By Melanie Lekocevic
Capital Region Independent Media
RAVENA-COEYMANS-SELKIRK — How can the community get younger people — and some of the youngest students — more involved in their community?
That was the question posed by participants in a forum hosted jointly by the town of Coeymans and the RCS school district last Monday.
The group looked at volunteer opportunities that exist in the community and how students can be encouraged to get involved.
Volunteerism benefits both the community and the person volunteering their time, District Superintendent Dr. Brian Bailey said. In fact, people who volunteer have a 27% greater chance of getting hired, 60% of hiring managers see volunteerism as a valuable asset, and people who volunteer over 100 hours are healthier than those who don’t, Bailey said.
The forum started with a panel discussion with three active volunteers — RCS alumnus Tyler Rivers, who is involved with groups including Stars Intergen and Best Buddies, Michelle Puleo-O’Hare from the Greater Ravena Lions Club, and Marshall Lefebvre with the Mohawk Hudson Land Conservancy.
Town Supervisor Stephen Donnelly asked panelists questions about their volunteer work and how people benefit from volunteering.
“Through the Lions, I have seen strengthened community ties,” Puleo-O’Hare said. “Lions foster collaboration among community members to provide a sense of purpose and belonging.”
Through Stars Intergen, which facilitates interaction between students and senior members of the community, Rivers said he has seen younger people inspired and encouraged.
“I see the impact on our middle schoolers and the inquisitiveness they have when they are meeting these elders in our community, people that have these deep depths of knowledge and experiences,” Rivers said. “It changes their perspective in real time — they become inspired and excited to learn and to see how things were done 10 years ago, 50 years ago. They just get really inspired.”
Lefebvre said the tangible changes volunteers bring are the first things they notice — creating a new trail, building a bridge to make nature accessible, finding new ways to enjoy nature — but eventually the experience gives them a new perspective.
After the panel discussion, forum participants broke off into smaller groups to discuss ways to get kids involved in volunteerism and the different opportunities that are out there, from volunteering in school to getting involved with the fire departments, rescue squad, senior groups and more.
Audience members broke off into smaller groups to discuss issues related to volunteerism. When they returned, they presented some of their ideas. One concept that was repeated by several groups was getting students involved at a younger age — as early as elementary school.
“We were talking about building a framework that starts in the elementary schools and continues through the middle school and then the high school,” said longtime volunteer and Village Trustee Caitlin Appleby. “In the elementary school, it would expose them to different opportunities in the community at a young age and then build on that in middle school, so by the time they get to high school, the culture of volunteerism is already there.”
Bailey said implementing volunteerism into the school in a structured way, possibly as part of the school curriculum, could encourage students to get involved, and perhaps even build a career path for them.
“Our fire departments, rescue squads and police departments are struggling to find people willing to do this very crucial work — why not start from the ground up?” Bailey said.
Town Clerk Candace McHugh said the community should also recognize and honor volunteers to demonstrate to young people the value of that work.
“Volunteerism should be celebrated,” McHugh said. “How many kindergarteners say they want to be a firefighter? And then what happens between [ages] 5 and 15? Where did that spark go? Maybe if they saw the opportunities and what it can lead to, and that other people are doing it, it might become more common.”
Her daughter, high school senior Mary McHugh, is an active volunteer in the community and said there are plenty of ways to get involved, but it can be challenging to recruit new volunteers.
“It’s not hard at all to get involved as a student,” she said. “We have so many different opportunities — SADD, Natural Helpers, Stars [Intergen] — there’s so many different opportunities for students to get involved. There’s a group of us that have always done that but it’s hard to get new people involved.”
She also encouraged getting students volunteering at a younger age.
Highway Superintendent Daniel Baker, who has children in the district, suggested the schools encourage volunteerism in a structured way.
“We should try to connect a sense of volunteerism to the school curriculum,” Baker said. “Just one hour a month, whatever it may be, so it starts at the school and we the parents buy into it. I know it’s difficult to incorporate it into the curriculum, but just doing an hour a month in the schools is a good way to start.”
Volunteerism could take many forms, from joining the fire department to cleaning parks, tutoring other students, working with seniors, helping in the school garden, or just befriending a younger student — there are many ways young people can get involved.
Bailey said the information gleaned from the forum will be gathered and distributed to all participants, who will then have another chance to provide feedback or ideas. Bailey and Donnelly will then go back to the schools and town board, respectively, to find ways to implement some of the recommendations.
