SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — The concept of volunteering dates back thousands of years but paying tribute to the efforts of volunteers didn’t become a nationally recognized event in the U.S. until 1974.
It’s a morning of animal-related arts and crafts at Good Earth State Park and it wouldn’t be possible without volunteers like Norma Wise.
“We have two full-time employees, other than that we have about 50-60 volunteers who help us run this park. They do everything from landscaping to running the front desk to cleaning bathrooms and helping us with programs. They’re vital for us,” Park Naturalist Jen Stahl said. .
“They were looking for volunteers here at the park and I thought ‘that sounds like fun’, to be outside, to be in the park, to be in on the beginnings of the volunteer program here at the park, here I am,” volunteer Norma Wise said.
Wise spent 32 years working at Avera before retiring and has been a volunteer at Good Earth State Park since the visitor center opened nearly eight years ago. The 74-year-old does everything from cleaning windows to helping visitors navigate the park for about four hours per week.
“People are often times looking for recommendations on what trail to take, that sort of thing, so I can do that and look at the map with them,” Wise said.
Wise says she volunteers as a way to give back to the community and meet people.
“I’m not going to sit around the house (laugh). I volunteer here and I volunteer at one other location also in the city,” Wise said.
In the heart of Sioux Falls, you’ll find Rodger and Cherie Lacy and their five dachshunds.
“All of our dogs are fosters, they’re foster fails that we took in and worked with and fell in love with and couldn’t let them go,” Dakota Dachshund Rescue board member Rodger Lacy said.
Rodger had a career that took the family around the world. When he retired in 2017, they moved to Sioux Falls and almost immediately connected with Dakota Dachshund Rescue, a foster-based rescue started by Doug and Diane Wade. The Lacys have fostered more than 50 dogs in the eight years since, and Rodger currently serves as a board member for DDR.
“It was apparent they needed some fundraising, they needed some help with raising money,” Lacy said.
He helped raise more than $35,000 in recent months through the nonprofit’s “Find the Queen of Hearts” fundraiser.
“For me, the gratification was when we totaled everything out, Doug looked at me, Doug Wade, and said ‘you know, you guys just paid three months of vet bills right here, and I thought wow, that makes me feel really good,” Lacy said.
“I am what they call a formal volunteer,” The Foster Network volunteer Kayla Rand said.
Kayla Rand is a volunteer at The Foster Network, where she runs the food program for an organization providing essential resources for children in foster care.
“So once a month we help foster families that have a certain number of kids with supplementing their food,” Rand said.
She’s been with the nonprofit for about four months and volunteers five hours a week.
“I’m really big on church outside the walls. I teach my kids to volunteer, they’re teenagers, they done it their whole lives, it’s just our way to give back and it helps us to feel good about stuff and to help others around the community,” Rand said.
“We simply couldn’t do what we do on a daily basis without our volunteers,” The Foster Network Board Chair Kristen Rhoades said.
Kristen Rhoades is the board chair for The Foster Network.
“It ebbs and flows how many volunteers but on average we see about 40 different individuals here a week contributing anywhere from 1-2 hours to up to 5-10 hours,” Rhoades said.
A common theme among our volunteers when it comes to volunteering, find something you’re passionate about.
“I come here, I seriously walk in the door and I look at my watch and it’s time to go home. I don’t even feel like I’m at a job or volunteering anywhere because I have so much fun working here and doing stuff for others,” Rand said.
It’s why Lacy is willing to give his time…
“Because not everybody does, because there’s a need for fosters, there’s a need for volunteers,” Lacy said.
…and why Wise says give it a try.
“Doesn’t have to be a lifelong commitment if you don’t want it to be, but just put yourself out there,” Wise said.
National Volunteer Week runs through Saturday.
