As the summer break swelters on for OU students, the organizations that rely on volunteers are feeling the heat with a shortage of personnel to fill volunteer positions. Although the shortage is only temporary, two organizations in Norman are always looking for reliable volunteers.
Second Chance Animal Shelter has been finding homes for cats and dogs in Norman for 21 years. As a no-kill shelter they have limited room and strive to adopt out as many animals as possible. Between 500-600 animals are adopted out annually and in 21 years they have adopted out an estimated 10,000 animals, according to the shelter’s website.
Second Chance operates off of donations and employs a small staff. Therefore they are constantly looking for good volunteers to help out.
Jack Perkins, executive director of Second Chance, is in charge of the day-to-day operations of the animal shelter including the volunteer operations
“The college student is probably the main group of volunteers we receive,” Perkins said. “In the summer we don’t have as many people come out because they just aren’t here.”
Volunteers for the shelter walk the dogs and participate in offsite events at local businesses such as Petsmart and Petco. To help develop a more rounded volunteer Perkins and his staff has started a new volunteer program.
“We have instituted a volunteer orientation that all volunteers have to go through. We set the date for August 1st. Beginning then, unless they have gone through orientation they won’t be able to volunteer and we will turn them away until they have gone through orientation,” Perkins said
While he doesn’t want to have to turn away volunteers, Perkins said, this program should create great volunteers. This new program will require the volunteers to go through an hour long orientation class and requires them to commit to one three-hour shift a month.
“We are trying to get the volunteers all on the same page and trying to get the volunteers to be able to do more than just walk dogs. We want the volunteers to be able to pitch in and work and know what to do and know how to do it,” Perkins said.
“If they want to come walk dogs 18 times a month that’s great as long as they gave me one shift a month."
Presently, according to Perkins there are 300 volunteers on their rosters and only 50 of those have gone through the orientation.
“We don’t have the numbers yet that we need but I am hoping by the end of the year to have 50 good volunteers that we can count on and by the end of next year have 100,” Perkins said.
“We want to be able to improve this operation, take it to the next level, and in order to do that we need great volunteers,” Perkins said. “Those who have gone through the orientation and those who are doing it the way we are asking them to do it, will be great volunteers. I can see, I can see how it’s going to work and it’s going to be great. I am really excited about it.”
While Second Chance looks to put animals into loving homes, Habitat for Humanity looks to provide homes to people.
Formed in 1976 Habitat for Humanity’s goal is “to eliminate poverty housing and homelessness from the world and to make decent shelter a matter of conscience and action,” according to the website.
On the website Habitat for Humanity states they have built over 350,000 houses around the world, providing more than 1.75 million people in 3,000 communities with safe, decent, affordable shelter.
In order to help so many people volunteers do the majority of the work done by Habitat for Humanity. With the students and faculty gone, volunteers are scarce.
“Volunteer numbers seems to be a bit seasonal. We get a lot of kids from college, college groups, the business school, fraternities.” Mike Jenkins, manager of the Habitat for Humanity ReStore, said. “We do a lot better in fall and spring.”
ReStore focuses on home improvement goods like furniture, home accessories, building materials and appliances according to the website.
Summer break isn’t the only factor that affects volunteering.
“Summer is slow but part of it is the atmosphere. During the summer it’s just really hot,” Jenkins said. “Two weeks ago we did our yard sale and I almost heat stroked. A 105 heat index out here and I’ve been learning to take care of myself better.”
While the college students are gone, the economy and the loss of jobs have brought volunteers into the ReStore.
“There is more people out of work these days and they come in to volunteer to have something to do,” Jenkins said.
A lot of the out of work volunteers give their time merely to keep busy, according to Jenkins.
Jamie Johnson is the volunteer coordinator in the Norman area for Habitat for Humanity.
“We have actually seen an increase in volunteers recently,” Jamie said. “When I began we probably had 800 or 900 volunteers and since then we are almost at 1200 in little less than a year.”
Locally Jamie said the majority of the volunteers are from the university, not necessarily students but faculty and people affiliated with the college.
“We often get students groups or professors who are part of a group,” Johnson said.
“One of the things people don’t realize is even though we have a great amount of volunteers to pull from, that doesn’t necessarily mean we have a lot of repeat volunteers,” Johnson said. “That often becomes an obstacle to overcome because we have so many people and it depends on commitment level.”
Johnson estimates there are 10 or 15 people she sees on a regular basis at events.
Individuals can become volunteers for either of these organizations by visiting their websites.
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