'Once you get into it, you get hooked'

Many area organizations could not get along without their volunteers.
By MARALINE KUBIK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- The payoff in dollars is zip; the payoff in satisfaction, priceless.
The real reward in volunteering is not what volunteers give to their communities, but in how good they feel doing it.
For 32 years, Peggy Remias taught school. Helping junior high students learn about home economics, something they would use their entire lives, gave her a great deal of satisfaction. She learned a lot from the kids too.
After she retired, the Austintown resident needed something else to do that would provide her the continued opportunity to interact with others, to share her knowledge and expertise, and most important, to continue learning.
Invaluable service: Volunteering 30 hours a week at Forum Health's Northside Hospital offered all of the above and then some. Remias not only interacts with patients one-on-one, she heads the WRCS Volunteer Auxiliary and oversees Tar Wars, a program that educates kids in more than 30 schools throughout Mahoning and Trumbull counties about the dangers of smoking.
Every day "is a learning experience," she said. "It's really a joy to come to work."
Remias said she enjoys making a special effort to chat with patients, especially elderly patients, one-on-one. "They are very thoughtful, and they are always so happy to get mail and get flowers," she said. "Oh, my! I get more out of it than they do. I come home with a smile on my face every day. When I was teaching, I always said I'd work even if they didn't pay me; it's that way with the hospital."
GIVING FOLKS A LIFT
One of the American Cancer Society's top volunteer drivers, John Donald, a Boardman resident, started transporting patients after getting involved in a program that delivers hot meals to senior citizens.
"He wanted something to keep busy and saw something in the paper about volunteering. So, he just cut it out and went to see about it," recalled his wife, Betty.
That's when he started delivering meals to shut-ins. But that wasn't enough, Betty continued. He went to the Volunteer Center, a division of Volunteer Services Agency Inc., a United Way organization that draws on the skills and life experiences of individuals to improve the quality of life in their communities, and was matched with the Cancer Society.
After Donald, who will celebrate his 91st birthday this year, began having memory problems and lost his way on his meal-delivery route, Betty started accompanying him.
"I'm not a club person. I like to stay at home and work in my yard and my garden," she said. But after she started delivering meals and transporting cancer patients with her husband, she had a change of heart.
"It was very enjoyable," she said enthusiastically. "Once you get into it, you get hooked. You meet some very nice people."
Over and above: Some of those people became such close friends, Betty said, she would call and check on them, make soup for them, and deliver bread and milk to them during the worst snow storms of the winter -- the days hot-meal delivery was canceled.
"I was worried about those old people not having anything to eat," she said. "If things were reversed, I would want someone to take care of my mother or brother or sister."
The extra effort, Betty said, pays off. "Not material-wise or money-wise, but for yourself. You feel like you're doing something good for somebody else and the good Lord is watching over you."
John and Betty Donald stopped delivering meals and transporting cancer patients about three years ago because John is suffering from Alzheimer's.
THE KNOWLEDGE
"Knowing you can help -- knowing you can make a difference is the best thing about volunteering," agreed Barbara J. Anzivino. She volunteers for the Multiple Sclerosis Services Agency Inc. and has helped several families care for Alzheimer's patients.
Diagnosed with MS in 1957, Anzivino volunteered to help others afflicted with the disease in 1985 after a friend, who also has MS, introduced her to the opportunity. "There is a need for volunteers and I can identify with the people," Anzivino said.
Living with it too: "It's nice [for someone newly diagnosed] to talk to their social worker, it's better to talk to someone with MS. I let them know I'm here if they need me."
The same holds true for the families of Alzheimer's patients Anzivino has helped care for. After spending time in a person's home, sharing the good times and bad while caring for a loved one, Anzivino said many people "told me I was part of their family -- you do become part of the family."
It's good to be needed, she said. "You know they care about you. They look forward to seeing you and you look forward to seeing them."
THE DRIVING FORCE
The personal satisfaction, camaraderie and skill development volunteers derive from their work may be the driving force behind their efforts, observed Kathleen A. Salaka, director of volunteer services at Forum Health, but the tasks they perform are also invaluable to the organizations they serve.
Last year, between 425 and 600 volunteers put in some 60,000 hours of service at the hospital, Salaka reported. Since the hospital volunteer program began in 1956, volunteers have put in more than 2.4 million hours of service.
They deliver mail and flowers, visit patients, stuff envelopes, oversee special projects, answer phones, man the gift cart, point visitors in the right direction and a zillion other things -- things that "if there were no volunteers, would not get done," observed Annamarie Toland, coordinator of volunteer services.
RELIABLE, REGULAR HELP
Volunteers are just as important to the American Cancer Society and Youngstown Radio Reading Services.
Among other things, many cancer patients rely on volunteers to take them for their radiation and chemotherapy treatments, said Al Stabilito, communications director. Without the volunteer drivers, he noted, some patients would have no way to get to the hospital or doctors' offices for treatment.
The backbone: "Volunteers are the lifeblood of Youngstown Radio Reading Services," said Mike Bosela, coordinator. "Ninety-eight percent of what listeners hear are volunteers. We couldn't do what we do without the volunteers."
Volunteers read local newspapers, books, magazines and host radio programs that are broadcast by Youngstown Radio Reading Services to some 920 blind and visually impaired individuals in the Mahoning Valley.
Every week or two, 125 volunteers spend time taping the programs. Collectively, they devote between 60 and 70 hours of work every week or 3,000 hours a year.