Volunteering is on the rise

Any volunteers?

Yes, even in a sour economy, says a federal agency that studies volunteerism.

The number of Americans giving away their time and talent rose last year — defying the typical pattern of a recession — and Nebraska again ranked No. 2 among states, the Corporation for National and Community Service reported this week.

Kelsi Cummings, a 16-year-old junior at Westside High School, didn't take time to digest that news. She was too busy helping 11 pre-kindergarteners at a summer camp in downtown Omaha's Children's Museum.

“We learned the letters L through P and the numbers 5 and 6,” she said.

Cummings is one of about 40 volunteers, from teens to retirees, who work at the museum, doing everything from guiding visitors to setting up the hands-on exhibits, said Jan McKenzie, the staff member who organizes them. With kids out of school and tourists passing through town, “summer is our busiest season,” she said.

The museum is but one in a nationwide web of enterprises — food banks, churches, baseball leagues, art galleries, fire brigades, book clubs — that wouldn't function without volunteers, that wouldn't provide what French thinker Alexis de Tocqueville proclaimed the energetic drive of a young America.

Almost a million more people donated their time in 2008 than in 2007, said the Corporation for National and Community Service, which measures volunteerism annually using census data and its own polling. It said:

— In all, 61.8 million people — 27 percent of the U.S. population — volunteered last year, the largest number since 2005.

— In Nebraska, the volunteer rate — the portion of residents who donated time — was just under 39 percent, which ranked the state behind only Utah's 43.5 percent.

— Iowa's rate was 37 percent, which moved it to No. 5 among states, up from No. 6 last year.

— Within Nebraska, surburbanites had the highest rate of volunteering, 43 percent, closely followed by rural residents' 42 percent. Urbanites had a 30 percent rate.

“It is wonderful that Nebraska continues to have one the nation's highest volunteerism rates. This is one of the many areas where our state stands out,” Gov. Dave Heineman said of the findings.

The stability of Nebraska's ranking — in second spot four years running — is striking, said Greg Donovan, program officer for ServeNebraska, a state agency that promotes and coordinates volunteer efforts.

“One of the things that has struck me,” Donovan said, is that “in rural areas and small towns, if something is not done by volunteers, it's not done at all.” Moreover, he said, residents there view this as a fact of life, “not anything special.”

This phenomenon may have helped cement Nebraska's ranking, he said, because the corporation recently has adjusted its polling to question people more closely about informal help they might not even think of as volunteer work.

“Neighborliness comes through better now,” he said.

As for Utah's top ranking, Donovan said, “the Mormon Church does a great job” of mobilizing volunteers. It's dominant influence makes the state “a bit of an outlier” in the statistics.

The corporation's researchers also broke down the volunteerism figures for 50 large cities and 75 midsize ones, which are detailed on its Web site, www.volunteeringinamerica.gov.

In the latter group, Omaha tied with Toledo, Ohio, at No. 20, with a volunteer rate of 34.8 percent. That was down slightly from Omaha's No. 18 ranking at 35.8 percent the previous year.

“I think it certainly reflects the spirit of the city,” said Ron Gerard, a spokesman for Mayor Jim Suttle. “... I think we need to get the word out to the rest of the country.”

A volunteer clearinghouse that United Way of the Midlands operates in Omaha, matching would-be helpers with whoever needs them, “has been as busy or busier than ever” recently, said spokeswoman Kathy O'Hara.

“It just seems like people pull together,” she said, suggesting that economic strain has encouraged rather than depressed volunteerism.

Another factor, perhaps, she said: “Some people say that if you've got less money to give, you give time.”

In fact, last month first lady Michelle Obama launched an initiative called United We Serve, urgingAmericans to help the nation's economic recovery by volunteering at schools, hospitals and other community organizations.

Contact the writer:

444-1140, roger.buddenberg@owh.com

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