LETTER: Volunteers vital to nation and nonprofits
As the United States prepares to celebrate its 250th anniversary this year, there’s a big effort across the nation to promote what has been a cornerstone of our country from the start: volunteerism.
The U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission aims to make 2026 a record-setting year for volunteer service.
Will you chip in?
Whether you are a high school student or recent retiree – or fall somewhere in between on the age spectrum – please know that your skills, energy and heart are valued by local nonprofit organizations working to strengthen your Northeast Pennsylvania community.
No special talents are required to get involved.
All you need is to act on your impulse to do good.
Social reformer and minister Martin Luther King Jr. preached the words that perfectly sum up the sentiment: “Everybody can be great, because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. … You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love.”
At the nonprofit where I am the longtime executive director, we have been recipients of people’s grace and love since the organization’s founding in 1996.
Selfless people help to power our activities at the Eastern Pennsylvania Coalition for Abandoned Reclamation (EPCAMR), based in Ashley, Luzerne County. Thanks to their volunteer input – and our dedicated staff and supporters – this small but impactful organization has been improving landscapes and lives across the region’s coal communities for 30 years.
Volunteers serve on our board. Others help with fieldwork, such as slogging through streams and counting aquatic bugs to assess the health of watersheds. Still other community members pitch in during our illegal dumpsite cleanups and our streamside tree-planting events. (Watch EPCAMR’s Facebook page for details about our upcoming environmental action projects.)
Every helping hand allows EPCAMR to further its mission of reclaiming abandoned mine lands to eliminate public health and safety hazards, decrease water pollution and boost the region’s economy. That’s especially true today as EPCAMR faces a funding crunch because of decreased government grant support for mine land reclamation.
Increasingly, our nonprofit must look to the places it serves, such as Schuylkill County, for the people who will step up to maintain our programs. You might be surprised at the many ways individuals can be of assistance at EPCAMR, from field work to office tasks.
Can you help in one of these areas?
- Doing 3D printing, graphic design, video/photography
- Assisting with stream assessments
- Visiting our workshop monthly to make paint pigments from a reclaimed water pollutant known as iron oxide
- Conducting small fundraising activities
- Recruiting and managing other volunteers
- Writing and marketing
A lot of small and mid-sized nonprofit organizations are in the same situation, hoping for eager helpers. Many, like EPCAMR, lack the funding to consistently get out the word and let people know how and when they can contribute.
Instead, nonprofits like ours will post an occasional social media message and wait for people to be compelled by an urge, an inkling – the kind of inner sensation that King captured when he said: “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is ‘What are you doing for others?’”
This year, find your volunteer niche. Contact an area nonprofit or community group and ask to learn more about its volunteer needs.
If you want guidance, connect with a United Way chapter or community foundation for suggestions on which groups might best match your volunteer interests. Or try an online search by visiting a website such as DiscoverNEPA.com (see its “Nonprofit Directory”), america250.org or idealist.org.
You are needed.
Robert “Bobby” Hughes, a Wilkes-Barre native, is the executive director of the Eastern Pennsylvania Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation (EPCAMR). The nonprofit organization serves 16 counties, promoting the reclamation and reuse of land impacted by past coal mining practices. Email him at [email protected].
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