up more than 6,000 volunteer hours — driving a total 165,000 miles in that time.
“I started driving because I got a call from Carol Grauberger one day. She was the person who started this service in Prowers County for the veterans. That was seven years and over 150,000 miles ago,” he tells Russ Baldwin of The Prowers Journal.
For all those hours on the road, Boxley was honored with the 2014 AARP Andrus Award for Colorado, which is given to outstanding volunteers making a difference in the lives of seniors from each state.
“Rural veterans tend to be short-changed when it comes to VA healthcare, with few advocates for them in this region. In the military, we always took care of each other, so this is my way of doing that,” Boxley tells Baldwin.
MORE: This Special Volunteer Has Spent More Than 150,000 Miles Behind The Wheel Helping Vets
When an Elderly Veteran Tried to Build a Wheelchair Ramp, These Volunteers Didn’t Let Him Go at it Alone
Eighty-six-year-old Navy veteran John Walker of Gulfport, Miss., is used to taking care of himself. So when his wife Kathleen broke her leg, he decided to build a wheelchair ramp to make it easier to get her in and out of the house.
But when the Retired Senior Volunteer Program of Harrison County (RSVP), learned about the situation, the group contacted Disability Connection, a nonprofit that helps with emergency home repairs and modifications for veterans, the disabled and low-income families.
Disability Connection executive director Janie O’Keefe tells Trang Pham-Bui of WLOX that after Walker build his ramp, “We came and inspected it and it did not look like it was as safe as it should be. It did not look like it would survive long term, so we agreed to basically start over and give him a fresh, brand-new ramp.”
At first Walker refused the help. “I’m used to doing for myself, for my family,” he said. But he soon realized he and his wife could use the support of people like U.S. Army Specialist Kegan Wood, who pitched in to build the new ramp using materials that the Home Depot donated. Pham-Bui asked Walker how he felt to see so many people volunteering to work on the project and he says, “It makes me want to cry.”
“If anybody deserves it, you and your wife do,” O’Keefe tells Walker.
We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.
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When Vandals Trashed a Park, a Group of Veterans Came to the Rescue
Where would we be without generous people pitching in to pick up what others have torn down? The actions of a group of volunteers in Florida show that for many veterans, helping out is a lifelong commitment.
The Little St. Mary’s River Park in Baker County, Florida is a place for families to get outside, relax and enjoy nature. But last spring, the park’s docks were vandalized. The criminals, who’ve never been caught, ripped the handrails from all the docks, crushed picnic tables and tossed them in the water and destroyed a bridge.
Larry Porterfield, a 70-year-old veteran who served in the Army as a combat engineer, was upset by the damage. “They even came in and tore the handicap ramps out,” he tells Clifford Davis of The Florida Times-Union. “Now, why would they do something like that?”
Luckily Porterfield, whose spirit of community service runs strong, had an army to back him up and help make the repairs. “I was in highway construction for 42 years. But I’m retired, so I thought I’d go ahead and do it,” he says.
Porterfield led a group of veterans from the Baker County Veterans Council, along with some civilian volunteers, in a park renovation project. Baker County supplied the materials, while the volunteers supplied more than 700 hours worth of labor, working four days a week for two months this summer to rebuild all the damaged property.
This isn’t the first time the Baker County Veterans Council has saved the day — they’ve repaired damaged porches for widows, raised funds to help disabled vets keep their homes and given cars to needy veterans, among other selfless acts.
Baker County Commission Chairman Jimmy Anderson says, “What I like about them is they are trying to teach people a sense of responsibility for their community, and for that, I give them high praise.”
MORE: Veterans Help Disaster Victims Through Team Rubicon
Through This Simple Household Task, Volunteers Show Their Love for the Low-Income and Homeless
If you’re lucky enough to have someone else washing your clothes for you, chances are that person loves you. (And it’s probably your mom, dad or spouse doing the dirty work.)
A volunteer mission called Laundry Love, however, spreads the affection beyond the immediate family to help the needy get the clean clothes that otherwise might be hard to come by.
According to the nonprofit’s website, Laundry Love began about 12 years ago when members of a church in Ventura, Calif., wanted to know what they could do to help a homeless man known as T-Bone. He said, “If I had clean clothes I think people would treat me like a human being.”
Since then, many other churches and volunteer groups have joined the effort, renting out a number of Laundromats across the country for a night to wash the clothes of homeless and low-income people, while also getting to know them and trying to help them in other ways.
Krysta Fauria of the Associated Press spoke to Victoria Mitchell, who began coming to Laundry Love gatherings in Huntington Beach when she was living in her car with her baby daughter. The volunteers took up a collection to help her rent an apartment. Now Mitchell has a steady job, too.
