Volunteering Made Easy : Network’s Flexible Needs, Hours Makes Community Service Attractive to Busy Boomers

At a downtown mission, volunteers wearing black and white T-shirts imprinted with the words “doingsomething” make sandwiches for the homeless.

Across town, a handful of people wearing the same shirts set up for a senior citizens’ dance. And in North Hollywood, a similarly clad group spruces up the grounds of an abused children’s facility.

Working at the downtown mission, Rob Parker wishes his shirt weren’t quite so conspicuous: “I probably would have rather come without it. You stick out, especially because there are other volunteers from other groups here, too.”

Parker is just one of hundreds of members of doingsomething, a national volunteer group that debuted earlier this summer in Los Angeles.

Aiming to attract people looking for convenient, non-pressured ways to give, doingsomething has found its niche: setting up flexible volunteer activities for busy professionals.

Members learn about monthly events through a mailing or a phone line, and choose when and how to participate. Those who aren’t available can always try again next month--with no strings attached.

It’s hard not to notice the similarities between the doingsomething logo and that of its television namesake, “thirtysomething.” Members even appear similar to the characters of the now-cancelled program--mainly upwardly mobile 20- and 30-year-olds seeking a balance between career and other ways to make life meaningful.

But, says doingsomething co-founder Karen Hallerman, 29, the resemblance ends there. While the group’s backbone is young professionals, Hallerman says its goals are distinctly different from the Angst -oriented questioning and complaining often associated with the TV show: “We’re not thirtysomething. We’re actually doing something.”

By providing various projects for people who might not otherwise volunteer, doingsomething makes a twofold contribution: to social services needing support, and to the volunteers themselves, many of whom want to give back to the community, but don’t have the time or energy to make volunteering a regular commitment.

“I really think that everyone in their heart of hearts wants to volunteer,” Hallerman says. “Unless you’re blind, you can’t miss the pain in this society.”

While doingsomething was only recently introduced in Los Angeles, its roots are in Washington, D.C., where the nonprofit organization was founded in 1989. Conceived by Hallerman and two friends, the Washington group has attracted more than 1,000 members since its inception.

The doingsomething process is simple, which probably keys the group’s success, says Hallerman: “It’s flexible, it’s easy, it’s successful. It feeds right into the lifestyles of the people who are involved.”

The formula isn’t new. Other groups around the country, such as the New York Street Project and the Los Angeles Street Project and Community Works, have discovered the effectiveness of organizing activities for people who don’t normally volunteer.

But unlike such locally oriented groups, Hallerman believes doingsomething is the only national all-volunteer organization of its kind. It went coast-to-coast after various articles about the Washington group appeared in national publications, and groups from from 33 states inquired about starting chapters.

In New York City, doingsomething started up last November. San Francisco, Seattle and Portland, Ore., chapters will become active during the next few months. Numerous other chapters around the country are also in the works.

When Hallerman moved to Los Angeles this winter to become executive director of Chrysalis, a downtown agency serving the homeless, she met Sherry Wathen and Charlotte Stone. Wathen and Stone, both 27 and employed at an international insurance brokerage and consulting firm, were discouraged about a lack of time to volunteer, and were eager to begin an L.A. chapter.

“I knew this would work,” says Wathen, who already had observed that when volunteer events were set up for employees at her company, people were thrilled to participate.

“They’d say, ‘I really wanted to get involved, and I didn’t know how.’ But if someone does the legwork and organizes the events, people really will help.”

As projects director and chairwoman of the L.A. doingsomething chapter, Wathen regularly contacts charities around the city to see if they need help on the second Saturday of the month. Once she’s made the connections, she sends a listing of that month’s activities, times and locations to doingsomething’s members, who then decide if and how they want to participate.

In order to appeal to different interests--and make participation convenient with easier commutes--Wathen tries to schedule diverse activities in locations throughout the area. Some events, such as taking abused children to a Dodgers game, involve people. Others, like cleaning up graffiti around Santa Monica, are more task-oriented.

Organizers say working in groups can be more effective than volunteering alone. Social services, Hallerman says, sometimes are more prepared to utilize groups than individuals, who occasionally show up to discover that there’s no organized structure for helping. That can be frustrating, says Hallerman: “People walk away with the feeling that ‘I guess I wasn’t really needed.’ ”

The group orientation also encourages people to participate who otherwise might hesitate to volunteer.

“I probably wouldn’t have come down here by myself to volunteer,” says John Loizeaux, after preparing sandwiches and other food to hand out at the downtown Fred Jordan Mission one Saturday.

Others say they now want to work regularly with a particular social service that they discovered through doingsomething. “I’ll probably come down to the mission on my own now,” says Mike Barret.

Members also say they appreciate being around people with lifestyles and experiences so different from, and usually more difficult than, their own. “You really feel fortunate when you go to those places,” says Rob Parker.

At the abused children’s shelter, Bill Jones, 43, brought his children along to help clean the grounds and play area. In no time, his 12- and 13-year-olds set about repainting a playhouse.

“I think it’s important to expose kids at an early age to people who have hard times,” Jones says. “And my kids, who aren’t at an age where they can contribute financially or be on a board of directors, seemed to really appreciate the fact that they were able to help.”

Social service providers are delighted to receive the help. “It’s hard to take care of everyone (without the support of volunteers). I’d like to see them come back any time,” says Carl Jackson, who supervises the dining room at Fred Jordan Mission.

Echoes Tillie Morris, an active member at the Felicia Mahood Senior Citizens’ Center: “I wish we could have them come once a week.”

Jim Tucker, property manager of the Children’s Bureau of Los Angeles, says that volunteer help can make a real dent in both manpower and finances. Doingsomething’s recent outdoor work at the bureau’s North Hollywood shelter, Tucker says, saved roughly $900 in labor and supplies.

Trying not to burden the charities it aims to help, doingsomething attempts to provide supplies where appropriate: rakes, tools, paintbrushes, whatever is needed. To meet its own costs (for supplies, mailings, a post office box, etc.), and because the group charges no dues, doingsomething plans regular fund-raising events.

Co-founder Hallerman thinks that groups such as doingsomething help remove some people’s impression that baby boomers are self-serving:

“It’s a generation that’s been criticized for being so self-absorbed. But that’s not my experience. Meeting people who really want to do something has inspired such a sense of hopefulness.”

At Felicia Mahood Senior Citizens Center in West Los Angeles, 86-year-old Fred Hawkins seemingly agrees. After playing a few friendly games of pool with doingsomething volunteer John Friedman, 26, Hawkins says, “If I had a son, I’d want someone like him.”

For more information, contact doingsomething, at 11385 Exposition Blvd., P.O. Box 123, West Los Angeles, Calif. 90064; (213) 391-3907.