The Volunteers Behind Everything You Notice

There’s Always Room for One More — and One We’ll Miss (a lot)

Back in May, I used this column to ask for help finding a volunteer coordinator — someone to onboard and keep in touch with our growing list of volunteers. This month, I get to close that loop: please welcome James Lew, our new coordinator, who introduced himself in our September issue (check out his “Updates from the Volunteer Coordinator’s Desk” post). It’s a small thing to celebrate, but it’s also proof of something bigger. Every ask we make eventually finds the right person. That’s worth sitting with, because most of what makes University Heights work happens quietly, without a ribbon-cutting or a press release. The Biodiversity Garden along Park and Meade doesn’t tend itself; a rotating crew of neighbors led by Frank Santana shows up on the second Saturday of every month to weed, mulch, and water. The Friends of the UH Library, who keep the sales shelves stocked and the minutes of their Zoom meetings, are on nobody’s payroll. If you’ve got an extra hour a month, they could use you right now. This month’s Plume Award goes to a mother/daughter team who noticed a gap (not enough places to toss a dog-waste bag) and simply bought the fix themselves, with no one asking them.

Sometimes the volunteer community appears in the strangest places. Deborah Morrison was waiting for a flight to Rome this spring when she noticed two gentlemen nearby, then ran into them again days later on a cruise through Italy and Croatia, and again while exploring Dubrovnik. It turned out to be Gary Williams, one of our longtime UH News paper deliverers, on a celebratory anniversary cruise with his partner, Jon Von Erb, our UH Poet, whose verse you’ll find in every issue of this paper. Two University Heights neighbors, recognized by a third, half a world from Park Boulevard. Deborah tells the full story in this month’s issue, and it’s the best argument I know for why this stuff matters: the connections built by volunteering don’t stop at the neighborhood line.

Even the sign on our cover — glowing again after 30 years — got fixed because volunteers spoke up, donors put their own money on the table, and neighbors matched it, dollar by dollar, until the number got too big to ignore. That’s not an organization’s accomplishment. That’s a few hundred individual “yes, I’ll help” decisions, stacked on top of one another.

None of this happens without the volunteer board that runs it all, and it’s worth pausing to name them directly: Vice President and, in my humble opinion, social media “goddess,” Angela Jackson-Llamas, Treasurer Andy Lange, Secretary Deborah Morrison, business development lead Lea Pace, events and Garden Club chair Lauren Doucette, and UH Arts Association leader Kelsey Diaz. Working along with our board, our team leads include volunteer coordinator James Lew, communications and e-news lead Starr Pagharion, and our Uptown Community Planning Group liaison Julia Williams, who each gives dozens of hours a month to a job that pays nothing but helps create a neighborhood that works. Every one of them could be doing something else with that time. They choose to do this work instead.

At our September meeting, our four officers — Angela, Andy, Deborah, and I — were nominated for a second term each, unopposed, with a formal vote coming at the Oct. 1 meeting. That’s not because no one else could do these jobs. It’s because the board has grown so much these past two years, with team leads like the ones above carrying so much of the load, that we haven’t gone looking hard enough for the next ones.

There’s always room for one more. So if you’ve been waiting for a nudge: this is it. Whether it’s an hour at the library, a Saturday morning at the garden, a seat on the board, or just showing up when we ask, University Heights runs on people who decide to help before anyone asks twice. Reach out to volunteer@uhsd.org, or find one of us at an event. Thank you to everyone who already has, and welcome to everyone who’s about to.

Thank You, Lauren — and we have another opening...

Speaking of people who help before anyone asks twice: after many years and scores of events, Lauren Doucette will be moving and stepping back from active service on our board. Lauren has bought a home in Normal Heights (big congrats!), and our bylaws ask that board leaders live in or own a business in University Heights. University Heights’ loss is Normal Heights’ gain — though at only a few quick blocks away by bike, I don’t expect she’ll be much of a stranger. When she shared the news with her fellow board members, she put it this way: “I love UH and will be coming back frequently. I will also help wherever and whenever I can.”

In recognition of her years of selfless service — building the Garden Club, organizing and managing events, and giving countless hours to the hundreds of small decisions behind each one — the board will name Lauren a board member emerita, a non-voting seat that keeps her counsel close and her name where it belongs. She has also generously agreed to stay in her role until we find her successor, likely a few months yet.

Which brings me to the ask. We’re looking for an events leader: someone to help shape our events strategy, create more ways for members and neighbors to engage and connect, and work alongside local businesses and organizations toward our mutual success. It’s a role with real creative latitude, and you’d be stepping into it with Lauren’s help rather than cold. If that sounds like you, find me or one of our board members at one of our events or reach out to me at president@uhsd.org.

And Lauren — thank you. A few blocks is nothing. We’ll keep the porch lights on!

—Marc Johnson, UHCA President & UH News Publisher