Saying Goodbye to the VCofWC

I heard some disturbing news yesterday when I called the Volunteer Center of Washington County and was told, “it is now just a 3-ring white binder” on the desk of the receptionist at the Five County Association of Governments.  She told me “whenever someone calls in wanting to volunteer, I just take their name and forward the information to one of the agencies in town.”  Thankfully, it appears, the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program, the Foster Grandparent and Senior Companion Programs are still around as evidenced by an ad through the DWS looking for program coordinators.

It breaks my heart, because WE – including as many as 19 full and part time employees along with some fantastic AmeriCorps and AmeriCorps*VISTA members – built an amazing organization.  When I first came on board my budget was $30,000 … when I left for the mission field in 2010, our budget was nearly $600,000.  We went from a teensy, tiny RSVP program to 6 programs (RSVP, FGP, SCP, Youth Volunteer Corps, a Medicare counseling program called Health Insurance Information Program and our Court-ordered Community Service Program).  I had more than 50 AmeriCorps and AmeriCorps*VISTA members over the years – many I still hear from occasionally on FB or Linked In.  We had over 2000 volunteers of all ages - whose names and faces we knew - and, who considered themselves “RSVP or YVC volunteers serving at the hospital, library or a school.”  We provided volunteers for almost every community event in Southern Utah – except the St. George Art Festival –and were well respected in all three communities - St. George, Cedar City and Kanab - where we had offices. 

I fought for Carol to be my replacement because I saw a woman with the kind of drive our organization needed, even though she didn’t appear, at least on paper, to have the right skill set for the job.  No question the community needs her new program, but why did she need to take down the Volunteer Center in the process?

Ed gave me some good advice when he told me to “let it go” and I will, but I needed to vent and to assure myself what we built over a period of 16 years was what I thought it was … a dynamic organization which met many, many community needs.  We had an amazing staff and hardworking volunteers – many who told me how much they loved working with me and how our organization made them feel vital and important in meeting the needs of the Southern Utah community.  I'll let it go but it probably isn’t going to be today!