Volunteers Give Back

If you’re looking for Jonathan Lum, check the soccer pitch.

As vice president of the Sacramento Soccer Alliance, Lum says he has “no specific duties” for the nonprofit that provides community-based competitive soccer to area youth.

No specific duties mean he really does everything.

What does “accessible” really mean? A diverse group of theater artists have the answer.

“It’s not just ramps and handrails,” says Jim Brown, a longtime volunteer with Short Center Repertory, a public outreach program of the Developmental Disabilities Service Organization.

“In this instance, accessible refers to the audience experience, as well as the performers’ experience,” he says. “Getting involved with this has really made me so aware of the ways in which we seldom accommodate people who are deaf, hard of hearing, blind and low vision.”

If you want to be overwhelmed—in a good way—visit the Book Den warehouse.

The unassuming building on Belvedere Avenue is a booklover’s paradise, where thousands of donated books organized into genres await readers.

“It just hooks you,” says Diane Sabo, Book Den’s volunteer coordinator. “And if you like books, it’ll hook you even more.”

Book Den is volunteer-run and operated by Friends of the Sacramento Public Library. Sales of used books, magazines, CDs, DVDs, audiobooks and computer games support the library and many community groups.

If you need something cleaned, ask Nana Mary. Need something cut or copied, ask Nana Mary. Something fixed, laminated or drilled, ask Nana Mary.

Pretty much anything at all, ask Nana Mary.

Mary Bennick—everyone calls her Nana Mary—has volunteered at Theodore Judah Elementary School in East Sacramento for nearly 10 years. She arrived when granddaughter Lillian began transitional kindergarten.

Le’la Aaron hesitated when her older sister Adina encouraged her to join Breakthrough Sacramento. Who wants to go to school during the summer? But the decision to join the tuition-free college preparatory program changed her life.

“Breakthrough was the most helpful in that I got extra attention and I had more time to understand each topic before it was brought up in the classroom the next year, so I was already somewhat ahead,” says Aaron, a UC Davis freshman.

For 30 years, Breakthrough Sacramento has provided intensive, six-week academic programs during the summer for under-resourced students in seventh through 12th grades on the campus of Sacramento Country Day School.

Kids on Foy Reynolds’ YMCA basketball teams learn more than sports skills. They learn life lessons.

“I coach by the Y’s core values: respect, responsibility, caring and honesty,” Reynolds says. “I start getting kids in second grade all the way through seventh, which is an important time in their life. They play hard and they win, but they earn it because they work hard. I bring out the best in a person. That’s my job.”