LAWRENCE COUNTY These EARS hear calls for help

The organization took about 12,500 calls last year.
By LAURE CIOFFI
VINDICATOR NEW CASTLE BUREAU
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- Anna Reeher gets a sense of satisfaction when she hangs up the telephone at Contact EARS.
"You recognize each time you come in that those four or five or 20 people who called wouldn't have had anyone to talk to without you," said Reeher, 66, of Hickory Township, Lawrence County.
Reeher is just one of about 60 volunteers at Contact Emergency Assistance and Referral Service, a 24-hour hot line open to anyone in Lawrence County. The organization received just under 12,500 calls last year.
Contact EARS, which is affiliated with Contact USA, a national help line, is a Lawrence County United Way Agency. The group relies on United Way pledges to fund its $50,000 annual budget. The group also has several fund-raisers of its own each year, including an annual volleyball tournament and pie sales, said Shirley Senko, the agency's executive director.
Depends on volunteers
Contact EARS has three part-time employees, including Senko, but relies mostly on volunteers to answer the telephones and coordinate programs.
Twice a year, it offers a 50-hour training class acquainting would-be volunteers with services in Lawrence County that could help potential callers.
The class also explains "active listening," the agency's method of dealing with callers.
"We listen to the caller and give them feedback and try to help them come to their own conclusions," Senko said.
Volunteers spend three four-hour shifts a month staffing the hot line, where calls range from someone's needing help understanding a recipe to someone's contemplating suicide.
cioffi@vindy.com