SNOHOMISH — As part of her day job at a nonprofit, Marci Volmer’s constantly trying to drum up donations and support. That’s why it’s important to her to give back to the community during her off time.
Volmer works as the director of the Boys &Girls Club in Snohomish. She volunteers her time as president of the Snohomish Kiwanis Club, leading about 43 members.
This year, leaders of the national Boys &Girls Clubs of America selected the Snohomish Kiwanis Club as one of five service groups across the country be honored.
The Snohomish volunteers received the Kiwanis Club Impact Award for their work in the community and their support of the local Boys &Girls Club during the past year.
Volmer said the accolades are meaningful because it shows the Snohomish Kiwanis Club is still making a difference at a time when many service groups are struggling.
Earlier this year, the Snohomish Rotary disbanded because of dwindling membership after more than three decades of service to the community.
The Rotarians are not alone in facing challenges. Millennials — people born in the early 1980s and younger — are particularly difficult to recruit to a traditional service club.
The Snohomish Kiwanis has long worked with young people through its service at the Boys &Girls Club. The hope is that introducing kids to service work early on will help them make giving back to the community a priority throughout their lives.
Volunteers recently enlisted kids from the Boys &Girls Club to help put stickers inside dictionaries for the Kiwanis to deliver to third-grade students.
“The kids really respond well to who they call ‘the grandmas and the grandpas’ when they come in,” Volmer said.
The Kiwanis Club donates money and support that helps run Boys &Girls Club programs year-round. The volunteers ensure kids who need clothes, school supplies or sports scholarships are taken care of, Volmer said.
“We honestly couldn’t do it without them,” she said.
Volmer estimates the Kiwanis has donated more than $100,000 since she started as director of the Boys &Girls Club seven years ago.
The group has also put countless hours into programs, such as Read Across America, where volunteers read to children, and to the Community Kitchen, serving hot meals twice a week to the hungry at St. John’s Episcopal Church.
They regularly do community clean up events. Members also helped build houses in Housing Hope’s sweat-equity program in which families with low incomes work with neighbors and volunteers to construct their homes.
“Basically anytime there’s a community activity, we’re there,” Volmer said. “That’s the difference between living in a community and being a community.”
Amy Nile: 425-339-3192; anile@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @AmyNileReports.
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