“You’re not just checking a box to give a donation. You’re spending the whole evening with these people and getting your hands dirty and it’s intimate — you’re doing people’s laundry,” Mitchell’s friend and Laundry Love volunteer LuzAnna Figueroa tells Fauria.
Some of the volunteers were once down on their luck, too. Christian Kassoff, founder of the Huntington Beach Laundry Love chapter, was once addicted to heroin and living out of his car. Now he leads an enthusiastic group of volunteers helping others. “I’m not wealthy, but I have the gift of time and a heart for it, so this fits,” Kassoff tells Fauria.
MORE: The Surprising Way a Shower Could Save a Life
For Homeless Veterans, Gardening Can Be the Therapy That Gets Them Back on Their Feet
It’s commonly known that gardening can be good for the soul, but for a group of veterans trying to leave homelessness forever, it can be a complete lifesaver.
Which is exactly why early last Wednesday, Coralei Kluver, an assistant manager at Home Depot was hard at work shoveling dirt to help build a greenhouse that will benefit a group of veterans living at Independence Hall, a 20-bed transitional housing center in Billings, Mont.
Home Depot provided a $10,000 grant for the greenhouse project, and the store’s employees brought the volunteer muscle. Many of them came to help in the morning before working a full shift at the store. “It’ll be a long day, but it’s worth it,” Kluver tells Zach Benoit of the Billings Gazette. “It’s good to be here and we’re glad to be helping.”
Kluver has a special motivation to help veterans: Several years ago, her cousin was killed while on active duty.
Since 2011, the veterans at Independence Hall have run a thriving garden, but the greenhouse will help extend the growing season in the chilly Rocky Mountain climate. Some of the produce grown is used as food for the vets at Independence Hall, while the remainder is sold at the farmer’s markets held in the center’s parking lot or donated to the community. One year, more than 800 pounds worth was dolled out.
Bill Holder, the director of veterans services for the local chapter of Volunteers of America (VOA), the nonprofit that runs Independence Hall, tells Benoit, “We’ve already got our community garden here, so hopefully we’ll be able to start earlier and grow more.” Holder says Independence Hall is “not a shelter. It’s a program where they transition to a self-sufficient lifestyle.”
Gardening “gives the opportunity to have something that’s therapeutic,” says Dave Shumway, the director of communications for the Northern Rockies division of the VOA. “They’re transitioning from being homeless to a more normal life and what’s more normal than working on a garden in your backyard?”
MORE: Meet the Marine Who Planted A Special Garden for His Fellow Vets
How a Barn-Raising Mentality Can Work in the 21st Century
The idea of barn-raising probably brings to mind images of the countryside and endless miles of fields dotted with farm houses.
But Garreth Potts is reshaping the concept of a barn-raising as a way to grow community projects across cities.
Potts is a German Marshall Fund Urban and Regional Policy Fellow, and he just finished a fellowship during which he analyzed how cities fund and organize community projects. These assets — including parks, gardens, recreational centers, libraries, museums and civic centers — generally rely on city resources. But through his research, Potts discovered how volunteers and other funds can provide that extra touch.
From this work, Potts created a toolkit: “The New Barn-Raising,” (and started a nonprofit, The Barn-Raising) which ditches an individualistic role or responsibility in favor of a more communal one where everyone is invited: residents, local government, non-profits, businesses and unions. Potts believes that coordination between all the parties improves these community projects and supports increased innovation. To determine the level of involvement of the government and other groups, Potts’s plan is to have the voters decide.
Potts’s inspiration came mostly from his observations of the Duncan Street Community Gardens in East Baltimore, as well as gardens in Minneapolis-St. Paul and Detroit.
DON’T MISS: One in Five Baltimore Residents Lives in a Food Desert. These Neighbors Are Growing Their Own Produce
So, what did he learn?
1. Volunteers are a vital, but they can’t do everything. For many projects, you need a city staff to oversee and organize and use volunteers for manpower. Ultimately, it’s a joint effort.
2. Don’t underestimate the nonprofit. These organizations are knowledgeable and can provide extra money for a project. For example, in Baltimore, a partnership with the city’s branch of ToolBank USA means access to necessary equipment for their community garden that would otherwise be hard to get.
3. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are not invincible. While NGOs do have power and resources, they are not infinite wells. If NGOs were expected to fund every underfunded project, it would require a large increase in donations.
To see the remainder of Potts’s suggestions, click here.
While we may not be holding literal barn raisings in our neighborhoods, Potts’s alternate version will provide the same benefits: community cooperation and beautification — just minus the hay and cows.
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