Take Five: Finding Ways to Volunteer

On a regular basis, Jennifer Salamh and more than two dozen Duke Development colleagues meet to organize volunteering – everything from blood drives to food collections.

Their group, the Community Outreach Group Committee, plans ways for nearly 160 Development employees to volunteer together, which Salamh says is important bonding time.

“You learn more about their family and personality,” said Salamh, Development business analyst and database specialist. “You end up getting into all that when you’re gardening and stacking books.”

Duke staff and faculty can find ways to volunteer through Duke’s Office of Durham & Regional Affairs or through the Volunteer Center of Durham, which connects individuals and corporate groups to needs around the Durham community.

“One of the biggest things for the employee or the student is when you volunteer with your group, it instills a renewed appreciation for the jobs that they’re doing and the work that they’re doing,” said Dalia Place, volunteer services manager of the Volunteer Center of Durham. “It gives them an opportunity to reach beyond what they’re doing at their desk.”

Here are five ways to get involved:

1) Be a budding Gardens volunteer

Walk through Sarah P. Duke Gardens’ 55 acres and you’ll see individuals planting, giving tours, taking photographs or helping customers in the gift shop.

About 300 volunteers from all over the Triangle assist at Duke Gardens, contributing a total of about 15,000 hours of their time per year, said Chuck Hemric, the Gardens’ director of volunteers.

“Volunteers play an integral role in the overall visitor experience at Sarah P. Duke Gardens,” Hemric said. “Their participation adds depth and richness that cannot be replicated otherwise.”

If interested in volunteering, please fill out an application at gardens.duke.edu/support/volunteer.

2) Volunteer as an office

The Duke Office of Durham & Regional Affairs connects staff, faculty and departments to volunteer opportunities in the area.

Lindsey Naylor, a senior program coordinator in the Office, said they receive frequent inquiries from departments looking for opportunities.

"That's something we love, helping Duke departments think through these things,” Naylor said. “Service projects are a great team-building exercise in addition to being an awesome way to do good in the community."

The Office created a new online volunteer database that will bridge the needs of nonprofits and Durham schools to Duke.

3) Spend summertime at the farm

During the fall, Duke Campus Farm is ripe with corn and hot peppers. But the vegetables don’t pick themselves. The Farm welcomes volunteers to help with planting and harvesting as well as weeding and mulching.

Campus Farm Community Workdays during the fall are from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Thursdays and Sundays. Check the Farm’s Facebook page for more information.

Saskia Cornes, the Farm’s program coordinator, said farm staff gives short tours to volunteers on request and encourage visitors to enjoy sunsets at the farm.

“There’s something about farming together that creates a special kind of conversation, and it’s these kinds of conversations that have really allowed the farm to develop and grow,” Cornes said.

4) The trifecta: Duke graduate, employee, volunteer

The Duke Alumni Association connects Duke employees who are also Duke alumni to volunteer opportunities around the world through an online database.

There are more than 3,000 people who work at the University and Health System who also are Duke alumni, according to the Association. The alumni program is always looking for volunteers to organize regional events, interview prospective students, participate in community service and mentor current Duke students.

“All of these things are designed to be ways that alumni can engage with the university, that are fun for them and also good for the university,” said Michael Penn, senior director of communications and marketing for the Duke Alumni Association. “Having alumni volunteer for Duke not only brings them closer to their alma mater, but it allows students and others to benefit from their experience.”

5) Contribute time to the hospital

Duke Medicine offers more than 30 volunteer programs, including Arts and Health at Duke, which brings art to patients, and the Ronald McDonald Family Room at Duke Children’s Hospital.

Randy Askew, University Stores department coordinator, began volunteering with the cardiology and oncology programs eight years ago. His mother was a heart patient and his father was diagnosed with lung cancer, which inspired him to find a way to give back.

“It turned out to be one of the best things that I have ever done in my life,” Askew said. “It touches your heart in a special way. You see some things that you really don’t want to see, but you see some miracles happen also.”

He now pushes a hospitality cart, filled with chocolate, lemonade and board games, to patient rooms on the cancer floor. After being diagnosed and treated for squamous cell carcinoma, a skin cancer, on his tonsils and lymph nodes in 2012, he is able to talk with patients about their health journey with mutual understanding.

“You don’t know who you’re going to talk to when you open that door,” Askew said. “I’ve met artists, authors, radio announcers, farmers, homeless people, prisoners, but they’re all cancer patients, and it doesn’t matter. Volunteering’s made me a kinder, gentler person.”