Photos

Hope Benham loaded the hospitality cart with things she thought the ill and injured veterans might like: squeeze balls and sunglasses, books and magazines, lap blankets knitted by church women. In the hospital store room, she filled plastic bags with toiletries, including little bottles of shampoo, soap and tubes of toothpaste.

"Many come here and they don't have anything," she said, taking one last look around the VA Palo Alto Health Care System store room before wheeling the cart into the corridor.

On the second floor in the acute-care ward, she worked her way door to door. A veteran took a brown quilt and a T-shirt. Feet wrapped in warm socks stuck out from behind privacy curtains. Benham peeked in, wheeling away if the occupants were sleeping. In other rooms, she stopped to chat.

"Oh, you bring in that goody wagon," a man said, pleased with the note cards donated by strangers.

In the wake of an unemployment rate that has risen to 12 percent in Santa Clara County, volunteerism has also increased -- by 15 to 20 percent in the last year, according to local charitable organizations. Some new volunteers are pursuing interests for which they never before had time. Others are acquiring skills and building their resumes, nonprofit staff members said.

"There is definitely greater interest this year. A federal report this summer led by the Corporation of National Community Service found that during the 2009 'Summer of Service' there was 15 percent more volunteer activity over last year's summer from mid-June to the end of September," said Robert Rosenthal, spokesman for Volunteer Match, the largest volunteer organization in the country, which recruits for 71,000 nonprofit organizations. From June to September, 4,417 Palo Altans visited Volunteer Match's website to find volunteer opportunities.

In the last five years, skilled volunteering has been the trend, he said. The unemployed are taking positions in health care, office administration, Web support, disaster services -- along with the host of small and seemingly unheroic roles that nonprofit coordinators said provide badly needed services.

At the VA hospital, Benham's cart-pushing brings with it a smile and a connection to the outside world to which hospitalized vets do not have access, according to Bill Ball, the VA's director of volunteer services.

Benham, 52, sold a business in Norway, returning to the U.S. when the economic crisis took hold. She is "not gainfully employed," she said. She became inspired to volunteer at the VA after listening to a radio program about how Americans are disconnected from the Iraq War.

"It's the hardest thing I've ever done," Benham said of walking in with a smile while seeing the damage of combat.


Vanessa Binder, an American Red Cross Silicon Valley volunteer, has used the time since she was laid off in January 2008 to add volunteering to her resume, she said. It wasn't her first thought, however.

Binder got a rude awakening when she applied for a job just five months after leaving her education position.

"I went to a job interview and they asked, 'What have you been doing for five months?' I was looking for a job and doing the laundry, and sometimes I cooked for my husband. In our society where people are busy and motivated ... it was a real eye opener. It's not OK for a woman not to be working. It brought home to me that I need to get busy," she said.

Binder became a shelter worker, aiding victims of Hurricane Ike in Arkansas in September 2008. Going to Arkansas was "the most rewarding and gratifying experience of my life. You meet the best of the best when you're out on a disaster. Your clients are so grateful that you gave your time," she said.

She volunteers in the health-and-safety department and Workplace Emergency Readiness Center and teaches classes in food safety. And she became an emergency-vehicle driver.

"I guess I might say I jumped in with both feet," she said. Volunteering has become "a huge part of life," but the flexibility still allows Binder to look for employment.

"It looks good on my resume. When people ask what I've been doing, I can say I've been volunteering for the Red Cross for a year. It's a win-win for both of us," she said.

At Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, 82 potential volunteers packed the Oct. 5 volunteer orientation. Maryellen Lozzi, manager of volunteer services, gave a PowerPoint presentation of dozens of volunteer positions, including arts and crafts with young patients; clinic readers; intensive-care family-care navigators, baby cuddlers, foreign-language interpreters and infant-development research assistants.

In the past year participation in the orientation sessions has grown 20 percent, Lozzi said.

"People say, 'I've always had a passion to work with children' or 'I've always had a passion to be in the health-care industry.' We usually have people who spent their lives doing technology and now want to do something different. ... Many are starting over. They are going back to school in recreational therapy, rehabilitation services or like playing with kids. They are trying things on for size," she said.

