At your service
Dolores Marx is one member of the small army of volunteers who together contribute more than a $1 million in free labor each year to groups in Ashland.
They lend a hand with cultural and business groups, schools, Ashland Community Hospital, city government, Ashland Public Library and other organizations all around town.
"If it wasn't for volunteers, many of these organizations would have a hard time. They can't afford to have a large paid staff," Marx said.
She has helped Oregon Stage Works, The Oregon Cabaret Theatre, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Southern Oregon University's Schneider Museum, the Ashland Gallery Association, Friends of the Library, the Empty Bowls Project, Spay and Neuter Your Pets and the Ashland Chamber of Commerce.
Marx has simple advice for anyone interested in volunteering.
"Find something you're interested in and see if they need help. Like at the animal shelter, they always need someone to walk a dog or play with the cats," she said.
Through her volunteer work, Marx said she has made friends and gets to talk to people who are visiting Ashland from all over the nation and world.
Ashland Gallery Association Administrator Suzanne Heinrich said Marx and other volunteers are vital for the association, which is primarily run by volunteers. Outside of the gallery owners who volunteer their time, about a dozen other volunteers contribute eight to 36-plus hours each to the association's signature event, the annual food, wine and art tour called "A Taste of Ashland."
"She's kind of like Mrs. Ashland. She knows so much and gives so much of her time," Heinrich said about Marx. "She worked the Friday night gala for 'A Taste of Ashland' and collected over $600 in donations. People wanted to donate just because she was asking. She's so sweet and wonderful."
Heinrich said there is a misconception that people who own galleries are making a lot of money, when in fact most are barely making ends meet and run galleries because of their passion for art. She said volunteers who help promote the visual arts are greatly appreciated.
Valuable skills
At the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, 600 volunteers together contribute 35,000 hours each year, said Volunteer and Event Coordinator Lois Holdridge.
The national organization Independent Sector estimated the value of a volunteer's work in Oregon at $17.33 per hour in 2006, the most recent year when state-by-state numbers were available.
That figure is based on the average hourly wage of a non-management, non-farm worker in Oregon, plus 12 percent more to estimate benefits, according to Independent Sector.
Multiplying OSF volunteers' hours by $17.33 equals $606,550 each year.
Holdridge said many volunteers have skills that would net more than the average wage if they were working a paid job.
"That doesn't represent the expertise these people have. Doctors and people with Ph.D.s are not getting credit for the expertise they have," she said.
Volunteers do all sorts of tasks, from answering people's questions about the free Green Show performances in the courtyard, to monitoring child actors when they are not on stage, to proof-reading Spanish language scripts for OSF's bilingual Festival Latino, Holdridge said.
"They certainly save us a lot of money. They work in dozens of different departments," she said.
Holdridge said part of why Ashland has so many volunteers is because so many retirees live in town, although OSF has volunteers of different ages.
At the Ashland Public Library, children ages 12 years and up can volunteer, as can adults.
"In our department, we love to have teenage volunteers," said Children's Department Librarian Perii Hauschild-Owen.
Kid and adult volunteers shelve books, pull requested material, clean books, help serve refreshments and paint kids' faces during special events, staff the welcome desk and deliver materials to home-bound residents.
"We try to address what people want to do in their volunteering. We want it to be a fun experience for them," Hauschild-Owen said.
Volunteer Joan Reichert has found her niche working in the children's department and delivering books to two women who can't come to the library.
"I take them a bag of books I think they would enjoy. They get someone to chat with. I just know how much I would love it if I couldn't come to the library," she said. "I really feel good doing that job."
Reichert also volunteers with OSF, where she has served as a ticket taker and usher and even helped in the costume shop sewing on snaps and buttons. A theater-lover, she said it's a fun way to get involved.
Reichert said she feels appreciated by the library and OSF staff.
"Every time I come here, they're so happy to see me," she said during a pause in shelving books at the library. "And it's the same thing at Shakespeare."
Stretching dollars
Like volunteers at the library, the people who help out the city government lend their expertise and help stretch tax dollars. The city has about 105 people serving on approximately 20 boards, commissions and committees, including the Ashland Historic Commission, the Ashland Public Arts Commission and the Ashland Traffic Safety Commission.
Most panels meet at least once a month for a minimum of two hours. Using Independent Sector's pay figure of $17.33 an hour, they contribute at least $43,671 in work each year, although many are professionals with valuable skills in fields like accounting, architecture and business management.
For the nonprofit groups, tracking volunteer hours helps them win government and foundation grants.
At the ScienceWorks Hands-On Museum, volunteers help during school field trips, build and maintain exhibits behind the scenes in the shop, do office work and take on other tasks. Teens can volunteer at summer camps, while kids under age 13 can volunteer with their parents, said Director of Education Skoshi Wise.
ScienceWorks has 102 active volunteers who contribute 3,211 hours annually, she said.
Multiplied by $17.33, their labor is worth $55,647.
Wise said she thinks Ashland has so many volunteers because there are so many ways to get involved.
"One reason has to do with the community. We have a community of people here who want to give back. Ashland has so much to offer with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, North Mountain Park, ScienceWorks, different galleries and the Schneider Museum. People just want to be involved," she said.
The Ashland Indendent Film Festival is another group that relies heavily on volunteers.
More than 300 volunteers gave 20,000 hours to prepare for and carry out the seventh annual film festival in April, said A.I.F.F. Volunteer Coordinator and Office Manager Wendy Conner.
That would equal $346,600 if the film festival had to pay them Oregon's median wage with benefits.
Volunteers commit a minimum of 12 hours and work in the office, run errands, serve as ushers, guide people on the sidewalks to the correct films, welcome and transport filmmakers and work at the opening night and awards ceremonies, Conner said.
"It's amazing the tasks we ask them to do and they do them so willingly," she said. "We wouldn't have a film festival if we didn't have our volunteers."
Staff writer Vickie Aldous can be reached at 479-8199 or vlaldous@yahoo.com.
T
o post a comment, visit www.dailytidings.com.
