Local volunteer opportunities offer fulfilling roles for students

Senior Lauren Cass’s once-a-week mentoring commitment doesn’t feel like a commitment at all — she’s like the big sister someone never had.

As part of SERVE’s Big Pal-Little Pal program, Cass has been meeting with 11-year-old Luisa Dobney for more than three years.

“It’s just kind of crazy because it’s only an hour a week and that sounds like nothing, but they add up and now it’s three and a half years later and the 8-year-old I was hanging out with is now an 11-year-old,” she said. “You just see so much change and growth and it’s been really moving for me.”

Cass has been a part of the Big Pal-Little Pal program since her first semester at USD.

“Being a big pal is something really special,” she said. “You get to be another mentor in their life and maybe encourage them more academically or just to branch out and it’s just a totally different kind of relationship.”

Now the organization’s president, Cass said there are about 300 USD students volunteering for SERVE’s seven programs. Those programs include: Adopt-A-Grandparent, Adopt-A-School, Big Pal-Little Pal, Bridges, Cultural Connections, Heroes and Variations of Volunteering.

“We reach out into all parts of the community,” she said.

SERVE’s application process usually ends in September. Students are asked to apply for one to two programs and are expected to make a year-long commitment.

Big Friend-Little Friend, Inc. in Yankton is another mentoring program in the area.

Jesse Bailey, the nonprofit’s executive director, said mentoring opportunities often result in lifelong friendships and extended family roles.

As the organization’s only full-time employee, Bailey meets with each potential big friend, little friend and the little friend’s family members as part of the application process. He said he doesn’t just automatically pair the next two people on the list, in hopes to make the best match possible.

“We try to pair them with someone who matches their likes and interests,” he said. “I want to give them the opportunity to succeed together.”

Mentors are asked to spend two to four hours a week with their “little friend.” Bailey said he tries to emphasize that simply listening and being there for an adolescent can change his or her life.

“That’s huge,” he said. “That’s kind of all it takes.”

Big Friend-Little Friend currently has a waitlist of about 30 youths looking for mentors, so there’s a definite and growing need for more volunteers in the community, Bailey said.

Parts of his five-year plan include having a building for big and little friends to use and partnering with SERVE in someway, he added.

Cass said most students stay in SERVE until they graduate.

“I would say people really enjoy the programs they choose,” she said.

Senior Erin Sternhagen, SERVE’s Adopt-A-Grandparent co-chair, said she “fell in love” with the program her first semester at USD. She loved working in a nursing home so much that she took a job at one that following summer. She also later started an Adopt-A-Grandparent branch in her hometown, Groton, S.D.

“What we’re doing for the community is just so awesome,” she said. “So many times the elderly in nursing homes, the residents in nursing homes can be kind of a forgotten population, especially if the residents don’t have friends or family nearby. It can be very isolating and lonely for them.”

Sternhagen said USD’s Adopt-A-Grandparent program usually has around 60 volunteers each year. Volunteers are assigned to a resident in the Sanford Care Center Vermillion and are expected to visit their “grandparent” for at least one hour each week. Volunteers must also attend a group event each month, which usually includes some kind of craft project.

Sternhagen said both volunteers and grandparents gain a lot from the program. Many of the volunteers never had the chance to get to know their own grandparents, so this gives them an opportunity to make that connection, she added.

“And along with that, the residents in the nursing home have had probably four times as many life experiences as we as college students and so they can talk about the careers that they had, raising a family, falling in love, all of these things that many college students never have had the opportunity to do yet,” she said. “It’s very special to learn about their lives.”