Charlton Sanchez is one of the lucky ones who parlayed his volunteerism into a job. An unemployed food-service worker, Sanchez, 48, offered to operate a shuttle, taking veterans to appointments and around the hospital grounds. Laid off last December, he wanted to do something useful while seeking employment, he said.

He was hired by the VA's food-service department Oct. 7.

"I shared many happy tears yesterday," he said the next day. "Finally, I'm going back to work -- in a place where I can still volunteer.

"Just to be able to have the opportunity to tell these guys, 'Thank you for your service' -- it's a big thing. You've got to be a people person to make this work. You have to have that character on and off this campus," he said.

Ball, the VA's director of volunteer services, said many unemployed volunteers hope for work at the VA hospital.

"We can't guarantee jobs, but there is a value of volunteering (if jobs are available). It brings a face to a resume. If I know an individual, I know if someone is going to be on time or if he interacts well with the veterans," he said.

Last year, 1,800 people volunteered for a full year at the Palo Alto and Menlo Park campuses. And 100 new volunteers were recruited.

The largest percentage of volunteers at the Palo Alto facility, nearly 20 percent, consists of 21- to 30-year-olds. Adults ages 51 to 60 comprised the third-largest group -- and increased 29 percent over 2007, according to VA statistics.

The American Red Cross Silicon Valley has also seen a surge in volunteers in the last six months as more people are out of work, according to Cynthia Shaw, director of communications for the chapter.

More people are asking specifically for opportunities in office volunteering, which is unusual, said Crystal Paul, Red Cross director of volunteer and youth programs. The positions, available from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., used to be hard to fill or were done by retired persons, she said.

But "younger people in their 20s to 40s are coming in who want to put something on their resume," she said.


Despite the rise in volunteerism, the work is temporary for many people, even those who would prefer to continue long-term. It's just a fiscal reality.

Ralph Ackermann, 51, an unemployed teacher, bundled fresh asparagus on a recent morning at the InnVision/Urban Ministry Food Closet at 425 Hamilton Ave. in Palo Alto.

A year ago, he and his wife left their jobs in Asia and returned to Palo Alto to attend graduate school. They figured they would trade off working while each pursued a degree. But Ackermann hasn't been able to find work. Now, his wife supports the couple. They are thinking about returning overseas, he said.

"I'm riding it out. While I have down time, I'm volunteering through the church. It's a really good experience," he said.

Deberra O'Brien might also give up volunteering. She spent 35 years designing hospitals, mostly in Hawaii. When she retired, she and her husband returned to the Bay Area. The couple planned to live off real-estate investments, and everything went as planned until October 2008, she said.

"Our investments in the retail properties started going south. We were not getting the passive income we were expecting," said O'Brien, who has started interviewing at architectural firms again.

O'Brien is a board member of the Roth Auxiliary, which runs the Lucile Packard Children's Hospital gift shop. She's volunteered at the store for two years but may not be able to afford to volunteer, much to her chagrin, she said.

"I love being in the medical environment. I love to go into the gift shop where everyone is happy. Although they are there because their children are in really dire straights, when they are looking for a toy or candy the atmosphere changes. And every penny we make goes to uncompensated care. If I could possibly get paid for it, that's what I'd do," she said.

While some people are volunteering because they are unemployed, and others may stop volunteering due to financial reasons, Volunteer Match's spokesman Robert Rosenthal is optimistic the overall trend in voluntarism will continue upward.

"We're in a society with a lot of problems. People are stepping forward. The President is a vocal proponent of service, and that is inspiring people," he said, citing figures that have increased year over year.

Jaynie Neveras, volunteer coordinator at InnVision, isn't worried. She said the nonprofit has seen a 20 percent increase in volunteers in the last six months, many of whom are corporate employees. High-tech engineers have put up walls and installed carpet and flooring in the 20 shelters run by the nonprofit. Volunteers have shown up in teams of 20 to 45, she said.

"Every single day I get calls. There is not a day that goes by that someone doesn't turn in an application to volunteer," she said.