Topic: Volunteering and National Service
... a selection of articles, some original and others taken from newspapers, magazines, and online resources that focus on civic engagement and issues of interest to boomers and others 50+. If you would like to comment on any of the articles, please click here to go to the message board.
84 Year Old Bikes for MS in Dress and High Heels!
For the past 26 years Lan Yin "Eiko" Tsai has participated in a 150 mile bike-a-thon for MS. If that isn't remarkable enough, she competes on an old, one speed bike while wearing a dress and high heels. Why? That's how she bikes to church each Sunday. It's just her way.
Read more about this remarkable women here. Oh, by the way, so what is your excuse for not volunteering?!
Delaware's Volunteers & National Purpose Prize Winners Recognized
In October two volunteer recognition events took place that may be of interest to readers of this newsletter.
On October 29, 2009, in Dover, Governor Jack Markell presented "Outstanding Volunteer Awards" to 22 individuals and 10 groups in the First State. As usual, people 50+ were well represented among the awardees. This being Delaware, there is a pretty good chance you know one of them. Click on "Continue Reading" below to find out.
Just 2 days later out in San Francisco 10 people 60+ received Purpose Prize awards of between $50,000 and $100,000 for their social innovation during an encore career. Sponsored by Civic Ventures, the Purpose Prize Awards highlights social entrepreneurs who are using this new stage of life to do extraordinary things to improve the lives of others. The five receiving the $100,000 awards included:
- A former telecom executive who helped wire an Appalachian county and brought laid-off factory workers back to profitable farming.
- A professor who invented a way to transform toxic fly ash into green bricks.
- A psychiatrist who helps saves soldiers' lives by offering free mental health treatment.
- A former NASA exec who works to treat alcoholism in Native American communities by reviving old customs and traditions.
- A couple who honor their son, killed on 9/11, by helping to bring mental health services to countries ravaged by terrorism, violence and war.
Click here to view short videos about the Purpose Prize recipients.
Continue ReadingJill Biden and Volunteerism
Sussex Couple Promotes Pet Disaster Planning
Most would agree that family disaster planning is important but until recently family pets have been left out of the picture. Then came Katrina and those heart wrenching images of pets swimming after their evacuated owners. Today disaster planning focuses on all members of the family; even the four-footed ones.
For the last several years Don and Mary Jane Taylor have been taking this message to Sussex County. In fact, they and others have created a new nonprofit: Delaware Animal Disaster Services. In this article Sherri Ackerman provides a profile of the Taylors and the important work they do.
Continue ReadingTake Our Volunteerism In America Quiz
A 50+ Volunteer Sees the Economic Crisis from the Frontlines
Does the Current Emphasis on High-Skilled Volunteering Have a Downside?
Everyone is talking about "pro bono" or "skill-based" volunteering - including us here at Coming of Age: Delaware! This is volunteering where someone provides a professional or highly technical skill to a non-profit at no charge. It's all the rage now because with the downturn in the economy many non-profits are laying off staff or unable to afford the expertise they need to remain competitive in a changing world. The phrase "skill-based volunteering" actually comes from the world of corporate volunteering; a process where a company allows one of its highly-skilled employees to provide professional or technical assistance to a nonprofit. But with the retirement of the highly educated boomer generation, skill-based volunteering is gaining popularity in community-based volunteering as well.
In our eagerness to embrace skill-based volunteerism have we really thought about what we are saying? For example, are we implying that traditional volunteers are unskilled? Or that their efforts aren't as valuable as the contributions of professionals?
Leave it to Susan Ellis, an international volunteering expert, to ask the questions others would rather avoid! Read Susan's provocative July "hot topic" here.
Want to share some thoughts about this subject? Why not post your comments in the "pro-bono consulting" forum of our message board.
It's the Treadmill or Volunteering!
RSVP Volunteers Reach Out to the Jobless
This article by Lynn Kroesen, a Coming of Age Delaware contributer in Sussex County, describes "Bridge to a New Position" an innovative response to the current economic downturn created by the 50+ volunteers of RSVP Sussex and New Castle Counties.
Continue Reading
