Volunteer fair works as one-stop info shop

By TOM LAVENTURE

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Ironwood - Participants with a volunteer fair on Saturday said the event offered a one-stop snapshot of all types of opportunities to become involved in the community.

The event succeeded in showing people there are many worthwhile and enjoyable things to do in the area, said Steve Lundey, board vice president of Theatre North. 

"They see with everything here how much this area has to offer, period," Lundey said. "Whether entertainment or other types of community involvement, we need volunteers for so many things and they'll find out when they volunteer that it's a lot of fun."

Chamber director Michael Meyer greeted everyone and pointed the way to the raffle drawing. He was pleased with the atmosphere of the event with most of the 34 organizations present setting up promotional materials to make the auditorium more visually exciting.

"Everybody brought their aprons and their brochures, their rugs and their signs, and even videos," Meyer said.

The turnout was modest but impressive in that organizations were able to get a few more names, phone numbers and emails of people who are anxious to become volunteers, he said. The other important outcome was that with all these organizations being together under one roof the members spent a lot of time talking to one another and networking.

"Organizations tend to be in their own corners and they don't interact together as much," Meyer said. "Well, here they all are. Everybody from the animal shelter to the quilters to the farm market to Sisu, and they're all here under one roof and they're talking to each other. That's really important."

If the groups in attendance feel the event is worthwhile, they might be more willing to try to do it again next year, he said. The organizational information, including mission statements and volunteer opportunities, was printed on an eight page handout for all attendees. 

"When new people come to town, or even people who have lived here a while and say, 'OK, I'm ready to be more involved in the community,' I can give them these pages and say here are the groups that are looking for folks. I've never had that before."

From the chamber's perspective, the organizations coming together and producing something useful for volunteers and the organizations made the event worthwhile, he said. The next step will be to collect feedback from organizations and visitors on how to improve the next event.

Theatre North and Historic Ironwood Theatre were present with brochures to talk about the on-stage and behind the scenes opportunities. Both organizations need everything from performers to concensessions, set construction, scene painting, lighting and sound, box office, ushering, cleaning, tour guides and special projects.

"Well, we've gotten a handful (of volunteers)," said Lori Hendges, the HIT office manager who pointed out the health benefits of volunteering, such as reduced stress and the release of endorphins from doing something enjoyable and the feeling of making a difference. "We've got emails and a few applications. So we're very hopeful."

The museums and heritage centers were present to include Little Finland and Erwin Township Historical Society, Heritage Chapter-Wisconsin, and the Gogebic and Iron County historical museums.

Some visitors were excited to learn that the Iron County Museum has a rug-making program with a room full of looms and skilled volunteers to weave them, said Kristin Kolesar, volunteer coordinator of the Iron County Museum. There are also opportunities for research.

"The weaving room generated a lot of interest," Kolesar said. "We're really in need of cleaners."

The volunteer fair worked well to capture the interest of people who came to the event without knowing about the museum, she said. It also caught the interest of people who had moved away and recently returned.

Jeanne Miller and Kathy Anderson of the Erwin Township Historical Society, said the recent acquisition of a former school and its move to the town hall site to serve as the new township museum has created many volunteer activities from carpentry and landscaping along with fundraising and newsletters.

"These are all the opportunities, indoors and outdoors," she said. "We've only got one volunteer signed up so far today. But considering, that's one more than we had yesterday."

The Iron County Farmers Market was present to offer volunteer opportunities from the end of June through middle October. The jobs include market managers, setting up and tearing down, special events and groundskeeping.

The jobs can be as simple as serving shortcakes at the market or joining a group to pick strawberries, said Shelly Roncali, board treasurer. The organization is very family friendly and the goal is to help it grow.

"We've found several people that do a lot of gardening," she said "That's always a plus and we encourage them to come to the market."

Andrea Newby, executive director of the Gogebic Range Health Foundation, was present to talk about the need for volunteers to help out with annual fundraising events. There are also opportunities with a new Health Ambassador program where volunteers do work on foundation projects that promote health throughout the Gogebic Range.

"We're hoping to get a cohort of ambassadors to work together throughout the year to promote the healthy activities and programs that the Health Foundation has funded throughout the community," Newby said. "It's a new idea, but we thought it was a good way to start talking about helping our community."

There are several outdoors organizations and most were present at the event. These included Sisu Ski Fest, 906 Adventure Team, Sisu Dirt Crew, North Country Trail, Friends of the Miners Memorial Heritage Park, Wolverine Nordic Ski Club, Friends of the Iron Belle Trail, Northern Iron County Engaged Residents (NICER) and Gogebic Range Trail Authority. 

Ashley Dennis, 4-H program coordinator for Michigan State University-Gogebic County Extension, said most people think that 4-H is limited to agriculture and animals but there is much more to do for kids and volunteers. There are volunteer opportunities to teach kids a wide range of indoor and outdoor activities.

"We're always looking for different things anywhere from embryology, shooting sports, horses, or you can go to theater arts or cooking, quilting, sewing, crocheting, knitting, financials, dogs, rabbits, gardening, fishing and robotics. 

There are rockets and robots in the 4-H office just waiting for somebody who wants to teach the kids about them, she said. There are always new things for kids to do and with that a need for new volunteers to help teach the kids.

"You don't have to have knowledge in the background on any of these things," Dennis said. "We have a curriculum that is for each related topic that gives step by step instructions."

Other groups present included St. Vincent de Paul, Gogebic-Ontonagon Great Start Collaborative, Range Suicide Prevention Council, Gogebic County Fair, Regional Hospice Services, Ironwood Carnegie Library, Friends of the Ironwood Carnegie Library, Awkward Stage Drama Club, Historic Ironwood Theatre, Downtown Art Place, Northwind Natural Foods Co-op, H.O.P.E. Animal Shelter, Kiwanis Club of Ironwood, American Red Cross, Festival Ironwood, FeLiveLife.org, Ironwood Area Business and Professional Women, Erwin Township Community Club and Northern Lights Quilting Guild.

The city of Ironwood was present with a trails and parks use survey to help prioritize future projects. The survey will also be posted online.