Our local neighbors who are willing to lend a helping hand through volunteerism are the epitome of what it means to be a selfless leader in the community. United Way of Greater St. Louis (UWGSL) and our safety net of over 160 nonprofit partner agencies are able to collectively help so many people because they lend their time and talent to support our efforts.
Nancy Abts is a retired teacher, and though her teaching career is over, she still has the passion for fostering child development and giving back to the community. She channeled her passion by using the UWGSL Volunteer Center to connect her to an opportunity to help children at the St. Joseph Institute for the Deaf. We got a chance to speak with her and Zareena Koch, Chief Development Officer for the St. Joseph Institute, about how special the volunteer work Nancy does is to herself and the children she serves, and how helpful the Volunteer Center was in connecting her to it.
Nancy, describe your passion for helping children and how much United Way’s Volunteer Center was in helping connect you to this volunteer opportunity to fulfill that passion?
I have always loved teaching; I knew from an early age that I wanted to be a teacher and that’s exactly what I did. I went on to become a special education teacher and I was very close with my students and their families. A lot of times, in special ed you have a student from kindergarten all the way through fifth grade, so you get to know them, and they get to know you and everything about you.
Since I’ve been retired, I still like to keep my hand in the education field, and United Way’s Volunteer Center provides a lot of opportunities in my areas of interest. It’s a very user-friendly venue for finding that connection for what works for you. I found St. Joseph Institute through United Way and it just seemed like a good opportunity to jump into, and since I’ve been here, it’s been the most warm and inviting place that I’ve worked.
Overall, how important is volunteering and giving back to the community to you?
I feel like I’m in the position where I have the time and still have the drive to hopefully make a difference and give back because I’ve been very blessed. So, this is an opportunity for me to help somebody else.
What is the most valuable lesson you learned during your 25 years of being a teacher?
That the connections and relationships you develop with the students and their families is a huge component of teaching. Kids come to school and they may be dealing with things in their home life that you’re not privy to. But when you get to know that child in a real, personal relationship, I think they begin to trust you and they’ll feel comfortable coming to you with their needs and you do your best to try to meet those needs.
Zareena, how helpful has Nancy’s experience working with youth in her education career been in helping the St. Joseph Institute?
Nancy’s deep interest and experience in education has helped us do some things we couldn’t normally do like organizing files and making sure that things are running properly. That takes somebody who knows how a building runs and how education works, and you don’t get that in all volunteers. So, her experience in a school, around kids, and around education has lent itself beautifully to let us get some things done that we don’t normally get to do. So, we’re deeply grateful for her 25 years in education.
Nancy, what has been the most rewarding part about your volunteer experience with the St. Joseph Institute for the Deaf?
The staff is so warm and inviting, and they make you feel so good about being here. Sometimes it’s kind of scary when you start a new volunteer position because you don’t know the people and you don’t know what is going to be expected of you, but everyone’s been helpful and welcoming, and it has been a great place to be.
Also, the kids are happy, and I think that is a gauge of how well a program is run. If you see little smiling faces and you know they’re engaged in the lessons, they’re learning and sometimes they don’t even know they’re learning.
What would you say to someone to encourage them to use the UWGSL Volunteer Center to find rewarding volunteer opportunities like the one you found?
When I first started looking for volunteer opportunities, I tried different things, but United Way’s Volunteer Center website is a very easy resource to use. You can put in how many miles you want to travel, and you can put in your interests rather it be helping with sorting and packaging food, or working with children, etc., there’s just a multitude of opportunities and it’s a very easy platform to use. It offers such a wide variety of services where if you’re looking for a volunteer position, that’s a good place to go.
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- Visit our Volunteer Center to find local opportunities to give back.
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