Volunteers Give Back

Colette Lonchar is a senior at C.K. McClatchy High School who takes her legacy seriously.

To encourage more students to participate in the Parent Teacher Student Association, she started a scholarship program to pay membership fees. She calls it the Ulrich Oldham Legacy Fund, named for her grandmother and great-grandmother.

“The PTSA controls so many different elements of campus life,” says Lonchar, who joined as a sophomore after the group invited her to sing the national anthem at National Night Out. “Becoming a part of (the PTSA), you can make direct contributions to budget plans, talk about day-to-day social life at school, how we can improve, what we can invest in. That’s why I want more students to get involved.”

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If you see two people in their late 70s weeding, planting or pruning in William Land Park, they’re probably Jeannie and Dale Claypoole, longtime Land Park residents who have made it their mission to keep the area beautiful.

“We’re advocates for the park,” says Jeannie, a certified Master Gardener and former school psychologist whose green thumb is behind much of the landscaping at McClatchy High School, along Sutterville Road and in Land Park. “If something’s not right, we try to find somebody who will make it right.”

Billie Hamilton was born to be part of the action. The River Park resident has spent her life educating people and fighting for causes. At 93, she’s going strong.

“I’ve always been an activist,” Hamilton says.

Her history proves the point. She’s a member of the Sacramento chapter of the Citizens’ Climate Lobby and has been involved with the Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom, American Friends Service Committee and National Organization for Women.

If Cliff Popejoy could tell people one thing, it would be, “Get out and volunteer. It doesn’t matter how often—a few hours a week, a few days a year—just find a niche that appeals to you, create the time and volunteer.”

Popejoy has volunteered for the Greater Sacramento branch of the global housing nonprofit Habitat for Humanity for more than 30 years. He knows the joy volunteering brings. It can even start you on a new career path, as Popejoy learned.